Ehealth Dec16 web edition

eHealth Magazine

volume 11 / issue 12 / DECEMBER 2016

` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-8959

Special Feature

Vaccine Industry Narrating one of India’s biggest sucess stories

Special Story

Wellness Industry Where technology and tradition converge

Also Includes

ANNUAL RESOURCE

GUIDE 2016

Cover Interview It is now so easy for a patient to make the payment through his or her e-wallet to consult a doctor through video conferencing using Skype or WhatsApp platform.

Prof (Dr) DS Rana Chairman Board of Management Sir Ganga Ram Hospital New Delhi

Asia’s first Monthly Magazine on the enterprise of healthcare Volume 11

Issue 12

December 2016

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM - DELHI/NCR Assistant Editor: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy, Sandeep Datta Senior Correspondent: Manish Arora, Shivani Tyagi BANGALORE BUREAU Associate Editor: T Radha Krishna MUMBAI BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty, Harshal Yashwant Desai JAIPUR BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma CHANDIGARH BUREAU Assistant Editor: Priya Yadav HYDERABAD BUREAU Senior Correspondent: Sudheer Goutham B LUCKNOW BUREAU Senior Correspondent: Arpit Gupta AHMEDABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Hemangini S Rajput SALES & MARKETING TEAM: eHealth Product Head: Fahim Haq, Mobile: +91-8860651632 Senior Executive: Priyanka Singh, Mobile: +91-8860651631 SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION TEAM Manager Subscriptions: +91-8860635832, subscription@elets.in DESIGN TEAM Creative Heads: Pramod Gupta, Anjan Dey Deputy Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur, Shyam Kishore Senior Graphic Designer: Pradeep G EveNt Team Manager: Gagandeep Kapani ADMINISTRATION Head Administration: Archana Jaiswal EDITORIAL & MARKETING CORRESPONDENCE

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Contents

DECember 2016 | VOLUME - 11 | ISSUE - 12

10 Cover Interview

Envisioning the New Horizon of

Indian Healthcare

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi exemplifies the best in Indian healthcare when it comes to providing quality health services to all sections of the society with human touch.

- Prof (Dr) DS Rana Chairman, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi

40 Special Feature

Vaccine Sector Narrating One of India’s Biggest Success Stories

With numerous comparative advantages in terms of R&D facilities, knowledge, skills, and cost effectiveness, the Indian vaccine industry has all the right ingredients to become a global leader in affordable healthcare

50 Special Story

Wellness: A Confluence of Tradition and Technology The Indian Wellness sector has emerged as a meeting point where technology and traditions converge to offer holistic health solutions. With the internet driving digitisation in the wellness space

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Company Profile

Corporate Interview 16

14

Abhimanyu Bhosale CEO and MD LiveHealth

18

Rajiv Nath Joint Managing Director HMD

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Dr Arun N Palaniswami Director-Quality Control & Memeber Board of Directors, KMCH

24

Dr Jitendar Sharma Director and CEO AMTZ

26

32

Gerald Jaideep CEO Medvarsity Online Ltd

44

Pushpa Vijayaraghavan Vice President Sathguru Management Consultants

37

Sameer Sawarkar CEO Neurosynaptic Communications Pvt Ltd

46

Dr Suresh Jadhav Executive Director Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd

57

Medical

Technologies

Dr D K Gupta Chairman Felix Hospital BPL Medical Technologies Pvt Ltd

34

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Vikram Sanghvi Managing Director Schiller Healthcare India Pvt Ltd

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Rajni Shah MD, MRK Healthcare Pvt Ltd & Nulife Global Medical Devices Pvt Ltd

DECember / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

MTech India Pvt Ltd

Industry Speaks 22

CURA Healthcare Pvt Ltd

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Rajesh Mundra Founder & CEO Truworth Wellness

editorial

India Making Great Strides in Health Sector We are living in exciting times. India looks poised to make great strides on the road to growth and development. As Indians take to this path, the health is taking precedence over all other matters.

Underpinned by strong capabilities in skills, innovation and costeffectiveness without compromising on quality, the Indian healthcare industry is ready to face the future with a renewed confidence.

Our cover interview of Dr DS Rana, Chairman, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, offers a glimpse of the Indian healthcare from the perspective of digitisation in healthcare space post-demonetisation, technological advancements, current R&D scene and the values underpinning one of the most noble professions of the world.

Today, India is standing at a crossroad where on one hand the country is in a unique position to reap the benefits of its demographic dividends.

On the other hand, its young population is increasingly getting exposed to the dangers of various lifestyle diseases.

Our special story on wellness industry explores this sunrise industry, which creates a unique confluence of technology and tradition to offer holistic healthcare solutions to the vulnerable population.

The special feature on the vaccine industry is aimed at recognising one of the greatest success stories that India has scripted in the pharma sector. With every third vaccine in the world being produced in India, the country has emerged as the ‘vaccine capital’ of the world.

To underscore India’s capabilities in this essential segment, we have also carried an interview of Dr Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director, Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines in terms of doses.

The eHealth Annual Resource Guide with this edition is a way to enable readers to learn about some of the leading healthcare providers in the country who are committed to improve healthcare delivery system with focus on innovation and quality.

Our bouquet of stories tries to capture the latest trends in the healthcare sector and carries perspectives of experts and those who matter the most. We sincerely believe that the December issue of eHealth will give you new insights into the sector, helping you grow and keep inventing newer solutions for public good.

Looking forward to our readers’ valuable feedback.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief

ravi.gupta@elets.in

DECember / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Cover Interview

Envisioning the New Horizon of

Indian Healthcare

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi exemplifies the best in Indian healthcare when it comes to providing quality health services to all sections of the society with human touch. Prof (Dr) DS Rana (Padma Shri Awardee), Chairman, Board of Management, SGRH, who was recently selected for the prestigious Dr BC Roy Award for excellence in the field of medicine, in an exclusive interview with Elets News Network (ENN) speaks about where the Indian healthcare sector is headed.

How over a period of time SGRH build up its reputation all over the country?

Sir Ganga Ram, an eminent engineer and a great philanthropist, established the hospital in 1921 at Lahore, which still exists. Present hospital in New Delhi was established in 1954 by Sir Ganga Ram Trust Society. The hospital is managed

by Board of Management consisting of eminent doctors appointed by Sir Ganga Ram Trust Society. With selfless devotion of Sir Ganga Ram Trust Society and dedicated services by consultants and employees, this hospital has emerged as one of the leading tertiary care hospitals in non-government sector. Not only for providing excellent healthcare but also well honored in the field of medical education and research. The hospital is thus involved in capacity building of human resources not only in India but also in the neighbouring countries.

In your perspective what are the key challenges in healthcare sector?

The biggest challenge is human resource of properly trained medical and paramedical manpower to address the needs of 1.2 billion population of country. We need to address this vital issue.

Second, challenge is affordability and accessibility of quality healthcare to nearly 70% of population residing in villages. At present, excellent

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“At Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, we have embraced technology with open arms.

A few months back, we launched a smart health card to provide patients with easy access to medical care.�

Prof (Dr) DS Rana, Chairman, Board of Directors, SGRH tertiary healthcare is available only in metropolitan cities and is now extending to tier-II cities. I strongly feel that all tertiary care hospitals both in government and non-government sectors should adopt small hospitals in rural areas to provide quality healthcare at the door steps.

How modern technology, especially ICT, is aiding healthcare providers in India?

Please elaborate on the current

technology trends in the healthcare sector.

Robust data regarding demography, diseases and treatment outcomes is going to be immense help in planning healthcare. With the advancement in technology, telemedicine facility is going to be of immense help to rural population and also for routine follow-ups by patients from far distance with their doctors working from tertiary care hospitals in various locations.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital is committed

Cover Interview

to be digital at the earliest. We are amongst the few hospitals to acquire world class Hospital Information System (HIS) since the beginning of the century and we are making steady progress in that. Of late, we are in the process of completely digitalizing our Out-Patient Services (OPD) services, starting from doctor appointment to prescription and follow-up. We are of course also promoting digital cash services.

Research is an important part of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital’s vision, what are the new initiatives being undertaken at the hospital?

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has a sharp focus on Research and Development.

India holds a huge potential in this area and we encourage doing and publishing original research. The reason why less number of Indian researches gets published in international journals as compared to other developing countries is because there is a lot of duplication happening in this field. In developed countries, doctors have the freedom to divide their time between research and clinical practice - 20 per cent time devoted to clinical practice and 80 per cent time to R&D or vice-versa. Indian doctors often do not have this liberty.

However, the R&D landscape in India is transforming fast and we now have some of the best facilities in the world to carry out quality research.

Why do you think there is not much data sharing happening among healthcare providers in India?

I believe that practitioners and hospitals are willing to share clinical data for the benefit of the people, but they don’t know how to do it and a seamless integration is still missing.

Healthcare providers do collect and maintain clinical data at their end and I think the government needs to step in to develop the required infrastructure to facilitate such data sharing.

We have been witnessing Green Corridors being set up to transport

“Online platforms like mobile wallet services and Skype will soon change the way we access healthcare services.” organs from one health facility to another? What kind of effort goes into such initiatives?

The Green Corridors are set up in the national capital with the help of Delhi Police to transport live organs from one hospital to another. There is a need to develop more awareness among people regarding the importance of organ donations. We need to cut the role of middle man in the process. Presently, such initiatives are happening at the local level, but in the long run we should implement systems such as in developed countries where it is possible to transfer organs using air transport, making the process swift and effective.

Medical tourism has immense potential in a country like India.

How Sir Ganga Ram Hospital plans to tap the opportunities in this area?

I have a different take on medical tourism.

We don’t see it as a business opportunity.

Healthcare should not have only profit making motive. In fact, there is a whole army of commission agents out there to exploit patients coming from foreign countries. Until the government has proper regulations to streamline it, we don’t see a point in promoting the socalled medical tourism. We have taken a different route to provide care to our foreign patients. We are engaged in capacity building in our neighbouring countries by guiding their healthcare providers to develop quality hospitals.

Can you please share with us the hospital’s future expansion plans? Is Ganga Ram Hospital also looking to adopt the hospital chain model?

We are coming up with a new block to provide more space for out-patient departments, both private and general, better office spaces and more number of free beds. We are in process of establishing a state-of-the-art cancer centre with all modern equipment. But as far as adopting the chain model is concerned, it may be a viable option for us to expand in tier-II cities in future provided we get partners who can ensure the quality healthcare Sir Ganga Ram stands for. But as of now, we want to focus on improving infrastructure and patient facilities of our existing hospital in Delhi.

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Company Profile

LiveHealth About

Abhimanyu Bhosale CEO & Managing Director

Company Details Year of Inception: 2013 Management Team: 1. Mukund Malani - Co-Founder & CTO 2. Niraj Desai - Head, Business Development 3. Parag Yadav - Manager, Relations & Growth Number of Employees: 50 Head Office: 11, Hanuman Co-operative Society, Opp. Sai Vihar, Off Sai Chowk, Sus Road , Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra Website: livehealth.in Tel. No.: +91-20 46701273 E-mail: info@livehealth.in Regional Offices: Singapore, Mumbai, Bengaluru Sales & After-Sales Support: Singapore Mumbai Bengaluru Pune Contact Person for Clarification: Parag Yadav Email: relations@livehealth.in Contact No.: +91-9730 015200 Customer Support Helpline Number/After-Sales Support +918055080080 Target Verticals: Pathology Labs, Diagnostic Centres and Hospitals

Product Categories          

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Electronic Medical Records Cloud Computing Health Data Analytics Clinical Information System mHealth Wireless/ Remote Monitoring System Integration Data Storage & Safety Healthcare Apps Healthcare Start-ups December / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

LiveHealth is a leading healthcare IT company changing the way healthcare is delivered. Disconnected experience is one of the biggest problem in healthcare industry and the existing contemporary IT solutions make it even more evident. LiveHealth aims to solve this by building an ecosystem of applications specially designed for doctors, providers and patients.

