eHEALTH Magazine
Contents
DECEMBER 2015 | VOLUME - 10 | ISSUE - 12
10 Cover Story
Burgeoning Healthcare in East – Opening Window of Well-Being Striding towards progress, the healthcare domain in Eastern India is at a turning point. Looking ahead for an optimal infrastructural transformation coupled with high-end technological services, the eastern region healthcare fraternity is burgeoning towards a robust growth, writes Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN)
SPECIAL FOCUS
16 Sanghamitra Ghosh
Dr Subhash Khanna 46 Chief Medical Director and Chief Consultant, Swagat Super Specialty Surgical Institute (SSSSI), Guwahati, Assam
Mission Director, NHM, West Bengal
Dr BR Satpathi 18 Director Health Services & Secretary Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal
M Nagaraju 20 Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tripura
Dr Kunal Sarkar 47 Senior Vice Chairman, Medica Super-Specialty Hospital
Sanjay Prasad 48 CEO, Mission of Mercy Hospital Jashodhara Ghosh 49 Vice President-Operations
Bolung Siram 22 Commissioner Health and Family Welfare, Itanagar,
INDUSTRY SPEAK
Government of Arunachal Pradesh
40 Dr Chintamoni Ghosh
Director of Drugs Control, Government of West Bengal
Dr Srijon Mukherji 44 Director, Calcutta Institute of Maxillofacial Surgeon BUYERS SPEAK
36
Rupak Barua CEO, AMRI, Kolkata
Dr Debasish Bhattacharya 42 Chairman & Managing Director, Disha Eye Hospital Dr Om Tantia 45 Medical Director, ILS Hospitals
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CK Birla Hospitals
39 Gopi Natarajan
24
Co-Founder & CEO, Omega Healthcare
R
NEWS
esource Guide
38 Merger & Acquisition 58 Start-up 50 News
editorial
Long-Term Cure The East Indian region is plagued with almost similar ailments as the entire healthcare sector in the country. With quality medical services being confined to the urban centres of the region, the rural pockets hold tremendous opportunity for the healthcare service providers to deliver quality care. Paucity of trained and skilled medical manpower, health infrastructure, lack of quality medical education institutes and shortage of funds has been prevalent in the eastern region as much as other parts of the country. Realising the need to increase the pace of reforms, the state governments have been taking measures to improve the overall healthcare ecosystem in the state. As reported by eHealth before, in a major boost to the healthcare delivery system in the east, West Bengal government has decided to infuse `2,600 crore in the state health sector. There are plans of adding 17,000 more hospital beds in 2015-16, making the health market in East ripe for expansion and looking at significant growth. With new entrants and more start-ups foraying to the health care arena, copious health allied business is awaiting West Bengal and North East region. In the government sector, the current number of hospital beds in the state is 63,000 and it would increase to 80,000 after addition of the proposed 17,000 beds. Investment of `250 crore is also being planned and made in procuring radio therapy equipment, offering low cost cancer care facility to the people of the state. The region also offers tremendous potential in medical tourism with Bengal being gateway for Western Assam, North -Bihar and large portion of Nepal, Bhutan up to Bangladesh. Interestingly, of the total 6.28 million foreign tourist inflow in the country, tourists from Bangladesh shared the highest percentage at 14.64 per cent. And what makes this number more enchanting is the fact that Bangladesh accounts for the highest number of medical tourists, 22 per cent coming to the Indian soil owing to lack of quality health care infrastructure and skilled manpower unavailability there. With close physical proximity and cultural, linguistic and food closeness, medical tourism is drawing big numbers. At the Healthcare Leaders’ Forum, Bengal, we aim to provide a vibrant platform for the innovators, investors and to engage private companies with the East region Hospitals & Healthcare Service Providers and also enable the healthcare services providers to exchange knowledge and best practices with each other for better healthcare system in Eastern India. The objective of the forum is to bring forward the Healthcare Technology initiatives taken to facilitate quality care in the Eastern part of India. As we come to the end of 2015, we at Elets are looking forward to our presence in the east India and contribute towards the growth and betterment of healthcare services in the region through our thought provoking and engaging platforms. We have been enablers of initiating effective dialogue exchange between various stakeholders through our health summits this year in Delhi, Jaipur and the most recent one in Mumbai as part of our eIndia Maharashtra Summit offering. Hope to continue the journey. Wishing eHealth readers a happy, prosperous and healthy 2016! Happy New Year!
Dr Ravi Gupta ravi.gupta@elets.in
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Message I am glad to know that Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd is going to publish eHealth magazine on 10th December, 2015. The magazine is expected to highlight on every sector of healthcare technology. I would like to convey my thanks to them all associated with the publication.
Cover Story
Burgeoning Healthcare in East
Opening Window of Well-Being Striding towards progress, the healthcare domain in Eastern India is at a turning point. Looking ahead for an optimal infrastructural transformation coupled with highend technological services, the eastern region healthcare fraternity is burgeoning towards a robust growth, writes Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN)
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T
he healthcare sector in West Bengal and North Eastern region is garnering enough steam as each state government is focusing in the reforms and policies of the domain. They are implementing effective financial mechanisms as well as governmental reforms and policies.
