Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
EDIT-SPEAK
Innovation to Play a Key Role in Meeting Healthcare Challenges in India
India is continuously reforming its healthcare strategies in order to accommodate growing needs of the people. According to the 12th Planning Commission Report, government spends around 1.4% GDP1 on healthcare and the expenditure is likely to increase in the coming years. However, the quality of healthcare services is still poor in public facilities owing to the poor availability of physicians (doctor density is 0.6 per 1,000)1 and poor infrastructure. People are primarily dependent on private hospitals and mostly bear expenses out-of-pocket. The challenge of the healthcare industry in India, both public and private sector, is to bring forward new innovative ideas to meet goals of advancing accessible and affordable healthcare. In this months newsletter, IHP highlights innovation in healthcare. Several examples of new ideas and their benefit to the Indian healthcare system are described in the newsletter, for example, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to improve healthcare delivery, investment in technology and devices to treat unmet medical needs, and educational programs to cultivate future scientists. These are only a few of the innovative ways we are tackling the challenges in our healthcare system though there are many more successfully running projects contributing to this medical renovation. In a world where 10.4% of global GDP is spent annually on healthcare2, a domain of innovation can cut the costs drastically while increasing productivity and quality of the services. Especially in India, a liaison between stakeholders across public, private and social sectors can effectively hit the nail on its head. It is time to learn from the assemblies of innovations and projects running in the country and start a healthy discussion on what could be done to make further progress. The successes of all these innovations as well as many that have been implemented imply that access to healthcare is achievable because of the emergence of new techniques and ideas.
1. http://planningcommission.gov.in/plans/planrel/12appdrft/appraoch_12plan.pdf 2. http://www.who.int/gho/health_financing/en/
Page 2
ment in 2009 by investing INR 45 crores to set up and maintain dialysis centres in the state. The PPP was based on BOOT model Build, Own, Operate, Transfer. B Braun established 10 hemodialysis centres with 111 machines2 in the state within 250 days in cities includTo catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the ing Chittoor, Guntur, Hyderabad, Kakstory here. inada, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Warangal. The government paid for the treatment to the company and hospital on patient basis so that the services are offered free to the patient. B Braun, on the other hand, took care of the administration, infrastructure, maintenance of the machines and manpower. The PPP is still in effect and as a result, people dont have to travel 200300 kms to get the treatment in private hospitals anymore. Increasing access for renal failure patients, which are quite often sick and unable to travel, has improved both their health and quality of life.
Lack of proper diagnostic and screening centres delay the treatment of a patient. Realizing the same, global healthcare equipment manufacturer,
1. 2. 3.
Page 3
Moreover, Novo Nordisk is also supporting state governments to collect information relevant to Diabetes diabetic care, interventions and share knowledge on practical solutions to better understand the pandemic and implement appropriate schemes and policies. ness material. Additionally, the company will conduct diet guidance camps, provide non-communicable disease management kits and 150,000 glucose test strips free to support monitoring of diabetes. Also, they will give the government access to an internationally recognized and evidence-based disease risk and health assessment tool. Still in its initial stage, the partnership will improve patient condition and lay off the economic burden caused due to chronic diseases. Moreover, the company will assist healthcare providers in offering personalized care and support to the people by analyzing data collected during this project.
dian in 20043. More than 20% of the population has at least one chronic disease and more than 10% have more than one2. Abbott partnered with Puducherry government for three years to study and implement initiatives against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in March 2013 in order to detect non-communicable diseases like diabetes, dyslipidaemia, hypertension or thyroid disorders and raise awareness about them. Under the PPP, they will screen 700,000 people in the union territory. Puducherry government will provide suitable infrastructure, permissions and logistics to run the project and Abbott will provide subsidized diagnostics, educational support to healthcare providers, patient aware-
Page 4
These devices are innovative, simple and efficient, bringing down the cost overall by eliminating or shortening costly hospital stays. Introducing designs like these in the Indian market could help the people avail to the Started in 2008, Stanford India services offered, enhancing their quality of life and increasing the life Biodesign (SIB) is a partnership beMore such programmes in the country tween the Design School at Stanford, expectancy in the country. can address the healthcare concerns AIIMS and IIT Delhi to train medical of the nation by helping people underdevice innovators and develop leadstand diseases, prevention, control ers in biomedical technology innovation in India. They are trained in India and treatment. and Stanford to design inexpensive, high quality devices for the Indian patient and meet the growing healthNokia Life mDiabetes care needs of the nation. As mentioned earlier, there are more Since its inception, SIB fellows have 63 million people suffering from Diadesigned 12 different devices and betes1. It could be controlled with filed for 20 provisional patents while lifestyle changes but the problem is 5 of their products are under clinical that people dont know about the trials. The students are being ex- disease. posed to medical technology at uniB-249, Supermart-1, versity level to help them achieve A Finnish mobile manufacturer, DLF Phase 4, medical excellence and build medical known for its products especially de- Gurgaon, signed for the masses, joined hands Haryana122002 technology sites.
1. 2. 3. http://www.idf.org/atlasmap/atlasmap http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/WhatsNew/Documents/PR-TSD-Sep2012.pdf http://www.arogyaworld.org/arogya-world-and-nokia-india-engage-one-million-people-forPhone: +91-124-4388851 E-mail: info@indiahealthprogress.in