Our aim is to have a collaborative healthcare platform where health providers can directly reach out to their customers and stay connected with them by using our Customer Relationship Model. We have been growing exponentially along with our offerings, upgrading our platform to provide the best services. Our engineers and product team deliver the best experience and support to our customers.

Products & Services LiveHealth offers a next generation cloud based and mobile ready solution for diagnostic centres putting them in control of their centre to manage it with better insights and analytics. This comprehensive Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) not only helps them work remotely, but also efficiently. Using our mobile app, doctors can view, get notified and approve reports from anywhere. All their patient information, history and records is available at their fingertips. Comprehensive dashboard enables them to analyse centre's performance and TAT. The best quality analysis module helps quantify and measure quality of testing. They can visualise auto-generated financial analytics and MIS reports of their centre.

Business Highlights & Achievements • Fastest growing management platform for diagnostic centres and laboratories.

• 400+ LiveHealth powered centres and labs across India.

• Also powering centres in Dubai, Malaysia and Sudan.

• Single platform helping over 5 lakh patients to connect to 40K+ doctors and managing over 15 million medical records, securely.

• Honoured with ‘Best Healthcare Startup 2016’ award by Rajasthan government and ‘Apollo CHIME Best Startup 2016’ award.

USP Seamless Patient Experience: Single platform where patients can discover diagnostic centres, book appointments/ home collection, pay online and get reports too. Mobile: Mobile app for patients ensures access to their medical records, anywhere, anytime. Data & Insights: Clinical, operational and financial data stored securely on cloud.

Top Clients 1. Fidelity Diagnostics, Pune 2. Nucleus Medical and Diagnostic Centre, Mumbai 3. Labworld Plus, Mumbai 4. Northern Labs, Malaysia 5. Narayani Lifesciences, Thane 6. Asian Heart Institute, Bangalore 7. GenePath Dx, Pune 8. United International Diagnostics, Aurangabad

Company Profile

Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd About

Rajiv Nath

Joint Managing Director

Company Details Year of Inception: 1957 Management Team: Narindra Nath - Managing Director Number of Employees: 3500 Head Office Site Address: 174, Sector – 25, Ballabhgarh, Faridabad, Haryana, India Website: www.hmdhealthcare.com Tel. No.: +91-129-4289000 E-mail: info@hmdhealthcare.com Sales & After-Sales Support: Domestic: Contact Person for Clarification: Pardeep Sareen Email: pardeep@hmdhealthcare.com Contact No.: +91-9810029272 Direct Landline No : +91-129-4289208 International: Contact Person for Clarification: Dinesh Tandon Email: hmduk@hmdhealthcare.com Contact No.: +91-98110304861 Direct Landline No : +91-129-4289237 Target Verticals: Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Doctors, Chemists, Importers, Distributors, WholeSellers, U N Agencies, NGO’s, Ministry of Health

Business Highlights & Achievements: HMD Group of Companies founded in 1957 pioneered Glass Syringe manufacturing in India and thereafter Disposable Needles and then a comprehensive range of sizes of Auto Disable Syringes for the curative segment India’s Leading Medical Disposable Manufacturer.

Top 5 Manufacturer World Wide of Disposable Syringe and Auto Disable Syringes, I V Cannula, Surgical Blades and Scalp Vein Sets.

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HMD was founded in 1957 and is a closely held family Corp. Its Primary markets are India, USA, Europe, Middle East and secondary markets – Africa and South East Asia.

HMD has 7 Plants in different locations in South Asia and has over 3,500 employees. Its major products are Single use Syringes, Single use Needles, I. V. Cannulas, Safety I. V. Cannulas, Surgical Blades, Scalpels, Scalpvein Sets, Nonreusable (AD) Syringes, Blood collection tubes, Blood collection needle and Blood Collection Set. All the products are marketed through an established national and international distribution network of more than 4,500 dealers to ensure ready availability even in remote areas, and effective customer service support.

HMD marketing philosophy is to manufacture products of international standard and attempt to offer them for the benefit of patients and doctors at affordable prices. HMD manufacturing philosophy is to achieve the best quality using the most economical mass-production technology, harnessed through a dedicated production team, in a harmonious industrial atmosphere as per requirement of ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and the European M.D.D. Products carry CE Mark. The corporate philosophy of preventive maintenance of human relations ensures that there is no need for any labour union to exist.

Products & Services

USP

HMD is the Manufacturer of Medical Devices • Disposable Syringes – Dispovan / Unolok / Perfectum • Disposable Needles – Dispovan / Unolok • I. V. Cannulas – Kitkath / Cathula / Cathy / Kitkath+ • Safety I. V. Cannula – Cathy / Cathula • Surgical Blades – Glassvan / Technocut • Scalpvein Sets – Scalpvan / Unolok • Blood Collection Set – Vaku-8. / Vaku-8+ • Non-reusable (A.D.) Syringes – Kojak Selinge

Providing Premium Quality Products at Affordable Prices.

Business Collaboration Collaboration with M/s Star Syringes, UK & M/s Estar, Israel.

Top Clients International: • UNICEF • PAHO • IDA - WHO • MYCO - USA • DIEDA - YEMEN • IBN SINA - OMAN • AZMI - BANGLADESH • MAROC - MOROCCO

India: • Apollo • Medicity • Max • Fortis • Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals • Government of Assam • West Bengal - MOH • Kerala - MOH • Sikkim - MOH

Profile

Kovai Medical Center and Hospital Dr Arun N Palaniswami Director of Quality Control & Member of Board of Directors at Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH) Educational Qualifications: MBBS, MD Internal Medicine Diploma in

Strategic Management, IIM (C)

Year of Operation: June 1990 Age: 37

Profile: Dr Arun N Palaniswami, MBBS, MD internal medicine, after working for 8 years across various successful institutions in the United States as a practicing physician returned to India and joined KMCH in Jan 2015. He heads the groups operation division as the Head of Quality Division which oversees the continuous quality improvement and accreditation processes across all the group hospitals. The division is tasked with improving cost efficiency and operability while improving quality of treatments and healthcare outcomes.

The challenge is huge considering the group which is based out of Coimbatore. The organisation is 1200+ bed strong and is well recognised for its high quality of care in ER, ICU, trauma care, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, transplant surgery and cancer care is currently expanding into tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities and the expansion must address the skill gaps present in the workforce. The future is to create future flexible systems which cater to all segments of the population and train the next generation healthcare workers to fill in the gaps for care while maintaining high quality standards the group is known for.

He is also a member of the Kovai Medical Center Research and Education trust which oversees all the paramedical education colleges and programmes.

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Company Profile

Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone Ltd About

Dr Jitendar Sharma Director & CEO

Organisation Details Year of Inception: 2016 Management Team: 1. Judish Raj - VP (Planning) 2. Manish Gangal - VP (Operations) 3. Nitin Bharadwaj - VP (HR & Administration) 4. Vipin Ramachandran - VP (Finance) Number of Employees: 50 to 100 Head Office: Address Corporate Office: Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, Hill No. 2, IT Park, VSEZ, Madhurwada, Visakhapatnam – 530045 Address Site: Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, S. No. 480/P, 187/P, 176/P, Nadupuru Visakhapatnam - 530044 Website: www.amtz.in Tel. No.: +91-8885092122 E-mail: info@amtz.in Contact Person for Clarification: Sohan Dutta Email: sohan.dutta@amtz.in Contact No.: +91-8885092122 Target Verticals: Medical Devices & Equipment

Business Collaborations:  Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD)  World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME)  Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)  Andhra Chamber of Commerce  PHD Chamber of Commerce  BIORx Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd.  MarksMan Healthcare Solutions  Monster.com  HDFC Bank

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The creation of Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) is based on the fact that medical devices manufacturing requires certain high investment facilities which are too capital intensive for individual manufactures to invest upon. With a market size of close to $4 billion, 78% of the medical devices in India are imported from other countries. A park with in-house high investment scientific facilities would help manufacturers reduce the cost of manufacturing. While the park would have all such facilities in-house to reduce manufacturing process costs, it would have modern state of art 250-300 independent manufacturing units, each over a builtin ready to use area in 1.00 acres/0.50 acres/0.25acres at a very cost effective long term lease rate for 33 years. Located in an area which is well connected with Railways, Roadways, Waterways and Airways, with presence of Industrial Corridors, Port and Harbour to reduce logistical costs, AMTZ in Visakhapatnam is India’s first medical device manufacturing zone spread over 270 acres.

Products & Services  Pre-built Manufacturing Units with Plot Size of 0.25 acre, 0.50 acre and 1.00 acre  Common Scientific & Social Facilities  Component Testing & Board Manufacturing Centre  Electro-Magnetic Interference Laboratory  Biomaterial Testing Laboratory  Gamma Irradiation Centre  Medical Grade Low Vacuum Molding, Cabinet Molding, Injection Molding Centres  3 D Designing and Printing for

Medical Grade Products  Sterilisation & Toxicity Testing Centre  Radiation Testing Centre  Centre for Medical Technology Innovations & Rapid Prototyping  Regulator’s Office  Empaneled Agencies to provide Technology Transfer & Financial Support  Showrooms & Offices  Med Tech Expo Hall  Convention Hall  Central Warehousing

USP  One stop solution for Medical Device manufacturers/innovators  Prebuilt manufacturing units  Capital Intensive common scientific facilities on pay per use model  Lower cost for Testing services  Lower Capex for manufacturers  Finance and Technology Transfer Services

 Central Warehouse & Logistical Connectivity providing operational efficiencies  Promotional activities through Med tech Expo Halls, Convention Centre, etc.  Favourable Tax structure and policy revisions  Regulators and Export Facilitation  Preferential Market Access

Industry Speaks

Taking on Breast Cancer the Non-invasive Way

While breast cancer continues to pose life-threatening risk to women globally, its diagnosis presents greater challenges for healthcare providers, given the painful nature of screening methods like X-ray mammography. IR thermography, which is a non-invasive breast imaging technology used by CURA’s MAMRIT System, can be the best alternative to screen women any number of times to increase their chances of survival many fold.

Calculating the Risk Breast cancer incidences in India are estimated to double by 2025. But studies have shown that unlike other cancers, early detection of breast cancer can reduce one-third of deaths.

However, using X-ray mammography for screening purpose in younger women population in India poses a challenge, as those with dense breast cannot be imaged frequently.

Women who undergo X-ray mammography once, avoid it in future due to painful experience. Hence, there is a need for painless breast cancer screening without any radiation such as IR thermography, which can be used on same subject any number of times.

How Thermography Works?

Computerised breast thermography is the visual representation of the distribution of temperature patterns exerted on the skin surface due to the presence or absence of any underlying pathology and the regional vascularity. The thermal patterns are highly sensitive to the environmental factors in the examination area and are a major drawback of the conventional thermography devices. But despite this drawback, thermography has shown results of improving survival rate of over 80 per cent patients in developed countries.

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System”) for breast imaging is a non-invasive, image acquisition and processing system for monitoring breast tissue changes without any radiation. It comprises a high resolution IR camera, integrated with the inbuilt temperature control and monitoring system, a multiaxial rotating arm and positioning set up that are enclosed within a closed chamber and the special design on its top as the patient couch used for patient positioning. The configuration of the device enables is to capture an image all through 360 degrees of each breast.

This “No Touch Mode” breast imaging visualises up to 24 frames of each breast on its side views and on two temperature conditions. Around 100 images are acquired and used for analysis.

Clinical Outcomes Based on the recent clinical studies, it is found that the device can be used for: • Screening purpose – as a primary imaging modality prior to ultrasound, as additional information from thermography can be used as baseline for ultrasound.

• Therapy effectiveness monitoring – in case of chemotherapy to find whether the patient is responding to the drug and/ or its characterisation.

