HCL Healthcare accelerates digital transformation with data-driven, proactive care models

The healthcare industry is moving toward proactive, data-driven care, fueled by continuous real-time monitoring and emerging technologies like AI and digital twins. HCL Healthcare, part of the larger HCL Group, is an 11-year-old company, started with traditional clinics but quickly adopted electronic medical records (EMRs) to build a strong data foundation. This system supports their use of AI, analytics, and personalized care solutions. 

In a conversation with TechCircle, Anil Kumar, Vice President – Products at HCL Healthcare, explains how the company leverages technology to improve patient care and operational efficiency. He highlights how AI deliver personalized health insights and privacy-conscious, user-friendly services and making healthcare more continuous, accessible, and proactive. 

Edited Excerpts:  

Can you share your vision for digital transformation at HCL Healthcare? How is technology reshaping patient care and improving operational efficiency? 

HCL Healthcare is now an 11-year-old company. We began with clinics and developed our capabilities through traditional healthcare delivery. Early on, we made a strategic decision to become data-driven. We adopted electronic medical records (EMRs) from the start, based on the belief that healthcare would increasingly rely on data. 

Our approach was to go deep into data usage. We believed, and still do, that high-quality care depends on understanding a patient’s complete medical history. Good doctors don’t rely on snapshots; they need trends, context, and history. That thinking shaped how we built our systems. 

Today, our EMR system captures all interactions within the organization—from clinical consultations to lab tests and their results. Everything is stored digitally and made available across the system. 

This data infrastructure has played a central role in many of our initiatives and continues to drive most of our current projects. Our AI, analytics, and personalization efforts are all built on the data collected through this system. The EMR remains the foundation for how we operate and innovate. 

What key factors are driving HCL Healthcare’s investment in digital transformation and technology at this time? 

The corporate wellness ecosystem is changing. Employers are increasingly focusing on employee well-being, not just as a benefit but as a way to improve productivity and reduce absenteeism. 

Healthcare is also evolving. It has moved from being reactive—where care was sought after symptoms appeared—to a more proactive and personalized model. Today, the goal is to create a personalized path of care rather than just a point of care. 

This shift is powered by better data. In the past, data was limited to occasional snapshots, like test results after a visit to the doctor. Now, with tools like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), heart rate trackers, and wearables, data is captured in real time. Metrics such as temperature, oxygen levels, and heart rate are recorded continuously and fed back into systems. 

This flow of continuous data requires a new approach. Legacy systems can't handle this level of detail or frequency. As the hardware and user expectations evolve, healthcare must become more data-driven and forward-looking. 

Artificial intelligence plays a key role. By using AI to process this continuous data, we can build systems that focus on early detection and prevention, rather than treatment after the fact. HCL Healthcare is aligning with this shift. We’re investing in modern technologies to build systems that help organizations manage employee health more effectively through continuous monitoring, intelligent insights, and proactive care. 

How is your company using technologies like AI, IoT, and analytics to create more personalized and effective patient experiences? 

One of our first and most straightforward uses of AI was implementing OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to digitize non-digital health data. For example, when people get lab tests, whether at local labs or larger facilities, they often receive physical or PDF reports. These formats are not easily usable by modern systems or AI for generating insights. So, we built a system to convert these reports into structured data and store them in our EMR. 

This was an early step. From there, we expanded to using AI and data analytics more deeply. One key outcome of this was what we call "smart reports." Typically, after a health check-up, a user submits samples and receives a standard lab report. In our system, this is just the starting point. 

We digitize these reports (if not already in digital form), store the data in our EMR, and then generate insights. These insights are delivered in the form of smart reports, one for the individual and another aggregated version at the organizational or corporate level. 

Each smart report contains actionable insights. The user sees clear steps they can take based on their lab results. The system also prompts the user to take these actions and tracks progress. When the user returns for future check-ups, we compare new data with previous reports and benchmarks, such as national averages. This enables further refinement of the personalized insights and recommendations. 

In addition to lab data, we also collect continuous data from smartwatches and activity trackers. This information is used to personalize user experience and health insights further. 

How do you ensure data privacy and ethics when using extensive patient data for personalization? 

Every system or tool we build goes through three mandatory checks. The first is clinical integrity. Any recommendation that comes from our systems is reviewed by our in-house medical team before it reaches users. Nothing is deployed without their validation, and we follow a rigorous process to ensure everything meets the required medical standards. 

The second is data privacy. Our systems rely heavily on user data to deliver value, whether through personalization, insights, or other features. To handle that responsibly, we ensure full compliance with leading global and Indian data protection regulations. This is a non-negotiable step, especially when dealing with sensitive health information. 

The third is usability. We invest significant effort in user testing to make sure our features are actually used and understood the way we intend. We test features aggressively, both through direct observation and feedback sessions, and by letting users explore independently and report back. We also run time studies to see how efficiently users can complete tasks, like booking a lab test. If someone comes to the app to do something specific, we measure whether they can do it without assistance and how long it takes. 

Our user base is diverse. We serve people across age groups, from Gen Z to individuals in their 50s and 60s, and often their dependents as well. That range makes it essential for us to cover different use cases and levels of digital familiarity through alpha and beta testing. 

We also pay close attention to information architecture. If someone opens the app to book a test, for example, we want to ensure they can locate and complete that task without friction. The backend systems are complex, but for the user, the experience needs to stay simple. We design in a way that hides that complexity, so the user isn’t burdened with it. In fact, simplifying things for the user is often the hardest part of the job, but it’s something we continuously work on. 

Looking ahead, how do you see the future of healthcare evolving with technologies like Gen AI, digital twins, and remote diagnostics? 

The future of healthcare is moving from a reactive approach to a proactive one, driven by continuous data collection through wearables and devices like continuous glucose monitors. This shift means healthcare systems, including ours at HCL Healthcare, are evolving to use real-time data rather than static snapshots. 

In line with this shift, we've launched the Habit Health app, which brings together clinical care, wellness services, and user engagement on one platform. It’s built on top of our EMR systems and enables users to access a full range of services—consultations (both online and in-person), clinic bookings within company premises or across our wider network, diagnostics, prescriptions, and medication delivery. 

The app also includes wellness support like mental health sessions and employee assistance programs. Users can schedule appointments with psychologists, either virtually or face-to-face, and access other benefits typically part of corporate wellness packages. 

To ensure people keep using the platform, we’ve focused heavily on engagement. Habit includes features that tap into user motivation—offering challenges that promote healthy habits. These can be run by organizations or created by individuals to engage with peers.