The Koita Centre for Digital Oncology (www.kcdo.in) was established about 2.5 years ago and has made significant progress towards its vision of accelerating the use of digital health tools to improve cancer care across NCG and NCG hospitals. Key focus areas of KCDO include enabling digital capacity building, improving cancer care access and quality, and advancing research and innovation.
The Koita Centre for Digital Oncology (www.kcdo.in) was established about 2.5 years ago and has made significant progress towards its vision of accelerating the use of digital health tools to improve cancer care across NCG and NCG hospitals. Key focus areas of KCDO include enabling digital capacity building, improving cancer care access and quality, and advancing research and innovation.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Cancer care is changing rapidly worldwide, and using digital tools and technologies is key in driving this change, improving quality, access, and cost of care. Digital technologies are used across the entire patient journey—screening, diagnostics, treatment, home care, and survivorship. Digital technologies are being used for cancer care to:
- Provide tools for clinicians (incl. clinical decision support, evidence-based guidelines, image analytics & AI/ML, personalized medicine)
- Enable integrated care for patients (incl. cancer screening, telemedicine, remote monitoring, medication adherence, patient engagement, and patient education)
- Track quality of care delivery (clinical quality metrics, patient-reported outcomes)
- Share data, patient care, and best practices across health facilities (incl. data interoperability and disease registries)
- Engage with companies to build/test new solutions (incl. research, clinical trial automation, patient matching, real-world evidence, AI/ML)
- Collaborate with insurance companies and the government (incl. health policy, reimbursements)
KEY FOCUS AREAS
- Clinical Decision Support: NCG-KCDO is supporting the development of clinical decision- making tools that can help clinicians with better information at the point of care in making clinical decisions, such as Synoptic Reporting for Pathology, NCG Clinical Guidelines automation for driving standardization in care, and Virtual Tumor Board Library for training and treatment planning.
- Teleconsultation Initiative: NCG-KCDO is launching two pilots at TMH that will facilitate teleconsultation calls with cancer patients using an oncology-specific telemedicine platform with an assisted model where a junior doctor will provide a case summary to the oncologist to improve the efficiency of such calls and design the operating model for a national-scale teleconsultation solution across the NCG network.
- Web/Mobile Apps: NCG-KCDO is working on developing (a) the NCG Patient App, a comprehensive resource for patients and the general public to learn about cancer prevention, detection, and care across every stage of the cancer journey, and (b) the NCG Connect App, a comprehensive resource for NCG centers and doctors to collaborate and exchange information across a broad range of topics.
- AI/ML Initiative: NCG-KCDO is working on developing a comprehensive framework to advance oncology innovation through AI-ML solutions that will help promote the use of proven AI-ML solutions across NCG hospitals, accelerate the development of new AI-ML solutions by health tech companies, and transform cancer care by leveraging AI-ML technologies.
- EMR Initiative: NCG-KCDO published detailed oncology EMR requirements and empanelled 6 national-scale HMIS/EMR vendors that have customized their products to meet the unique needs for oncology. NCG also launched a support program—LEAP (Leading EMR Adopter Program)—for eligible hospitals to receive partial funding towards the cost of implementing the NCG EMR. The team is working on interoperability to enable electronic transfer of patients’ health records from one hospital/doctor to another for continuity of care, as well as on standardizing reporting and analytics for operational and clinical performance metrics.
EXPECTED ROLE
Drive business requirements gathering, conduct due diligence, support solution deployment, and provide technology assistance to NCG and NCG centers across the digital transformation journey.
- Digital Solution Requirements: Conduct thorough stakeholder interviews and workshops to gather requirements for prioritized digital solutions, including technical and functional specifications.
- Requirements Documentation: Develop and maintain a comprehensive library of requirements for digital oncology initiatives. Categorize and document functional and non-functional requirements, ensuring clarity, completeness, and alignment with initiative goals.
- Due Diligence and Research: Conduct due diligence on potential solutions to identify appropriate solutions for prioritized areas. Stay abreast of industry developments related to data standards (interoperability, privacy, security, etc.).
- Digital Solution Deployment: Support the development and roll-out of selected digital health solutions, including pilot projects. Collaborate with IT teams to facilitate seamless integration of digital tools within the existing technology infrastructure.
- Digital Standards: Assist in defining common standards (interoperability, privacy, security, etc.) and data models in alignment with policy guidance/regulatory requirements.
- NCG Centre Engagement: Engage closely with the technology leadership of NCG centers and their technology vendors to help drive digital adoption.
- NCG Technology Operations: Manage NCG internal technology initiatives and operations, e.g., enterprise data warehousing, analytics, and AI/ML.
DESIRED PROFILE
Industry Experience and Qualifications
- Experienced professional with 8+ years of progressive growth and experience in business analysis and technology.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in the healthcare industry (healthcare delivery or health tech organizations) with a good understanding of healthcare-specific technologies and data standards.
- Bachelor's degree in science, preferably in technology or a related field, required; Master's degree in healthcare, technology, or business-related fields desirable
- Clinical background highly desirable; Relevant certifications in data analytics, healthcare IT, or informatics are desirable.
Skills and Attributes
- Strong analytical skills with a demonstrated ability to gather, document, and analyze complex requirements.
- Experience creating detailed architecture diagrams, design documents, and technical specifications.
- Good understanding of data structures and standards, including data management, data privacy and security, data interoperability, and data analytics.
- Broad understanding of technology, including mobile, cloud, AI/ML/deep tech, open source, databases, service-oriented architecture, and microservices.
- Strong desire to contribute to social impact at scale with a long-term view. High degree of resilience and intrinsic motivation to drive things forward, especially in the face of challenges.
- Ability to be hands-on and work as an individual contributor or in small teams with demonstrated capacity for out-of-the-box thinking.
- Comfortable working in a government organization as part of a collaborative network and effectively navigating the operational processes to deliver results.
- Ability to build and grow trust-based relationships with technical and clinical professionals at public and/or private hospitals.
- Excellent communication skills (spoken and written), strong program management skills, and business orientation with the ability to drive data-driven decision-making.
EMPLOYMENT DETAILS
- Position: Full-time employed by Koita Foundation & deployed at Tata Memorial Centre (TMC)
- Location: Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai (No work from home provision)
- Timings: Monday to Friday (8.25 hrs.) and any two Saturdays in a month (5 hrs.)
- Leaves and Holidays: 15 days leave allowance every 6 months; 15-17 national holidays (includes weekend holidays where applicable)
- Benefits: Health insurance or provident fund is not included
NEXT STEPS FOR CANDIDATES
Please send your CV to [email protected] if you wish to apply for the position.