MAMRIT

Compatibility with other imaging modalities

MAMRIT is a novel product designed and developed by TUSCANO, a CURA company. MAMRIT System (“Mammary Rotational Infrared Thermographic

The various frames captured in thermography can directly be correlated with ultrasound clock position. Also, the acquired thermal images are stored in

December / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

Patient Benefits • No radiation exposure • No contrast injection • No painful breast compression • Non-invasive • No touch • Good comfort through design for climbing and resting during examination • High privacy (no exposure of breast to examiner) Clinician Benefits • Increased Productivity (digital information is enough for review) • Programmable profile for a patient • Easy data retrieval and format (compatible with other medical imaging devices) • Storage facility for previous visits DICOM format and there is a provision to import other modality images for comparison with the thermography images facilitating clinical analysis.

It is the “first and simple solution” providing all necessary inputs for further evaluation towards diagnosis.

For younger women, it can be used along with ultrasound for periodical followups until a clinical course of action towards correction can be taken. IR based thermography can be used any number of times among elderly women for periodical monitoring. For cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, this can be a facilitating tool to find tissue response to treatment and further on changing the course of treatment.

Company Profile

BPL Medical Technologies Pvt Ltd Medical

Technologies

Year of Inception: Founded in 1967 Head Office: BPL Medical Technologies Private Limited 11th KM, Bannerghatta Road, Arakere, Bangalore - 560 076. India Website: www.bplmedicaltechnologies.com Tel. No.: +91-8026484388 E-mail: marketing.medical@bpl.in 12 Regional offices: • Karnataka • Kerala • Tamil Nadu • Andhra Pradesh • Maharashtra • Gujarat • Madhya Pradesh • West Bengal • Delhi • Punjab • Uttar Pradesh • Rajasthan

USP 1. One of the largest sales & service distribution network in India 2. Value for Money

Business Highlights & Achievements Cardiology, Anaesthesia and Critical Care are Promising product portfolios for BPL Medical Technologies and in this direction we recently acquired Penlon Ltd, a UKbased leading manufacturer of Anaesthesia Work Stations, Vaporizers & Operating Room solution’s with worldwide distribution network. BPL Medical Technologies got 8 awards in Healthcare for Product innovation and Customer Centricity.

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BPL has served the medical fraternity for close to 50 years.

Since 1967, the high standards of our product performance continues to make us the preferred choice of hospitals, clinics and practicing physicians across the country. Our commitment to service is reflected in our wide network of customer care centers and a committed team of over 500 personnel located even in the farthest corners of the country. This makes us one of the largest and the most accessible medical equipment company in India.

BPL Medical Technologies Private Limited is a trusted company that Provides reliable products and dependable service to its customers. Our Products manufactured in an ISO 9001 : 2008 and 13485 : 2003 certified facility conform to global standards of quality assurance and best practices. BPL Medical technologies has bagged 6 awards in m-health segment, won the prestigious Frost and Sullivan Best Practices Award 2011 for Market Share Leadership in the Value Segment of ECG Monitors.

To further strengthen its commitment to Anaesthesia and Critical care, BPL Medical Technologies has acquired UK based Penlon Ltd. in September 2015, a global leader in that segment.

Our collaboration with the best brains across the world and our high capacity manufacturing facilities, provide our customers with the latest technology at affordable prices. BPL Medical Technologies Private Limited will continue to introduce innovative products and expand its customer support network to enhance the productivity of healthcare providers.

To know more about BPL Medical please visit our website http://bplmedicaltechnologies.com / or write to us at marketing. medical@bpl.in

Company Profile MRK Healthcare Pvt Ltd & Nulife Global Medical Devices Pvt Ltd About

Rajni Shah

Managing Director

Company Details Year of Inception: 1965 Management Team: 1. Mahesh Shah - Director - Finance & Production 2. Kamlesh Shah - Director - Marketing 3. Yogesh Shah - Director - R&D & Production 4. Sneh - Director - Strategic & Business Development Head Office Site Address: B6, Byculla Service Industries, D.K. Marg, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027. India Website: www.mrkhealthcare.com Tel. No.: +91-22-23748371-72-73 Fax: +91-22-23748370 E-mail: info@mrkhealthcare.com Sales & After-Sales Support: Sales: sales@mrkhealthcare.com After Sales: order@mrkhealthcare.com Customer Support / After Sales Support: +91-22-32488484 Contact Person for Clarification: Anita Salaskar Email: support@mrkhealthcare.com Contact No.: +91-22-66578913

USP MRK’s strength is delivering contemporary world class products at economical pricing. This is ensured by stringent and comprehensive quality checks at every level including Physical visual, chemical and bacteriological tests. Close contact with medical professionals and an ear on the ground help us understand the requirements of the medical field helping to improve and innovate our products. MRK stands committed to research and development, continual improvement and innovation so as to give our customers the best value and performance oriented products.

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MRK Healthcare began operations in 1965 under the leadership of Ramniklal Shah for the manufacture and trading of molded rubber industrial products and surgical rubber gloves. “NULIFE” is the Trade Name under which medical products manufactured by MRK HEALTHCARE is marketed. MRK Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. is one of India’s leading manufacturers of Medical Disposable Hospital Equipments.

Nulife Global Medical Devices Pvt Ltd has a reputed market presence.

MRK Healthcare Pvt Ltd is dedicatedly committed to the care and improvement of human life through continuum of high-quality, costeffective healthcare products. It has five manufacturing units located in western India, with a total built-up area of 125,000 sq. feet and a further provision for expansion up to 1,200,000 sq. feet. Its administrative office is located strategically in Mumbai.

At MRK, we endeavor to provide healthcare more affordable, accessible and qualitative. Our goal is to serve every mother and child, old and young with high quality affordable medical products. Our aim is to provide medical products to healthcare workers who work with passion and compassion to give comfort and healthcare to patient.

Apart from the business perspective MRK is equally valued in Philanthropic Projects. A project dedicated to the protection of ageing animals.

Products & Services MRK HEALTHCARE’s wide product range includes Latex Products, Electro Medical Devices and Plastic Disposables. Latex range includes various types of gloves ranging from Exam Gloves, Surgical Gloves to Specaility Gloves Range & Foley Balloon Catheters. Electro Medical Devices include 4 models of Nebulizers, Needle Burner and Syringe Destroyer-60 Watt and 100 Watt, B P Monitor, Air Bed and Weighing Scale. Plastic disposables range comprises of IV Sets, B T Sets, Urine bag etc MRK HEALTHCARE Pvt is expanding its product range with help of leading OEM manufacturing facility in India and abroad.

Top 5 Clients • Hinduja Hospital • Jaslok Hospital • Saifee Hospital • Tata Memorial Hospital • Bombay Hospital

Corporate Interview

Apollo’s Medvarsity: Impacting Lives through Quality Training Medvarsity, India’s largest online medical certification company, has been helping MBBS doctors and allied professionals with upgradation of extra-edge skills to deliver quality healthcare services. Gerald Jaideep, CEO of Medvarsity Online Ltd, in an exclusive interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN), talks about the company’s robust training programmes and how they are impacting thousands of lives globally.

How long Medvarsity has been in existence? How is it connected to Apollo?

Envisioned by Apollo Group of Hospitals Chairman Dr. Pratap Reddy and Joint Managing Director Sangita Reddy, Medvarsity was founded in 2000.

While Apollo hospitals brought in the best technology and methodology from across the globe to impact healthcare

for the general citizens, the vision behind Medvarsity was to provide the best training and impact the level of healthcare that is being provided by medical professionals across the country. Therefore, Medvarsity was formed as an online company to help improve the skill level of medical professionals, primarily doctors, and also nurses and other allied professionals ranging from hospital administrators to medical technicians.

How online programmes provided by Medvarsity are connected with hands-on skills of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals?

Medical training requires both knowledge and skill training. A large portion of knowledge training happens through Medvarsity’s online channel. Online learning constitutes recorded modules, presentations, e-books and other content heavy resources. We also do online knowledge sessions through live virtual classes.

Instructors from around the country and sometimes from foreign universities are assigned to teach the live virtual classes.

Most of our courses

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also have clinical practice where the students are deployed within the hospital environment under the mentorship of a faculty to practice the skills hands-on. For example, in Diploma in Emergency Medicine, there is one-year internship where students are deployed at a hospital emergency room for one year, observing and practicing the skills that they learn also online.

What tie-ups you have with other institutions?

We are an online company. Our physical presence is relevant to our students. We run our clinical programmes in over 20 locations in India. We have regional sales locations in 10 cities, where students can walk-in and have interactions with our sales team, get their queries resolved and go through the enrollment process also. Our international students from Afghanistan, Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Oman,and African countries like Nigeria, Kenya, attend the online programme at their locations and then complete their clinical practice in India. A large portion of our clinical practice is offered in partnership with Apollo, which has 66 hospitals across the world. We continue to tie-up with additional non-Apollo Group hospitals so as to expand our area where our students can get clinical experience.

What is the size of student base

Corporate Interview

you have and how many have passed out?

Every year, 3,000-4,000 students enroll and go through our system. Just to give an idea of the scale, in India 55,000 medical students graduate every year with an average medical college graduating 150 students every year.

So, just by sheer number of students, Medvarsity is the largest training institution in India.

We have a very large group of alumni.

If you visit our website, you will see there are 40 different hospitals where our alumni work. It is the testimony of the quality of our programmes. Out of these 40 hospitals, may be 8 or 9 are of Apollo Group, while a large portion constitutes non-Apollo Group hospitals.

Do you have affiliation with any regional university?

There are two tracks of medical education in India -- one is the formal education which is done under the aegis of Medical Council of India (MCI) and constitutes largely undergraduate programmes, which is MBBS degree.

You need to be an MBBS doctor to be eligible for 90 per cent of our courses, except for some generic courses like eMBA, Quality Management, Hospital administration, etc. We work with international partners, governing bodies or hospitals which are very wellrecognised for their process orientation.

Some of our courses are accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal Liverpool Academy, University of New South Wales Australia, among others. The role of these partner institutions is validating our course content, providing the structure for the trainer and faculty to train and they also participate in the viva process.

Where do your students come from?

India enjoys a leadership status in healthcare and technology in the MEA region. Eighty per cent of our students come from India, 20 per cent from Middle

East and African countries. India today is a hot destination for medical tourism because we have the best medical facilities available at an affordable price. Our doctors are well trained because they handle an extremely large volume of patients in a very short time.

For example, for a nurse to go from a graduate level to becoming a midlevel expert in something as simple as infusion therapy, she or he has to go through at least 100 patients before her efficiency goes up. In most countries this will take a nurse anywhere upto 1 year to treat 100 patients but in India, they will handle this volume in under 4 months.

Please brief us about the courses offered by Medvarsity.

We offer over 45 different courses. These are aligned to the medical professionals’ needs. For example, if you have done your MBBS course, technically you cannot practice family medicine independently in India. You need to have a specialisation or a general physician certification or a family medicine certification to open a clinic or you can continue as junior resident or senior resident at a hospital. Our Diploma in Family Medicine helps you learn and understand the skills required to practice as a family physician and provides you the skill required to excel in that. The programme is underwritten by the Royal College of General Practitioners UK. The RCGP evaluates your performance through clinical programmmes and you are certified to practice as a family physician.

Our courses range from 4 months to 18 months duration. It all depends on the type of programme and the amount of clinical practice that you need to put in. For example, our emergency medical course is of one-year duration.

That means for one year you have to be deployed at the hospital, working in the emergency department before you are able to qualify for the exam.

For 90 per cent of our courses, MBBS is the minimum requirement along with MCI registration. For nurses, BSC

Nursing is the minimum requirement.

We don’t have courses for technicians.

How has been the response to your courses?

We enroll large volumes of students.

Ten per cent of all students graduating in MBBS every year do our certification courses, which is a fairly large volume.

Additionally 20% of our students return to sign up for new courses and continue to use us their source for upskilling.

What are your further plans to expand? How do you see Medvarsity growing in few years from now?

We plan to invest in technology to enhance the quality of training that needs to be done in the medical field.

