01
Home as the unit of care
Healthcare is delivered closer to people’s homes, supported by trained caregivers and community networks.
Visioning Lab25 April 2026Convened by IMA Cochin
Care at home,supported by your neighbourhood.
The Neighbourhood Network in Health Care is a community-led, home-based healthcare system. It empowers neighbourhoods, restores the family doctor, and brings continuous care to where people actually live.
Stakeholders convened
Mission tracks
Vision sections
Neighbourhood at a time
The ProblemYour healthcare isn’t broken.
Your healthcare isn’t broken.
It’s broken apart.
Five frictions came up in every room, across every stakeholder group. We refuse to design around any of them.
Capacity
01 / 05
Tertiary beds carry conditions that belong at home.
- Capacity
Hospitals are overwhelmed
Specialist hospitals are absorbing routine, manageable conditions because the layer beneath them has thinned out. Beds meant for surgery and intensive care fill with diabetes follow-ups and chronic wounds - spending the system’s scarcest capacity on work it was never designed for.
- Continuity
The family doctor is missing
The clinician who knew a household across years - births, bereavements, the slow drift of a blood pressure reading - has been replaced by a stream of one-off encounters. Each visit starts from zero. Context, memory, and judgement that used to compound now reset every time.
- Geography
Care is geographically uneven
Two families three kilometres apart can receive entirely different care for the same condition - different drugs, different waits, different outcomes. The unevenness isn’t just rural versus urban; it lives between neighbouring wards, between one panchayat and the next.
- Cost
Costs spiral with no upper bound
Indian households still pay for most of their healthcare directly, at the point of use. A single hospitalisation can wipe out a year of savings; a chronic condition can quietly drain a generation of them. Financial protection remains the exception, not the rule.
- Tooling
Technology is fragmented
Hospital EMRs, lab systems, pharmacy records, and home-care apps each hold a slice of the truth and refuse to share. Patients carry paper between specialists who never meet, and clinicians make decisions on whichever fragment they can see.
TestimonyVision echoed by
Vision echoed by
society leaders.
- 01
Rajeev Sadanandan, IAS
Former Health Secretary, Kerala
“Reduce hospital dependency, control healthcare costs, and revive the family doctor system.”
- 02
Dr. K. M. Abul Hasan
IMA Cochin
“The neighbourhood is the smallest unit at which trust still exists at scale. Build there.”
- 03
Visioning Lab participant
Clinical track
“We don’t need another vertical. We need a horizontal that connects what already exists.”
- 04
Visioning Lab participant
Policy track
“Continuity of care is not a feature. It’s the product.”
Principles
Five things we refuse to lose.
Every architectural decision the network makes is tested against these. They are the floor — not the ceiling.
- 02
Professional ownership
Healthcare professionals take responsibility for defined communities, reviving the family doctor relationship.
- 03
Empowered communities
Communities participate actively in care delivery, not merely as recipients but as co-creators.
- 04
Seamless coordination
Technology enables coordination between stakeholders, integrating EMR, CMR, and open platforms.
- 05
Equitable access
Healthcare remains equitable, accessible, and affordable, with cross-subsidy supporting vulnerable populations.
Front Matter
Where would you like to begin?
- 01Vision & ModelA continuous fabric of care, organised around five stakeholder groups.
- 02MissionFive tracks that move vision into operation.
- 03RoadmapFrom convening to measurable population impact.
- 04VoicesThe people who showed up - and what they said.
- 05EngageWhere you fit, and what to do next.
- 06AboutChallenges, FAQ, and glossary.
From the LabTen themes,
Ten themes,
one room.
Notes from the Visioning Lab - patterns that recurred across clinicians, policy-makers, technologists, and community leaders.
- 01Community
Strengthening community-based care
Shift from institution-centric care to community and home-based models. Palliative care in Kerala cited as a strong example.
- 02Cohesion
Rebuilding neighbourhood networks
NNHC as an opportunity to rebuild social cohesion and mutual support inside communities.
- 03Prevention
Promotive & preventive healthcare
Embedding prevention into daily life - nutrition, activity, sleep, mental well-being. Bakery and hotel associations as touchpoints.
- 04Access
Infrastructure & accessibility
Builders Association committed to wheelchair access, wider doors and lifts, side rails - aligning urban development with care.
- 05Clinical
Integration of healthcare professionals
Active doctor involvement via IMA, stronger referrals, integrated community + institutional care, training young HCPs.
- 06Tech
Leveraging technology for coordination
Unified coordination dashboard, EMR + CMR integration, open-source platforms such as Open Health Care Network.
- 07People
Volunteerism & universal contribution
A large pool of volunteers exists. What is needed: structured engagement, capacity building, clear role definition.
- 08Funding
Financial sustainability
Sustainable models that avoid over-commercialisation. Multi-industry support assured. Cross-subsidy endorsed as guiding principle.
- 09Inclusion
Inclusion of vulnerable populations
Special attention to elderly, persons with chronic illness/disability, and children needing long-term rehabilitation.
- 10Youth
Youth engagement
Through awareness programs, volunteer opportunities, and educational integration. Young HCPs need community exposure.
Engage06 PathwaysThe network absorbs
The network absorbs
contribution from many directions.
Clinician, policy-maker, technologist, community organiser, or researcher — there is a clear way in.