The recently concluded Goa HealthTech Summit 2025, hosted at Cidade Goa, brought together doctors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and innovators under one roof. The air was charged with ideas about the future of healthcare in India — and Goa, in particular, stood out as a testing ground for new-age solutions.
Doctors spoke of AI transforming diagnostics, pathology, and surgery. Imagine biopsy results delivered 63% faster or robotic-assisted knee replacements reducing hospital stay and blood loss. AI may not replace doctors, but it is certainly reshaping how care is delivered.
Goa as a Model State: From India’s first fully digital primary health center to the STEMI project for rapid heart attack response, Goa is showcasing how digital health can save lives. AI-powered breast and lung cancer screenings at the primary level prove that early detection is not just a dream but a working reality.
Millets made a comeback, as tech-enabled entrepreneurs reinvented traditional recipes, while AI-based Ayurvedic tools matched diets and yoga regimens to chronic conditions like diabetes. Old wisdom met new data. Perhaps the most stirring conversations came when the focus shifted to accessibility. Not just about disabilities, but about all of us — the elderly today, and the youth who will one day age.
Experts reminded us of the ‘golden hour’ after accidents, where systemic gaps often cost lives. Goa, like the rest of India, needs integrated trauma care and trained responders as much as advanced machines.
Accessibility is not charity, it is infrastructure. As Swati Jindal rightly pointed out, we must shift language from ‘persons with disability’ to ‘persons with reduced mobility.’ Why? Because reduced mobility is not a special category — it is universal.
Think of it – The elderly parent who cannot climb stairs in a building with a broken lift, the recovering patient who cannot be discharged from hospital because there’s no accessible toilet or transport and the everyday citizen who risks falling on uneven pavements or dimly lit streets.
Accessibility is not just about ramps and wheelchairs. It is about holding railings in toilets, slip-free flooring, working streetlights, clean parks, and safe footpaths without steep inclines. It is about creating last-mile connections that allow a person to step out of their house and engage with society. Without it, independence shrinks, and so does dignity.
And here’s the bigger picture: making India accessible is not a cost, it’s an economy. From grab bars to smart walkers, from prosthetics to elderly-care services, the market potential is estimated at one trillion dollars. But more than money, it’s about unlocking a society where no one is left behind.
Insurance is the invisible hand that supports mobility. While we wait for policy shifts and infrastructure upgrades, there is one tool already within our reach — health insurance. Insurance is not just about paying hospital bills. A well-designed plan can cover prosthetics, wheelchairs, and walkers — bought or rented. It enables home care services, tele-consultations, and even doctor home visits. It also provides physiotherapy support crucial for recovery and regaining movement and gives access to a strong hospital network, ensuring treatment is close and timely.
For families, this is more than financial relief — it’s peace of mind. It is being aware that when mobility reduces, life doesn’t have to stop. Insurance becomes the bridge between medical care and quality of life.
The Goa HealthTech Summit opened our eyes to futuristic technologies, but perhaps its most grounded message was this: the future of healthcare is not only in machines, but in movement.
Mobility is dignity. Accessibility is inclusion. Insurance is security. As we chase innovations in AI and robotics, let us not forget to build toilets with rails, light up our streets, maintain our parks, and create systems where the elderly, the disabled, and eventually all of us — can move freely and safely. Because one day, reduced mobility won’t be someone else’s problem. It will be ours. And the time to prepare is now.
(The writer is the founder of ‘Investment Options’, an insurance and investment consultancy based in Goa since 2013, having pan-India clientele)