A lot of specialised medical treatments today are using robotics and high-end technologies, which is not accessible to every doctor in India. For example, in India out of the top five hospitals that have the ability to do robotics surgery, two are of Apollo -- Apollo Hyderabad and Apollo Chennai. Now we are getting one in Apollo Mumbai also. That’s three locations. So, how many doctors can get exposure to robotics surgery? How many doctors today have access to advanced laparoscopy simulation tools to do laparoscopy surgery? Our intent is to build more and more technology into our training solutions so that by using virtual reality, augmented reality or high-end simulations we give doctors access to very high-end training, but at the convenience of doing it from wherever they want. That’s what that continues to push us forward in our training business.

Today, our business from outside India is only 20 per cent. But the medical care required in these regions is veryvery high. There is a huge shortage of doctors across African continent, Middle East, Asia. So, our intent is to increase our presence in these regions too so that we can help more and more doctors across these regions.

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Company Profile

Schiller Healthcare India Pvt Ltd About

Vikram Sanghvi Managing Director

Company Details Year of Inception: 1997 Management Team: 1. Bharatkumar Mehta - COO 2. V. Balakrishnan - Sr Vice President 3. Sudip Bagchi - Vice President 4. Nandaraj Hosabettu - Vice President – R&D 5. Vinayak Gudekar - Vice President - Service Number of Employees: 300 Head Office: Indian HQ: Advance House, Makwana Road, Marol Metro Station, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 059 Swiss HQ: Schiller AG, Altgasse 68, P.O. Box 1052, 6341 Baar, Switzerland Website: schillerindia.com Tel. No.: +91-22-61523333, 1800 2098998 (Toll free) E-mail: sales@schillerindia.com Regional Offices: Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Bhopal Sales & After-Sales Support: Email: sales@schillerindia.com Contact No.: 1800 2098998 (Toll free) Target Verticals/Audience: Doctors and Bio-medical Engineers

Schiller Healthcare India Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of Schiller AG of Switzerland, a world leader in medical diagnostic solutions, with presence in over 100 countries across the world. The company was setup in 1997 with an idea to make quality products available to the Indian medical market.

In addition to marketing and supporting products from Schiller AG, Schiller India has a manufacturing facility at Puducherry where a range of equipment are manufactured that are complementary to Schiller AG’s products, both in functionality and pricing. The company has a strong R & D team based out of Bengaluru which incorporates new and advanced technology and regularly develops new products, under guidance from the Swiss team. Schiller India has strategic tie-ups with numerous worldwide manufacturers for sales of their equipment.

The company today stands strong with 300 employees spread over 35 locations across all major towns and cities in India and Nepal, strengthened by a network of over 75 sales and service dealers.

Products & Services Schiller India’s product range cover Critical Care, Cardiology, Radiology, Telemedicine, Cardiopulmonary, Anaesthesia and Surgery.

Business Highlights & Achievements • AIIMS • Fortis Healthcare • Max Healthcare • PGI, Chandigarh • Seven Hills Mumbai • Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi • Sakra World Hospital, Bengaluru • KGMU, Lucknow • NIMHANS, Bengaluru • KMCH, Coimbatore • MEDANTA, Gurgaon

USP Providing Swiss technology and quality at affordable prices has been our unique selling proposition.

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Company Profile

MTech India Pvt Ltd Dr Vir K Chopra

About

Company Details

Mtech India Pvt Ltd is a product-oriented software development company specialising in back office applications and customized developments.

It has been in operation for more than a decade providing innovative solutions to the clients. Mtech has clearly defined objectives that set it apart from others. Commitment to support services with the aim of 100% customer satisfaction, embracing new technologies and the use of internet and E-Commerce in modern day business are a few of them.

Chairman & Managing Director

Year of Inception: 1997 Management Team: 1. CM Nehru - Director 2. Aditya Chopra - Director 3. Mritunjay Mukherjee - General Manager Number of Employees: 30 Head Office: Global Foyer, 6th Floor, unit 1, DLF Golf Course Road, Sector 43, Gurugram 122 009 (Haryana) India Website: www.mtechsoft.com Tel. No.: +91-124-4738400-404 Fax No.: +91-124-4738405 E-mail: prodigious@mtechsoft.com Sales & After-Sales Support: Contact Person for Clarification: Sandeep Kumar Arora Email: sandeep@mtechsoft.com Contact No.: +91-9971714154 Target Verticals: Healthcare Sector, Hospitality Sector, Manufacturing Sector

USP    

Comprehensive Back-Office Solution Built for healthcare/hospital environment Seamless Integration With HIS Provides upper edge in terms of :  Scalability  High Performance  Flexible (Parameter Driven)

Top Clients Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi Manipal Hospital, Bangalore Manipal Malathi Hospital Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali Pushpanjali Hospital Huachiew General Hospital, Bangkok Ramsay Healthcare Indonesia and many more.  Implementation is underway in GNRC, multi chain of hospitals in Guwahati and Kolkata       

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MTech has endeavored to create and sustain an internationally focused consulting competence center built on best contemporary IT practices to service industry demands worldwide.

Promoters of the company bring the world of experience to the enterprise from their successful careers in hotels, hospitals, trading, finance, manufacturing, and distribution. Commitment and single-minded drive to succeed are proven characteristic of each member of the board of directors and all these elements are rooted in a truly sound financial base.

Products & Services Product MTech owns an extensive ERP product named Prodigious; a Back Office Suite of applications that can work both as an integrated ERP System or any of its modules as an independent application.

Major Prodigious Modules: • Financial Management System (FMS) along with AR and AP • Purchase and Inventory Management System (PIMS) • Over the Counter Pharmacy Management System (OTC) • Fixed Asset Management System (FAM) • Human Resource and Payroll Management System (HRMS) • Doctors’ Fee Management System Services Consulting Services • Recruitment and consultancy for on and off site development.

• Technical consultancy in the field of software development IT Strategies • At MTech we help user organisations in chalking out their IT strategies looking at their needs for today and tomorrow. We have a competent team of consultants who understand the clients business needs and devise a strategy accordingly.

IT Project Co-ordination • Technical support for software project implementation • Implementation services on Hospitality and Healthcare systems.

Software Testing and Q A • MTech has considerable experience in Software Testing and QA of Back Office applications and is also expanding its services in other areas.

Healthcare Technology

Neurosynaptic: Enabling Healthcare Anytime, Anywhere Bangalore-based Neurosynaptic Communications Private Ltd is building world-class solutions for offering “access to quality healthcare” to people in both in rural and urban areas. Sameer Sawarkar, CEO, Neurosynaptic Communications, shares the company’s journey, its experiences, and the future roadmap, in an interview with T. Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: How the journey of Neurosynaptic Communications started?

Naurosynaptic Communications was founded in 2002. Both the founders, Rajeev and I are alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore; and have worked in reputed multinationals like Motorola and ZiLOG. Initially, our inclination was towards neurotechnology and that is how the company’s name originated. We worked extensively with the National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore, on some interesting projects during the tenure of Prof Vijayraghavan, (then Director).

This was until we got exposure to the rural healthcare need, We attended a presentation by Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Chennai. It was during that time, that we gathered experts from across the world to discuss the gaps in healthcare and plausible solutions. This was one of it’s kind gathering at IIT Chennai that helped us conceive what we are today.

We realised that there was a huge disconnect in term of access and quality of healthcare that was needed against what was available. All statistics clearly show the skew, may that be the doctor to patient ratio, or hospital bed to population ratio, or the distance to access quality care. We figured out that huge impact was possible in the rural healthcare through this kind of approach. It was an opportunity to create mass impact. It is also a huge

business opportunity!

We worked on connected devices and tried to provide technology solutions that could bring together products, partners and processes in the healthcare delivery system through our flagship ReMeDi®platform

When did you commence the field testing or going to market with your products or solutions?

We started going into the field with the first version of our technology ReMeDi® in 2005 after its initial testing. While we ReMeDi® Solution It is an indigenously developed and patented technology telemedicine solution that can work with limited infrastructure and skill-set environment.

Features: • Customised solution for developing world: The system is designed keeping in view low resource setting and the constraints associated with the developing countries. Real-time measurement of vital parameters; indigenously developed; patented design; draws just 2 watts of power from USB port are some of its highlights.

• Clinically validated for safety and quality: ReMeDi® has been validated by some of the most prestigious medical institutes of India; it is compliant with IEC 60601; manufactured in an ISO 13485 compliant unit; it also has mechanism to capture feedback for audit and quality • Connecting entire healthcare ecosystem: Integrates end to end healthcare ecosystem; remote clinics, central medical facility, diagnostic centres, hospitals and pharmacy can be completely networked on enterprise version; supports multiple simultaneous consultations; data storage on server and cloud.

• User-friendly System ReMeDi® software: Easy to operate by para medics or even a non medico; can operate on internet, intranet, WI-Fi, data card; comprehensive user friendly EMR; right and privileges based upon user role to ensure data security.

• System highlights: Highly modular and customisable; biometric identification; integration with existing HIMS; store and forward option.

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Healthcare Technology

ReMeDi® Nova There is a need to empower health providers, para-medics, nurses with diagnostic tools that can provide reach from door to door, operate on mobile platforms, get the patient data and connect to the doctors at the back-end to enable meaningful diagnosis resulting in many-fold impact. Neurosynaptic achieves this with the ReMeDi® Nova platform that integrates with the central medical facility at backend thereby enhancing the overall access, effectiveness and outcome. In addition a lot of data collection activities can be very effectively carried out and data analysed through this platform, as it seamlessly integrates with the Cloud based ReMeDi® platform ReMeDi® Nova is a fully wireless and mobile based solution that provides healthcare at the doorstep.

Features: • Advanced Android based portable solution • Multiple diagnostic parameters like ECG, BP, Heart Rate, Auscultation, Oxygen Saturation, Temperature and Lung Function Test • Bluetooth / Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity to the Tablet / Mobile Phone / PC • Connects over simple GPRS, 3G or Wi-Fi for data transmission • Both online and offline access • Works on Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery – extremely Power Efficient • Wide range of point of care (PoC) diagnostic tests like Fetal Doppler, Blood and Urine tests • Available in various packages for Mother-and–Child Care, Non-Communicable Diseases Management, and Mobile Health Clinic packages

• Extremely Lightweight – can be carried for door-to-door screening as well as house visits

worked with global experts and creates a powerful solution, yet it was evident when we hit the ground that the whole healthcare delivery ecosystem was missing in the rural areas and so the access to technology alone could not fulfill the needs of the rural people. It was an interesting experience.

For instance, in the first week, we saw presence of 100 patients at a kiosk we set up in a village, but the next week no patient turned up there. We realised, patients did not come as there was no medical store around the village. People participated in our initiative with lot of excitement, but after getting medical prescription there was no way to buy medicines. They had to travel to other places to procure medicines. That is an example of what I mean by the missing ecosystem in rural areas. There are several such disconnects.

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There was a need for several coordinated activities and resources to ensure a seamless healthcare delivery system in rural areas. Just by fixing one component of it would not address the issues related to rural healthcare. That was very revealing experience for us.

What was your next action plan? Did you study the market intelligence?

From 2005 to 2007, we explored various aspects of the healthcare delivery system. We were contemplating working with various partner organisations to understand the demographics on one hand and the needs of healthcare delivery system on the other.

There was a popular perception in terms of ICT solutions must be first put to work in Southern India due to better infrastructure there. One could focus

on building business models that could be scaled elsewhere. But we realised that the perception was incorrect so far as healthcare is concerned. Healthcare is heavily driven by the need, and the needs of people are not common everywhere. What works for one geography might not work for other.

We deployed several ReMeDi® kiosks in Tripura, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharasthra with various partners and tried to understand as to how people’s needs vary along with their paying capabilities.

We gathered market intelligence at all these kiosks. Our findings included most acceptable practices in rural healthcare; level of competition; types of models that work on ground and what does not work; whether people are willing to pay for medicines or diagnostics; and various financial models – operator based, franchise employee based or partnership, etc.

None of this data was available before. For three years, we worked with various organisations and figured the market scenario. We are among few institutions that have developed insights into rural healthcare. This has helped us in taking strategic decisions moving forward.

