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As digital revolution takes a firm foothold within the Indian healthcare landscape, digital connectivity is as important for hospitals as electricity, water and medical gas pipes, says Manik Bahri, vice president – enterprise, Microsense Networks, an iBUS Enterprise.
He further adds that with increasing reliance of hospitals on connected technologies, digital connectivity has now become an absolute necessity for maintaining continuity of treatment, operational efficiency and effective patient care.
"Behind every consultation, diagnosis, surgery, and patient update lies an invisible network connecting people, devices, and information in real time. Whether a physician is reviewing electronic health records, a radiologist is using AI to analyse scans, or a nurse is monitoring patients remotely, these experiences depend on one thing: seamless digital connectivity," explains Bahri.
Traditionally, hospitals were built keeping the availability of key physical infrastructures in mind. However, with the growing use of electronic health records, connected medical devices, teleconsultation, artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics and digital collaboration tools, healthcare delivery has come to be defined as a very interconnected digital ecosystem.
Bahri states that contemporary hospitals produce and consume vast amounts of data on a daily basis. Electronic health records are used to store the patient data, information from diagnostic equipment is constantly being exchanged with hospital information systems, medical devices send vital signs in real-time mode, and clinicians work together via digital channels.
The digital environment is not limited only by the hospital premises anymore. Telemedicine systems facilitate consultations between specialists and patients, radiologists examine medical images online, and artificial intelligence-based clinical decision support systems help doctors analyze complex data.
"Unlike earlier generations of hospital IT systems, where technology primarily supported administrative functions, today's digital networks are deeply embedded into clinical workflows. Any disruption can impact access to patient information, communication between care teams, connected medical devices, and timely decision-making," Bahri says.
He further states that this shift requires hospitals to fundamentally rethink infrastructure planning. Rather than being treated as a supporting technology layer, digital infrastructure must become an integral component of hospital design, enabling seamless connectivity between people, devices, applications, and systems while allowing healthcare facilities to adopt future technologies with minimal disruption.
“The hospitals of the future will not only be defined by their buildings or medical equipment, but also by the intelligence of the digital infrastructure that connects them," Bahri says.
Some of the issues faced by health care facilities today include the availability of indoor connectivity. Health care facilities are one of the complex areas for wireless communications because the conventional outdoor mobile networks cannot provide stable signals in such environments.
For this reason, purpose-built digital infrastructure, which includes fiber backbone infrastructure, distributed antenna system, neutral host and enterprise Wi-Fi, is crucial for providing resilient, scalable and wide coverage that would support healthcare environments of today and enable the hospitals to deploy future innovations without building their communication infrastructures all over again. Similarly, digital asset management improves equipment utilisation and minimises losses, while predictive maintenance enhances equipment availability.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the driving forces for an even greater emphasis on robust digital infrastructure. In hospitals, AI is being increasingly used in radiology, pathology, predictive analytics, clinical workflow, electronic health records, drug development, and personalized medicine. Such use of AI entails fast and low latency transfer of vast amounts of data from various medical devices and clouds.
Looking ahead, technologies such as digital twins, intelligent operating rooms, robotic surgeries, autonomous logistics, and continuous remote monitoring will further elevate network performance requirements.
"Hospitals that have not upgraded their infrastructure may find themselves limited by their networks instead of their medical skills. Building connectivity is becoming mission-critical now makes it possible to use the latest technologies in future without having to spend much on changing the infrastructure each time something new comes out," Bahri emphasizes.
As India's healthcare infrastructure continues to evolve, Bahri believes digital preparedness must become a core consideration during hospital planning rather than being introduced as an afterthought. This includes designing fibre networks, multi-operator connectivity, cybersecurity frameworks, infrastructure redundancy, and scalable communication systems from the outset.
Drawing from Microsense Networks' experience, Bahri says purpose-built in-building digital infrastructure enables hospitals to establish a reliable and future-ready connectivity foundation. Through managed Wi-Fi, fibre networks, and neutral-host distributed antenna systems (DAS), the company supports seamless, secure, and reliable connectivity across hospital campuses.
"As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, reliable connectivity is evolving into a core hospital utility alongside electricity, water, and medical gas systems. The hospitals of the future will be distinguished not only by advanced medical expertise and cutting-edge equipment, but also by the strength of the digital backbone that connects every clinician, device, and patient touchpoint. At Microsense, we believe the future of healthcare infrastructure will be shaped not merely by the technologies deployed within hospitals, but by the digital infrastructure that enables them to operate reliably, securely, and at scale," Bahri concludes.
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