Design of Virtual Infrastructures for Public and Private Services: The Indian Health Care System

The objective of this paper is to identify the emergent virtual health care infrastructures of the Indian health care system. Particular attention is focused on the role of these infrastructures serving diverse public and private system stakeholders in service delivery, education, research and governance. This qualitative study describes how virtual infrastructures integrate the increasingly decentralized health care system- including national and individual citizen levels of analysis. Decentralization of services helps to assure system integrity and effectiveness through local data collection, accountability and evidence-based management, while public-private partnerships contribute to system efficiencies. This paper defines some managerial issues in the perspectives of diverse stakeholders including government institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public and private health care providers, patients, and other consumers.