What are the strategic decisions you have taken? How these decisions impacted your business vision?

From the year 2008 onwards, we launched our technology products and solutions -- ReMeDi® Diagnostic Devices, Platform, ReMeDi® Solution – into the market. Being a technology solution provider, we have taken some strategic decisions to strengthen our business vision. We decided to work with implementation partners, organisations that have strong presence and expertes e in the field operations, rather than setting up our own centres in rural India.

We came across many organisations, including NGOs, who have capabilities

Healthcare Technology

to roll out large scale projects in rural India. We partnered with them to reach to masses.

We also underwent product validation and verification. The technology has been clinically validated at reputed medical institutions. .These include the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, St. Johns Hospital, Bangalore, and many others. Safety and performance testing was carried out as per IEC 60601 standards. We also got the quality management system certified as per ISO13485 and ISO9001. We have set up 2,200 kiosks at multiple locations in rural India working with various partners for facilitating remote diagnosis of the patient by capturing various basic physiological parameters, thereby providing an extremely affordable method for remote healthcare delivery.

Neurosynaptic offers proven e-health and m-health technology solutions that bring together products, partners and processes in the healthcare delivery ecosystem.

In 2008, we got Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum for our contribution to rural healthcare. We have received several prestigious awards including Global Indus Technovators Award from MIT, Sankalp Award, Fastest Growing Social Enterprise in Healthcare in 2013 from Action for India Forum, Social

Innovations Honours – Jury’s Special Choice Award, 2014 by NASSCOM, and the Millennium Alliance Award in 2016. .

These awards have helped us to attract global attention on Neurosynaptic Communications.

What is your view on the Government of India’s programmes such as Digital India?

Digital India, Make in India and other programmes initiated by the government are very good for the country. Such initiatives will boost innovation in products and services for developing countries. We are actively participating in these initiatives. The ReMeDi® range of sensor technologies that we have developed are actually Indigenous. I hope India will lead the way for the developing world, and provide new solutions to the developed world in the near future.

E arlier, we have received support from the Government of India’s Technology Development Board and the Department of Biotechnology, and successfully completed the projects.

You have raised Series A round of funding from Healthquad, IAN and Axilor. How do you plan to utilise the funds?

Neurosynaptic Communications has raised the Series A round of funding from healthcare focused venture fund Healthquad – the world’s largest

ReMeDi® Platform It is a comprehensive e-health solution for screening, primary diagnosis and triaging that connects the entire healthcare ecosystem.

Features: • Indigenously developed • Clinically Validated for Safety & quality • Manufactured in ISO 13485 Compliant Unit • Support Multiple simultaneous consultations • Store and Forward options • User-friendly System • Easy to operate by a Para Medics or even a non-medico • Can operate on the internet, intranet, WI-Fi, Data Card • Comprehensive user-friendly EMR

group of angel investors – Indian Angel Network and Infosys co-founders backed Axilor Ventures. Healthquad and IAN have joined the board of the company. The company had earlier received strategic investment from e-Zest Solutions Ltd, a global digital experience engineering company.

The company plans to utilise the investment for international certifications, launching its products and scaling its business internationally in Africa and South/South East Asia, besides further penetration across India. We are also in the process of launching the upgraded version of the flagship ReMeDi® platform which would offer SaaS based (payper-use) telemedicine and m-health solution along with a wider range of diagnostics. This platform provides amazing features, range of point-ofcare diagnostics and controllability for the workflows and activities.

The company is focused on building a telemedicine solution model and a SaaS model for hospitals, clinics, governments, NGOs. Together with its partners, Neurosynaptic’s ReMeDi® solution today brings access to healthcare in 30 districts with over 2,200 village centres and over 8,000 village health operators reaching to 50 million people in India.

How is your organisation placed now? Going forward what are you immediate priorities or plans?

Neurosynaptic Communications with a 40-member team has become a selfsustained organisation in the last 4-5 years. We focus on rural India and developing markets including Africa. We have very active partner programme for overseas markets.

Today, we have 2,200 rural centres across the country. We have set a target to reach 20,000 health centres within three years by 2020.

Several diagnostic innovations are in the pipeline as well. We are looking for an exciting time ahead.

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Special Feature

Vaccine Sector Narrating One of India’s Biggest Success Stories With numerous comparative advantages in terms of R&D facilities, knowledge, skills, and cost effectiveness, the Indian vaccine industry has all the right ingredients to become a global leader in affordable healthcare, writes Vivek Ratnakar of Elets News Network (ENN).

T

he emergence of vaccine industry is among India’s biggest success stories. Today, almost every third vaccine used in the world is produced in India. The industry is poised to grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent a year. However, despite registering high growth, the industry is yet to achieve its full potential.

Manufacturing of vaccines in India started as part of the national immunisation programme involving a network of state-owned manufacturers. As per the Indian Journal of Medical Research, initially the focus of the Indian vaccine manufacturers was preventing diseases like cholera, plague, smallpox and rabies.

According to official records, there were 19 vaccine manufacturing units in public sector and 12 in private sector in 1971. However, the evolution of the sector has been steady. The success of Indian vaccines in the global market today stems from the industry’s ability to produce low-cost vaccines which are available at the fraction of the prices offered by global majors like Merck, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Novartis.

The world saw advancements in vaccine science picking pace in the late 19th Century and India was amongst a few countries to have embarked on a path to develop competency in this space.

Beginning from cholera and typhoid vaccine trials and research and discovery of plague vaccine, India set up vaccine institutes to achieve self sufficiency in vaccine manufacturing whole of 20th Century.

Though the manufacturing gradually moved from public to private players, the country not only was able to become self-reliant through indigenous production, it slowly emerged as a bankable supplier to the world, setting an example closer at home by eradicating smallpox and making the country poliomyelitis free since January 2011.

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Special Feature

“Indian vaccine manufacturers have been quick to adopt innovations and it is heartening to see today that majority of them are exporting to UN agencies. Today, India has a globally accepted regulatory authority, skilled manpower and the much required government support. Increasing prevalence of diseases in adults and increasing cost of health care will promote vaccination in adults and likely to drive growth of future market,” says Dr Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director, Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest producer of vaccines in terms of doses.

To push the growth of the sector, the government has made vaccine manufacturing and procedures for clinical trials more systematic. In 2006, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research in India, released a new set of guidelines to conduct research on human subjects.

The capacity of Indian vaccine manufactures was put to test when the H1N1 pandemic alert was sounded in 2009. Three manufacturers developed pandemic flu vaccine in a very short period of time, showcasing the world what the Indian vaccine industry is capable of.

“Even in novel vaccines, the (Indian) industry is catching up with companies focusing on zika, rotavirus, HPV, leishmaniasis and leveraging technology platforms such as VLP and virosomal. Higher level of fiscal incentives for R&D and innovation funding will be important for maintaining and strengthening this momentum,” says Pushpa Vijayaraghavan, Director, Sathguru Management Consultants, a leading company offering life science advisory services.

However, despite the governmental push to reduce deaths among children who are below five years of age, India continues to see a very high number

of vaccine preventable deaths (VPDs) in the country. India’s infant mortality rate is 39, which means that an estimated 9.9 lakh babies die within one year of birth, mostly from preventable causes, according to the Union Health Ministry.

“Vaccination coverage hasn’t received the attention it should in the past. India lags behind several other developing countries on vaccination coverage. Full vaccination coverage rates in China, Brazil, Vietnam and Turkey are 99 per cent, 90 per cent, 93 per cent and 93 per cent, respectively. However, in the recent past, there has been great emphasis on expanding vaccination coverage

India’s infant mortality rate is 39, which means that an estimated 9.9 lakh babies die within one year of birth, mostly from preventable causes, according to the Union Health Ministry.

and the Government is giving this public health parameter high level of attention,” says Vijayaraghavan.

The Government of India’s initiative -- Mission Indradhanush -targets expanding the full vaccination coverage from 65 per cent to 90 per cent by 2020. There has also been emphasis on expanding the portfolio of vaccines included in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).

While rotavirus, pentavalent and MR have already been included, Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV), Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) and human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) inclusions in the UIP have been announced by the government.

This could present a huge opportunity for Indian vaccine manufacturers.

“The current government has taken good initiatives for introduction of rotavirus, measles rubella and pneumococcal vaccines in EPI schedules. These vaccines are relatively costly but will boost the domestic market significantly,” opines Dr Jadhav of Serum Institute of India.

Serum Institute is all set to launch rotavaccine in 2017 to prevent diarrhoea among babies and small children. This will be followed by TDaP (adult tetanus, diphtheria and

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Special Feature

pertussis), dengue and HPV. However, government’s regulatory reforms will play a crucial role in making 100 per cent vaccine coverage in India a reality and further boost the efficiency of the sector. The industry is trying hard to set in motion a process very critical for sustained competitiveness in a segment of Indian industry that truly exemplifies the ‘Make in India’ mission.

For young companies venturing into the vaccines and biosimilars segments, there are huge opportunities particularly in bioservices and bioinformatics service oriented sectors. “These sectors will be important targets for start-ups and promotion of entrepreneurships,” says Dr Jadhav.

“There is a very vibrant ecosystem created today for ventures to get started and explore possible solutions. However, most of them are hitting the roadblock of scaleup funding given the dearth of risk capital or government funded innovation capital that can help them accelerate path to markets,” says Vijayaraghavan from Sathguru.

As per a recent report by US-based research firm A to Z Research, the global demand for vaccine was valued

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For young companies venturing into the vaccines and biosimilars segments, there are huge opportunities particularly in bioservices and bioinformatics service. at over $32.2 billion in 2014, which is expected to reach above $59.2 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of slightly above 11 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

The key drivers of this growth include introduction of new vaccines for various diseases, rising frequency of diverse infectious diseases like swine flu, influenza, Ebola, hepatitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, meningococcal diseases, and pneumococcal diseases worldwide and greater awareness among people for vaccination. However, high maintenance, strict laws of regulatory and huge expense for development of

new vaccines could pose challenge for the vaccine market. Government funding for R&D of new vaccines for diseases like HIV and cancer offers novel opportunity for vaccine market.

The Union Health Ministry recently announced to constitute an expert group to address regulatory concerns of the Indian vaccine industry. The expert group would work towards speedy resolution of issues in a time-bound manner without compromising critical aspects like quality, patient safety and patient management, according to Dr GN Singh, Drug Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.

India may take lessons in managing regulatory challenge from macro sanitary regulators like Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS) of Mexico, which played a crucial role in helping Sanofi Pasteur to introduce a dengue vaccine in the country in September this year. It was the first vaccine to be licensed in the world for the prevention of dengue, which, according to the WHO, is the fastest growing mosquito-borne disease in the world today, causing nearly 400 million infections every year.

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Breaking Barriers to Create Formidable Global Impact Riding on the back of innovations in R&D, quality and focus on creating public impact by breaking affordability barriers, the India vaccine industry is all set to reach new heights. In an exclusive interview with Elets News Network (ENN), Pushpa Vijayaraghavan, Vice President, Sathguru Management Consultants, speaks about the various opportunities and challenges faced by the Indian vaccine sector along with efforts afoot to accelerate its growth.

India is one of the major vaccine producers in the world. But its share in the global vaccine market continues to be abysmally low. What are the ways to improve this scenario?

Indian manufacturers enjoy a significant share of the global vaccine market. In a recent position paper Sathguru has developed for CII, we highlighted that 100% of GAVI’s [Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation’s] supply for the meningococcal conjugate vaccine and MR vaccine and more than 80% of GAVI’s supply of the measles vaccine and the pentavalent vaccine are from India. Through the GAVI network, Indian manufacturers’ pentavalent vaccine has reached about 78 countries. Besides this, several Indian vaccine companies sell in private markets across the world. The global impact of the Indian vaccine industry is formidable. The public health impact, if quantified, would be a great recognition of the Indian vaccine industry’s success.

The next step would be to replicate this success in the developed world.

Unlike the Indian pharma industry whose major source of revenue is the US and European markets, the vaccine industry’s source of success is the RoW [Rest of the World] markets. We are now at

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accomplishing this will be a matter of pride for the country. There has also been emphasis on expanding the portfolio of vaccines included in the UIP. While rotavirus, pentavalent and MR have already been included, IPV, PCV and HPV inclusions have been announced.

The area that needs attention is creating greater efficiency in the regulatory process and doing away with redundant and time consuming licensing process. The industry, regulators and policy makers are working together to address these issues. a pedestal where several Indian vaccine companies have articulated that their next goal is entering the developed markets and we look forward to these territories being breached by 2030.

Please tell us about various government initiatives to improve the policy landscape to strengthen vaccine manufacturing and reach across the country.

Vaccination coverage has received a high level of government attention in the recent past. The government’s initiative -- Mission Indradhanush -- targets expanding the full vaccination coverage from 65% to 90% by 2020. This is a lofty target and

Where do you think the vaccine industry stands on R&D? What are the key innovations happening in the sector?

The Indian vaccine industry has time and again used technology to break affordability barriers and produce effective vaccines for critical public health diseases. Indian companies have benefitted from several technology collaborations in the past with leading global institutions like NIH, IVI, etc. Over the last few decades, the industry has nurtured R&D capabilities and I am glad to see at least four Indian companies with a pipeline PCV vaccine -- one of the most complex vaccines to produce.

Corporate Interview

Even in novel vaccines, the industry is catching up with companies focusing on zika, rotavirus, HPV, leishmaniasis and leveraging technology platforms such as VLP and virosomal. Higher level of fiscal incentives for R&D and innovation funding will be important for maintaining and strengthening this momentum.

What are the key drivers of growth for Indian vaccine sector?

The Indian industry has established that it is a reliable supplier of vaccines required by the world at prices that can have a meaningful impact on expanding coverage. This manufacturing reliability combined with a focus on innovation and next generation products will drive growth for the industry. Growth in the next five years will be largely from expanding presence into IPV, PCV and HPV, while growth in the second half of the decade could be from entry into developed markets.

Within the Indian market itself, we perceive great potential in the private markets and also envision it to be a critical growth driver in this decade.

What are the opportunities for young entrepreneurs and start-ups in the industry? Is the vaccine industry ecosystem tuned to exploit their potential?

Given the R&D potential of Indian startups, new ventures can propel the industry forward if provided a ripe ecosystem for them to thrive. There is a very vibrant ecosystem created today for ventures to get started and explore possible solutions. However, most of them are hitting the roadblock of scale-up funding given the dearth of risk capital or government funded innovation capital that can help them accelerate path to markets.

In Europe, an average venture is able to draw about Euro 8 million of grant funding for clinical validation

“The area that needs attention is creating greater efficiency in the regulatory process and doing away with redundant and time consuming licensing process.� without losing time and through easy to access, time sensitive pathways of funding. If we are able to provide that ecosystem, we can definitely create unicorns from vaccine ventures in India.

How do you think Indian players are coping with challenges in vaccine development?

Vaccine product development is a long and arduous journey and globally companies are dealing with severe public health challenges in vaccine development. 2015 was a critical year marking the approval of the world’s first malaria and dengue vaccine after decades of research.

However, there is a long way to go before we reach levels of efficacy that are impressive and justify immunization costs across regions.

We are still waiting for a more effective TB vaccine. Indian industry institutions are today placed well as equally competent research groups. We only have to ensure that we have the right ecosystem to incentive investments in R&D and the Indian industry will do its part to be a notable global contributor in vaccine R&D.

How are Indian companies working towards quality compliance to gain foothold in the global market?

With a strong base of WHO prequalified manufacturing facilities, the Indian industry has a history of focus on quality. Hence, quality is not a matter of concern here. The systems can be further strengthened by leveraging the current wave of digitisation focus that has started in the Indian pharma industry.

Please apprise us about how Sathguru is catalysing change in the vaccine sector of the country.

Sathguru has been involved very holistically with the vaccine segment.

We have worked with policy makers to assess preparedness for adoption of emerging vaccines and have also been involved in shaping critical funding mechanisms. With the industry, we have steered important technology access possibilities for next generation products, scoped out a 2030 vision for the segment and are also involved in forging value accretive commercial collaborations to expand market presence of existing vaccines. Our 360 degree perspective and entrenchment in the segment has ensured that we are involved in critical strategic planning as well as functional facilitation.

What are the challenges impeding growth of the vaccine sector? Suggest ways to overcome them.

It will be important to address the regulatory and policy concerns in an accelerated manner.

The most critical element for ensuring sustainable success of industry will be to create an ecosystem where the innovation is encouraged, supported with the globally comparable fiscal and innovation funding mechanisms and supportive business environment. Lastly, as a country we should ensure we increase our health spending to optimal levels and lay the required thrust on strengthening health systems bottom up.

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Corporate Interview

All Set for Great Future

The rising level of public awareness on preventive healthcare, governmental push for maximum vaccination coverage, rise in public and private healthcare expenditures and a strong growth in the market for adult vaccines are expected to propel the Indian vaccine market to grow at a CAGR of over 15 per cent in coming years, says Dr Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director, Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, in an exclusive interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you see the Indian vaccine market evolving in recent times? Where does the country stand today?

The Indian vaccine industry began as a network of state-owned manufacturers supplying basic childhood vaccines to the national immunisation programme. In recent decades, the number of privately owned firms active in the sector has grown rapidly.

Their success in brining lowcost vaccine solutions to the market is an important driver behind the emergence of the sector. As the industry is becoming more sophisticated, the focus on innovation is increasing. Across the industry, a dozen or so new vaccines are in clinical development. Disease areas covered includes rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, typhoid, malaria, rabies, pneumonia, HPV and influenza. Many more projects are at early stages of development, including those related to dengue, chikungunya and cholera.

On supply side, presently the Indian vaccine industry has recognised itself as a global health supplier. Majority of manufacturers from India export their vaccines to UN agencies. Most of the manufacturers are WHO prequalified for such supplies.

So far the growth of domestic vaccine market is concerned, the recent governmental push on vaccination and setting up of health goals are the key drivers. The current government has taken good initiatives

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Corporate Interview

for introduction of rotavirus, measles rubella and pneumococcal vaccines in EPI schedules. These vaccines are relatively costly but will boost the domestic market significantly.

Public awareness on vaccination has increased considerably over the years. We also observe the urban population opting for vaccinations for flu, pneumococcal and HPV for their children.

The major factors driving growth of the Indian vaccine market include globally accepted and recognised national regulatory authority, skilled manpower, ease of access by patients, awareness on healthy lifestyle, growing population and new technological advancement in the field of immunology/vaccinology.

Other factors include high prevalence of diseases, rising government and non-government funding for vaccine development, increasing investments by companies, and increasing focus on immunisation programmes.

Many new vaccines have found their target among adolescents and adults. The pediatrics segment accounts for the largest share of the global vaccines market in 2016.

Increasing prevalence of diseases in adults and increasing costs of health care will promote vaccination in adults and likely to drive growth of future market.

Which policy initiatives you believe are important to boost the vaccine sector?

Despite its recent growth, the Indian vaccine industry still has a number of challenges to address. The market remains small (currently accounts for less than 2 per cent of the global market) and underpenetrated compared to the developed countries.

India also lags behind its global peers in terms of vaccine coverage with a significant number vaccine preventable deaths still occurring in the country.

Nevertheless, despite these challenges the situation appears bright for vaccine manufacturers, especially because of the push from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The country sees around 28 million births each year. This coupled with the sustained growth of the Indian economy, a consequent rise in public and private healthcare expenditures and a strong growth in the market for adult vaccines is expected to propel the Indian vaccine market to grow at a CAGR of over 15 per cent in the coming years.

The global vaccines market is expected to reach $48.03 billion by 2021 from $32.24 billion in 2016 at a CAGR of 8.3 per cent from 2016 to 2021.

The key policy initiatives are important in the following areas: • Vaccine regulations and approvals • Clear global policy on vaccine requirement and newer vaccines required for the country • Focus on skilled manpower, designing special courses and training centres for vaccinology • Promote and help development of contract manufacturing and analytical facilities in the country • Develop a robust supply pipeline for delivery of vaccines to remotest areas of the country • Funding for research and development of newer vaccines • Promote ease of doing business and export of vaccines to other world

What are the key innovations happening in the sector?

How modern technology is aiding them?

Vaccines have traditionally been used for the prevention of infectious diseases. To date, vaccines have been developed for approximately 20 viral and bacterial diseases. While most of these vaccines are for vaccinepreventable diseases in children, in recent years manufacturers

have introduced vaccines targeting age segments such as the elderly (Sanofi’s high dose influenza vaccine and Merck’s shingles vaccine), and adolescents (conjugated meningococcal vaccines).

In addition to infectious diseases, research and development targets for vaccines continue to expand to address unmet needs, with products in early stage development for targets such as HIV and Alzheimer’s disease, and auto-immune diseases.

Vaccine innovation is particularly active in oncology with promising leads for ovarian, breast, prostate and lung cancers. Merck and GSK have HPV vaccines on the market, and many manufacturers are now focusing on therapeutic vaccines.

There are currently over 130 oncology therapeutic vaccines in the pipeline.

Newer technologies and enhanced scientific knowledge are enabling companies to differentiate traditionally commoditised products.

Vaccine manufacturers are exploring a variety of technological advances to make better products, improve the manufacturing process and drive down costs.

Research is being conducted to make vaccines stable at room temperature, which would make products easier to transport and store, especially in developing countries. For example, the NIH is funding research on the development of a silk-based stabiliser to keep vaccines stable at temperatures up to 140°F (60°C).

New vaccine delivery mechanisms are also being explored. For example, nanoparticle delivery technology for infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria. Certain new production and manufacturing processes hope to address patient needs such as egg allergy (Novartis’s cell-based influenza vaccine) and needle phobia, as some of the needle-free delivery systems are already licensed in the US and also approved by WHO for mass vaccination.

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Corporate Interview

In addition, numerous opportunities exist in improving the performance of current vaccines considered to have sub-optimal efficacy or safety profiles.

Please tell our readers the key divers of growth for Indian vaccine sector?

• Large birth cohort • Relatively low cost of manufacturing • Skilled Manpower • Advancement in Science and Technology • Global Access to Technology • Large population • Prime-Ministers “Make in India” Initiative.

What are the opportunities and challenges for young entrepreneurs and start-ups in the vaccine industry (Vaccines & Biosimilars)?

The Indian biotech sector may be seen to comprise of five segments – biopharma, bioservices, bioagriculture, bioindustrial and bioinformatics. Of these, biopharma continues to be the largest with 60

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per cent of the total market share.

We have seen a significant growth in biopharma sector in the last decade. The biopharma sector is capital intensive and requires large amount of investment for product development. However, sectors like bioservices and bioinformatics are service oriented sectors. These sectors will be important targets for start-ups and promotion of entrepreneurships.

How Indian pharma companies like yours ensure that your products meet the highest global standards to compete in the world market?

The company ensures products of highest quality by following best in class technology and infrastructure, investing in best talent and skilled manpower and continued focus on the training of human resource in manufacturing and testing of vaccines. We are able to implement the latest technologies because our company philosophy from the very beginning is to develop indigenous processes and products, which gave us competitive edge by employing

modern, efficient manufacturing technologies. The companies have also invested heavily on continual improvement of these processes in accordance with current and global trends in good manufacturing practices, by having International collaboration, tech transfers, with reputed research institutes.

Which are the key global markets you see hold potential for the Indian vaccine sector to grow?

Consolidation is one big trend right now. It’s being seen across the developed pharma and biopharma industries because of cost pressures and the need to be more efficient. In the vaccines area, we’ve seen major deals such as GlaxoSmithKline’s acquisition of Novartis’ global vaccines business, which took place earlier this year. Due to this consolidation, in Europe and US markets (so called developed world markets) vaccine supplies are dominated by 2-3 vaccine manufactures. Therefore, these countries are always at risk, if supplies by these lead vaccine manufacturers gets affected. Large vaccine manufacturers based in Europe and North America are also seeing increased competition from developing markets. More and more companies in Asia and Latin America are setting up their own domestic vaccine production as well acquiring newer companies.

Similarly, there is a huge market in those developing countries which do not have vaccine manufacturing capabilities and are serviced by either UNICEF or PAHO. In addition, there is a big cohort of middle income and low-middle income countries with no manufacturing capacity and they probably present new market opportunities for Indian vaccine players. We strongly believe that these markets hold potential for emerging Indian vaccine manufacturers.

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Special Story

As per a PWC report, India’s wellness market is estimated at Rs 490 billion, and wellness services alone comprise 40 per cent of this market.

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Special Story

Wellness: A Confluence of Tradition and Technology The Indian Wellness sector has emerged as a meeting point where technology and traditions converge to offer holistic health solutions. With the internet driving digitisation in the wellness space, Vivek Ratnakar of Elets News Network (ENN) examines the impact of the sector and its future growth path.

R

itu Patel (name changed for anonymity), a resident of Toronto, Canada, with her roots in India was suffering from a range of complex health problems from pain in joints to overnight swelling of face and rashes all over her body, making it excruciatingly difficult for her to carrry on with her job as a banker and day-to-day activities at home.

Failing to find a solution, she decided to visit her General Practitioner, only to get the shock of her life -- the doctor couldn’t find what was wrong with her.

The prescription Patel got from the doctor provided her some temporary relief. But the rashes and joint pains returned after a while.

As her condition worsened, she went to a super specialty hospital. This time, to her ‘relief’, she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an auto immune disease in which the immune system attacks the body because it confuses it for something foreign. In Patel’s case, it took over three months for the doctors in one of the world’s most adavanced healthcare set up to diagnose the chronic disease.

As Patel struggled to cope up with the phases of worsening SLE symptoms followed by mild symptoms,

an advice from her mother-in-law based in Delhi changed her life forever.

The NRI now visits India twice every year to receive ayurvedic therapy at a popular centre in North India and after two years of that she is leading a normal life.

Though, initially she was reluctant to go through the therapy that requires her to follow a strict food regime, she is more than glad she went through it.

Moreover, she understands now that the medicines she was prescribed to accompanied side-effects that may have caused damage to her vital organs in the long-run.

Patel’s story bears a testimony to the strength of Indian Wellness sector, which is not only deeply rooted in traditions but has also taken technological advancement to its stride.

“The definition of the Wellness

Industry has expanded considerably, covering many segments which focus on individual well-being as well. The desire for social acceptance has also played an important role for this segment to evolve further,” says Subham Bardhan, Chief Executive Officer, Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre, one of India’s largest diabetes clinic chains with 20 centres across nine cities offering products and diabetes care.

The Wellness Opportunity “The overall wellness market in India has grown with a compounded average growth rate of 16-18 per cent over the last four years. Today, people are ready to invest in themselves and that is what making the wellness industry to grow substantially. Allied healthcare like treatment for diabetes and alternate healthcare like hair

Understanding Wellness through Statistics • The AYUSH sector has an annual turnover of around Rs 120 billion • The AYUSH product market is worth about Rs 40 billion • India has over 8,000 medicinal plants found in the Himalayan region, around its coastline, deserts and rainforest eco-system • Diabetes emerging as a pandemic affecting 70 million people in the country • Wellness services is estimated to require close to 500,000 additional skilled personnel over the next five years • Over 300,000 formulations from the texts of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems have been digitalised under AYUSH Ministry’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library initiative

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Special Story

transplantation are also contributing substantially,” Bardhan adds.

As per a PWC report, India’s wellness market is estimated at Rs 490 billion, and wellness services alone comprise 40 per cent of this market.

The products market is worth about Rs 40 billion with over-the-counter products such as digestives, health food and pain balms, constituting almost 75 per cent of the segment.

India has 9,000 units engaged in the manufacture of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) drugs.

The biggest markets for Indian herbal products are Western Europe, Russia, the US, Kazakhstan, the UAE, Nepal, Ukraine, Japan, the Philippines and Kenya, among others, according to Barhdan. “More than 32 million people are practicing yoga in the US alone.

The demand for yoga across the world is growing exponentially,” he says.

The fitness and slimming market in India has witnessed a remarkable transformation over the years. “The spa, alternative therapy and salon market has grown at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent. In the past few years, the nutraceuticals market had increased by 18 per cent,” says Bardhan.

Wellness in Expansion Mode So, what are the key drivers pushing this expansion of Indian Wellness industry. The answer comes from Rajesh Mundra, Founder and CEO, Truworth Wellness. “Growing health consciousness among individuals to lead long and healthier life is emerging as one of the key drivers in the wellness space. Individuals these days are pro-prevention of diseases, or injuries rather than curing them or treating their symptoms. One of the primary reasons that Indians have increased their spending capacity on Wellness products and services is due to their hectic lifestyles in Tier-I cities. People demand wellness products and solutions at their

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doorstep,” says Mundra.

A lot of VC’s are PE firms are eying this sector very actively. Due to the burgeoning demand in this space, a lot of international brands have also shown interest to enter India and these include salons, gyms, fitness companies, wearable device manufacturers, etc, Mundra adds.

“Availability of startup and sustenance funding from banks and PE players makes it possible to expand all around. The industry has started tapping multiple product and services options to increase the depth of per customer sales value,” says the CEO of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre.

Internet Spreading Awareness about Well-being The internet with all its advantages of being the repository of knowledge that can be shared across geographical and political boundaries has augured well for the wellness sector. In fact, the web has been playing a crucial role in raising awareness among people about the importance of being healthy. Companies like Truworth have been swift in making the most of the opportunities made available due to deeper penetration of the internet and the rise of mobile platforms, making the Wellness services more

personalised.

According to Mudra, with the advancement in the internet technology, the wellness space is seeing a rapid growth. The digitalisation of various services has led to a more systematic and comprehensive approach to service offerings. One of the major changes that the service providers try to aim is to promote healthy lifestyle modifications.

“Truworth’s wellness tech platform integrates emerging behavioural models with adaptive and predictive technologies to create fulfilling and effective consumer experiences. The Health Store enables the user to find the best of the neutraceuticals and connects with the health food companies that provide healthy meals as per the dietary guidance provided by the coaches,” Mudra says.

Technology Driving Change in Wellness Sector Technology has been playing a crucial role, driving change in the Wellness sector across the globe and India. When it comes to adapting a healthy lifestyle, Indian consumers have adopted fitness devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, etc, with open arms.

“These wearable devices enable them to accurately measure their daily levels of activity. With the help of

Special Story

calorie counting applications, they can now correlate their daily food intake with activity levels to get a better insight about their daily lifestyles. The consumers are now tech-savvy and are more inclined towards a holistic solution provider,” says Mudra.

Key Challenges The huge opportunities in the Wellness sector come with its own set of challenges. “Paucity of skilled and trained personnel is one of the biggest challenges in the industry today.

Wellness services, it is estimated, will require anywhere close to 500,000 additional skilled personnel over the next five years,” says Bardhan.

Effective monitoring of the industry is another challenge. “On the hindsight it seems as though the initial attempts at quality accreditation have not been

impactful. The government on its part has to ensure that there are systemic checks for monitoring and that certified and licensed personnel are employed in critical service areas,” he adds.

The challenges faced by users include poor quality of the offerings, primarily due to substandard facilities and poor infrastructure, especially in the unorganised sector. The staff is usually unresponsive and there is a growing concern about sub-standard, ineffective and harmful products by service providers with a view to regulate costs, according to him.

“The key challenges faced by the industry are in the human resources space. Especially, there is a shortage of quality doctors, nutritionists, counselors, etc. The lack of insurance penetration and poor focus on the

preventive care by the population managers are some of the other key challenges,” says Mudra.

Government Push to Promote Wellness The Government of India, through the Ministry of AYUSH, has initiated a number of steps to promote R&D activity in the sector. Recently, the government has set up the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) for undertaking coordinating, developing and promoting research on scientific lines in ayurveda.

A scheme has also been envisaged for the development of AYUSH clusters, for creating a common facility centre for standardisation, quality assurance and control, productivity, marketing, infrastructure and capacity-building through a cluster-based approach.

A centrally-sponsored scheme has been set up for specialised AYUSH facilities in government tertiary care as well as AYUSH hospitals in PPP mode.

Also, as part of the steps taken for mainstreaming traditional healthcare system the government has issued guidelines to insurance companies to provide health coverage to patients receiving treatment in ayurvedic hospitals. The guidelines cover at least 20 chronic diseases. Similar guidelines will be issued to help patients receiving various therapies in Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy hospitals to get insurance cover from insurance companies.

The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik recently told the Lok Sabha that his ministry has created Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) in collaboration with Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for digitalisation of traditional medicinal knowledge. So far, over 300,000 formulations from the texts of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems have been digitalised under TKDL.

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Industry Speaks

Truworth Wellness: Capitalising on Health Awareness Healthcare technologies can play a big role in driving the growth of wellness industry by enabling the consumer to connect with multiple players in the wellness ecosystem through discovery and fulfilment, says Rajesh Mundra, Founder and CEO, Truworth Wellness, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts:

How do you see Wellness Industry evolving in India in the past couple of decades?

The wellness industry in India has come a long way from its nascent unstructured beginning to a comprehensive ecosystem today.

The overall wellness market in India is estimated at Rs 490 billion and wellness services alone comprise 40 per cent of this market.

To capitalise on the growing market demands, the players in the wellness space are continuously modifying their services. More emphasis is now laid on holistic management of health.

With the advancement in technology, the wellness space is seeing a rapid growth. The digitalisation has led to a more systematic and comprehensive approach to service offerings.

Moreover, with a huge content library for nutritional coaching and disease-related information available online, consumers are now making informed decisions on adopting healthy practices.

We, at Truworth Wellness, have always strived to meet the demands of the growing market. In 2010, we started as a tele-health solution provider that would screen major chronic diseases. Today, Truworth is a health technology company with a well-established online platform, The Wellness Corner, that provides complete end-to-end

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wellness engagement and also acts as a smart health assistant. The Wellness technology adoption has been more in the corporate sector and Truworth Wellness today is India’s largest corporate wellness company providing cutting-edge technology platform that educates, engages and empowers employees to adopt wellness in their daily life.

What are the key drivers of growth in the Indian Wellness Industry?

Many factors have contributed to the increased public awareness of health and wellness in India.

The growing health consciousness a m o n g individuals to sustain long and healthier life along with their increased s p e n d i n g capacity is emerging as one of the key drivers in the wellness space.

The rising number of lifestyle-related diseases and health conditions like higher rates of heart disease, increase in the incidence of cancer

Industry Speaks

and record number of clinically obese people have drawn attention to the need to adopt healthy lifestyle choices. The young population, which is increasingly leading a sedentary lifestyle, has led the industry to offer them holistic wellness solutions.

Also, deal activity within the sector is witnessing a boom as lots of Venture Capital (VC) and PE firms are eying this sector very actively. A lot of international brands, too, have shown interest in entering India and these include salons, gyms, fitness companies, wearable device manufacturers, etc The health tech can be a big driver for the growth of wellness industry as it enables the consumer to connect with multiple players in the wellness eco system through Discovery and Fulfillment. Truworth Wellness smart wellness platform The Wellness Corner enables the user to discover and choose the wellness solutions and at the same time connects the user to the wellness coaches, products and provides sustainable engagement through rewards, recognition and socialisation.

Please give us a brief overview of the emerging trends in the Wellness sector?

One of the rising trends in the healthcare space is digitalisation of services. Advanced technologies like the minimally-invasive surgeries, better monitoring systems, and more comfortable scanning equipment are helping this cause.

When it comes to adapting a healthy behaviour, consumers are lot more keen on using fitness devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, etc. These wearable devices enable them to accurately measure their daily levels of activity. With the help of calorie counting applications, they can now correlate their daily food intake with activity levels to

get a better insight about their daily lifestyles. The consumers are now tech-savvy and are more inclined towards a holistic solution provider.

Therefore, it is very essential for service providers to develop a one-stop solution for the ever so demanding consumers.

“When it comes to adapting a healthy behaviour, consumers are lot more keen on using fitness devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, etc.

These wearable devices enable them to accurately measure their daily levels of activity.�

Besides, we believe franchising is also emerging as a popular option for scaling up and many companies are seen seeking public and private equity investments to fuel their growth. There is also a huge market opportunity for personalisation of services and as consumers are becoming more conscious of their appearance and overall health, it looks like this trend will only increase with time.

Nutraceuticals, health food, mhealth, wearables and socialisation are the key emerging trends that are seen in the wellness sector. Truworth Wellness, in line with the emerging trends, has multiple mhealth and wearable solutions providing connectivity to the popular wearable and mobile enabled health devices.

What are the key opportunities offered by the sector and why

Indian businesses, especially start-ups, are betting high on the industry’s growth potential?

The lifestyle challenges have also opened doors to numerous opportunities for the wellness sector. As people have become aware of the importance of being healthy, they have started opting for practical solutions like yoga, zumba, availing services of nutritionists and doctors. Technology helps them measure their health (as in the case of fitness bands). This automatically leads to increase in demand of professionals in the health and wellness space. To meet this demand, start ups are helping people to make the right choices and offering end-to-end solutions to the consumers. The wellness market is growing at 20 per cent year on year basis and many start-ups are seen addressing the need gaps in the market.

The wellness market in India is very large. With the growing incidence of lifestyle disease burden and being an unorganised and uninsured sector, it offers a huge opportunity to the start-ups to create high growth businesses.

What are the key challenges being faced by the industry?

The wellness industry needs to overcome the traditional perceptions towards individual wellness.

Although young people are open to using technology for improving their overall health, the majority of middle-aged and senior consumers are hesitant to incorporate changes into their lifestyle. As they are not much technology-driven, breaking this barrier has been difficult.

The Wellness market lacks effective monitoring, skilled manpower and quality accreditations. Poor infrastructure and usage of sub-standard products has also been a key challenge in the

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unorganised sector. The government too has been unsuccessful in regulating various players and bodies that are a part of the ecosystem.

The recent entrants in this space have been struggling to achieve consistent growth while keeping their costs low. Consumer awareness regarding accreditation continues to remain low, leaving players with little incentive to invest in this process.

The lack of insurance penetration and poor focus on the preventive care by the population managers are some of the other key challenges.

What are the key government initiatives to ensure the sector’s growth?

The government has launched ‘Make in India Campaign’ and the AYUSH Ministry is spreading awareness and promoting wellness across India and the world.

The AYUSH Ministry was established by the government to structure education and promote research in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.

According to a Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) report, an accreditation programme was launched by the government for wellness centres in 2008-2009 under the authority of National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare (NBAH) and the Quality Council of India (QCI).

The NABH had put in place a set of guidelines for the accreditation of wellness centres. Accredited centres are now recognised by a ‘mark of excellence’, publicised by the Ministry of Tourism at various forums and are provided financial support as well.

The government has also introduced a number of regulations and acts to ensure quality like Drugs and Cosmetics Acts and Rules

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“The lifestyle challenges have also opened doors to numerous opportunities for the wellness sector.

As people have became aware of the importance of being healthy, they have started opting for practical solutions like yoga, zumba, availing services of nutritionists and doctors.” for cosmetics and herbal beauty products and the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) for nutritional products.

The government has also initiated a large preventive health screening programme for diabetes and hypertension and this should help the wellness companies to work with the population health managers to build a wellness roadmap for the people.

Indian Wellness Industry’s share in the global market is minuscule when compared to other countries. How can we push it further?

Government and private players have to walk hand-in-hand to push the industry achieve global scale.

India is said to be unique in terms of Ayurveda, hence the traditional medicines should be seriously promoted in the global market.

Altering our infrastructure in India can also pave way for increase in medical tourism. Initiatives such as ‘AYUSH’ can boost tourist

inflow from other countries and increase adoption of Indian wellness practices.

Many countries in Europe have set new norms for the wellness space. For example, Europe has a new mandate for nutritional labelling. India, too, should move towards this process which involves setting up new health claims, norms, etc. The government should also develop a quality assurance programme to monitor the quality of the services being offered.

Companies too need to invest heavily on branding, marketing and distribution in order to gain more acceptances in international markets.

How can Wellness organisations engage technology to accelerate their growth?

Technology plays an important role in the lives of young people who are constantly looking for end-to-end solutions.

It has been observed that working individuals are more prone to health related issues due to stress, working late hours, improper diet and many such factors. These individuals do not have time to regularly visit doctors to discuss their health problems. Therefore, companies need to engage with such employees and encourage them to participate in health solutions at the work place using technology that includes biometric screening and analytics.

Truworth Wellness has come up with a cutting-edge technologydriven solution called Wellness Corner to address this problem. The platform is currently available for corporate customers only but very soon will be introduced in the B2C market as well.

The Wellness Corner analyses health data and helps individuals develop exactly the lifestyle that would keep them healthy.

Corporate Interview

Felix Healthcare: Offering Unmatched Healthcare in Noida Felix Hospital, a premier hospital in Delhi NCR, is known for its quality services with human touch. Dr D K Gupta, Chairman, Felix Hospital, speaks to Elets News Network (ENN) about how the hospital’s humanitarian approach sets it apart from other healthcare providers.

What distinctive services are provided by Felix? Tell us about the portfolio of services you are providing in healthcare.

Felix Healthcare provides responsive, compassionate and patient centric healthcare with human touch. Felix Hospital is well-equipped to provide high quality personalised care to patients from corporate, home, schools, institutes and village communities.

The hospital is in Sector 137, a prime location on Noida - Greater Noida Expressway. There are no other hospitals offering secondary and tertiary healthcare nearby. Hospital’s location near a metro station makes it conveniently accessible.

Felix Hospital’s Centre of Excellence offers the following service:

• Mother and child care • Joint replacement and orthopaedics • Critical care anesthesiology and pain management • Dentistry • Internal medicine • Neuro science (neurology and neurosurgery) The super specialty services offered

by Felix include: • Endocrinology • Gastroenterology • Nephrology • Neurology • Pulmonology • Urology • Cardiology • Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery Surgeries at Felix are conducted by a highly qualified and committed team

of doctors. The success rate of these super-specialty surgeries has been high. The surgeries are conducted in areas like: • Joint replacement and orthopedic surgeries • Corrective surgeries including limb and facial deformities • Spine, head and neck surgery • Oncology surgery • Urology and nephrology surgeries • Bariatric surgery • Plastic surgery and paediatric surgeries Both general and laparoscopic surgery techniques are used at the hospital. Successful surgeries have saved lives and limbs of patients – often those who are lone bread earners of the family. Some outstanding instances of surgeries and medical management at Felix include: • A premature baby (7 months) admitted with Respiratory Distress Syndrome with Pneumothorax (ruptured lung) accompanied by jaundice, enterocolitis was treated and discharged in normal condition.

• A young boy who fell down from a high rise building was admitted with multiple fractures of spine, head injuries, paralysis of lower limbs and was in coma. He was successfully operated by a team of

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orthopedicians, neurosurgeons and physio therapists. He was discharged in normal condition within 32 days of his admission.

• A young man – suffered from alcoholic cirrhosis, pulmonary and abdominal TB with dengue hemorrhagic syndrome – was given a life supporting treatment for 28 days and discharged healthy.

• A slum labourer with a disabled husband reported at night with cobra bite. She was unconscious, comatose and not breathing. She was put on life saving treatment until the full recovery. Being poor, the expenses were arranged by the hospital management.

As a matter of policy, no patient – poor or otherwise – is ever refused an emergency care. Several victims of road accidents on nearby Noida Expressway have been treated at the hospital free of cost.

What is your USP in specialised healthcare services?

Felix Healthcare aims to provide passionate and customised healthcare to all segments of the society, all patients – rich and poor, educated and not so educated – all the way from hospital to home. The hospital offers comprehensive healthcare under one roof. Alternative therapies such as homeopathy and naturopathy are also available at the hospital.

The services offered by the hospital also include: • Home consultation, nursing care and tele-counseling • Sample collections from home and free home delivery of medicines • Equipment on rent at home and physiotherapy sessions at home • Pick and drop by ambulance

Felix is said to be having a wide array of diagnostic facilities, can you please elaborate?

We have advanced diagnostic facilities including CT Scan, Ultrasonography, Sonomammography, Digital X-ray, ECG,

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EEG, TMT, ECHO, Colour Doppler, Holter Monitoring, PFT, Diagnostic Endoscopy, fully automated pathology (Microbiology, Immunology, Serology, Hematology, Bio-Chemistry Cyto and Histopathology)

How Felix Healthcare design and implement comprehensive preventive healthcare? How will these benefit the patients?

Felix has designed preventive healthcare packages covering the varied requirements of all age groups.

The health check-up packages are flexible so as to accommodate the specific requirements and can be tailormade to suit every organisation’s need.

It also provides pre-employment/preinsurance health checks at affordable costs. Important features include: • Annual Health check – up packages • Affordable price • Designed for all members of the family from youngest to eldest family members and domestic help.

• Health check-up for employees and executives of industries/corporates/ schools/institutes from entry level staff to top management level officials.

• On site packages at the door step of households.

As for a large part of rural India, availing the latest healthcare services remains a distant dream.

Do you have any plans to serve such locations? What are the tieups with government agencies?

Felix has two satellite clinics in villages to meet the healthcare needs at the doorstep of the community. In the past, we have conducted many health camps in villages on Sundays. Preventive health practices for malnutrition, diarrhoea, dengue and other communicable diseases are explained to them to help vulnerable women, children and senior citizens. We serve them well even if they may not pay well.

Felix Hospital will follow the same plan to serve communities in near

future. The hospital has made a number of tie ups with government panels (CGHS, ECHS), PSUs and major TPAs.

The Indian healthcare Industry is expected to grow fast.

What’s your take in terms of opportunity for the industry and benefit for public?

The size of Indian healthcare industry is around $100 billion and is expected to grow to $280 billion by 2020 with a growth of 15-20% per year. The composition of this growth would be: • Hospital industry 50%; Pharma sector 25%; and diagnostics 10% • Insurance and medical equipments 15% • Felix Hospital operates in 85% services of this spectrum.

The healthcare expenditure in India in terms of public and private sector is 25% and 75% respectively.

Unlike education, there is a serious gap in supply and demand in health services in India. I may add that treatment of ailments brings a serious setback to the fortunes of the middle class and poor households in India.

At Felix, we always strive to mitigate the burden of health care expenses.

Public and private sectors put together, however, fail to meet the full demand of health services especially in remote areas and for deprived sections of the society. A healthy household contributes much more to the national economy and reasonable standards of nutrition and health are pre requisites for a faster growth of the country.

Groups like Felix are struggling hard to reduce this gap and to aid the health and prosperity of large Indian population hitherto deprived.

I would summarise by saying that our long term aim is to offer specialised services at reasonable price for community benefit especially deprived women, children and senior citizens.

Our service charges are scaled only to keep the services viable and not for profit. The more patients are treated in Felix more happy we will be.

“My learning stops with my degree.”

- Said no doctor ever.

Fuel your career with an International program

Master of Public Health (International) from University of New South Wales, Australia.

www.medvarsity.com

• Bangalore - Irfan Pasha - 98868 93052

• West Bengal - Rahul Saha - 97752 72656

• New Delhi - Dr Radharaman - 93506 34931, Jay Prakash - 9999853797

1800 103 6006

• Indore - Lokesh Bagani - 8821000167 • Navi Mumbai - Santosh V Jagtap - 9930160806

• Ahmedabad - Nikhil Gupta - 9925619005

• Ludhiana - Vijay Salaria - 9888605661

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