Looking Long-Term Combating multiple challenges like paucity of funds, lack of physical infrastructure and policies, eastern India is now progressing towards building a comprehensive, affordable healthcare for all. West Bengal government has given a major boost and they have decided to infuse `2,600 crore in the state health sector. The state government is all set to layout its plan for upcoming 40 superspecialist hospitals accommodating 500 beds each in West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Jalpaiguri, South 24Parganas and North 24-Parganas offering healthcare facilities in cardiology, nephrology, urology, endocrinology. The state is also in the process of investing `250 crore in procuring radio therapy equipments, offering low cost cancer care facility to the people of the state As for the North East region, the Vision-2020 document emphasise on the overall improvement in the health status of the region. The vision document states that apart from physical expansion of healthcare facilities, access to quality health services remains low in remote areas as well as in urban areas, especially
Doctor prescribing medicines for women in a boat clinic at Dhubri (Assam)
for women and children. A report published by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, public healthcare expense is amounting to not more than 0.5 per cent individually in all north eastern states except Assam where the healthcare spending the public health sector is almost 2.5 per cent of the state’s GDP. All the states except Assam in NE India fare quite low than the national average of one per cent of GDP spending on healthcare sector by the government. Experts cite that higher spending on healthcare sector will be a welcoming step as there are various avenues to invest on to improve the healthcare delivery system like establishment of educational institutes to produce more trained manpower, setting up on new healthcare facilities in deprived locations, up-gradation of existing
Malay Kumar De State Health Secretary, West Bengal “In the last three years, 10,000 health professionals had been recruited. The total number of hospital beds in the state currently is 63,000 and it would become 80,000 by March 2016”.
Dr Ashendu Pandey Former CEO, C K Birla Hospitals, Kolkata “The entire healthcare industry has gone through a massive transition; it has reached to a different level of development”
facilities to improve efficiency, better technology for better clinical outcome, continuous training efforts for existing employees, etc. “The entire healthcare industry has gone through a massive transition; it has reached to a different level of development. Nowadays patients have become more knowledgeable and tech savvy. These factors has pushed us to extend our horizons and helped us to revamp our service level excellence,” said Dr Ashendu Pandey, Former CEO, C K Birla Hospitals, Kolkata
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Fast tracking Healthcare West Bengal and North Eastern states have repositioned itself as a forward-looking state and they are enabling to become a major healthcare hub for neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal as these regions healthcare services are yet to achieve desired levels. The West Bengal State Health Secretary Malay Kumar De recently informed that the state’s health ministry is trying to do scientific mapping of health infrastructure by identify the gaps where there is lack
Dr Subhash Khanna, Chief Medical Director, Swagat Super Speciality Surgical Institute (SSSSI) “With insurgency under control it is expected that there would be large investments from business houses in the healthcare facilities. In next five years we would be able to see various patient centric healthcare delivery systems that would be accessible, affordable and readily available”
M Nagaraju Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tripura “North East states have enough potential if proper health infrastructure is provided they states would turn to be a key healthcare provider” of manpower, equipments and trying to realign to ensure a seamless health services in the state. “In the last three years, 10,000 health professionals had been recruited. About 4,000 to 5,000 more doctors, nurses and technician would be recruited in near future,” De informed, adding that in the government sector, the total number of hospital beds in the state currently was 63,000 and it would become 80,000 by March next year. “The aim is to deliver quality health services to people across and provide affordable healthcare for all,” said West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC), President, Nirmal Majhi. Seven Sisters of India -Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura known has the heaven for nature lovers is now gaining momentum in healthcare delivery with the Centre’s “Act East policy” “We can expect higher allocation of funds and more importantly better
utilisation of the same to improve the healthcare sector in the region. Also, we can expect the private sector to grow in an impressive manner considering the growth potential of the region. Considering the potential of NE India, certain big corporate groups like Narayana Healthcare and Apollo have already set their mark in this region. Many other groups are also earnestly looking forward to establish themselves in the NE region after conducting thorough due diligence to run healthcare businesses,” Jyoti Ram Das, Managing Partner Integra Ventures told Elets News Network (ENN). He also added that one of the major advancement in the public health sector in NE region are the real time transmission of data to capture major health indicators which in turn help the authorities to take informed decisions for improvement of the healthcare sector.
Healthcare Window of Asia Taking the strategic geographical location to its advantage, among West Bengal Kolkata and North East state - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh is enhancing to become a hub of medical tourism in SE Asia. To meet the medical needs of neighbouring states like Jharkhand, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh. Patients from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan regularly come here for specialised treatment. “West Bengal being the gateway of entire eastern India it caters to a large population including the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Most of
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the people from NE India prefer travelling to Delhi or South India for their medical needs rather than West Bengal. The need of the hour is to establish state of art centres of excellence in West Bengal which will benefit the entire region. People mostly travel outside for availing tertiary care services in the areas of cardiac sciences, orthopedics, neuro sciences, oncology and organ transplantation. Travelling to distant places adds up to the woes of the ailing families and accessibility of such facilities in the state of West Bengal will be a big boon for the people,” Das said. Enhanced infrastructure and skilled manpower will help the eastern states to be a major healthcare hub, as the low cost and quality healthcare will be an advantage. No doubt, east is positioning itself as a favoured destination for medical tourism. “North East states have enough potential if proper health infrastructure is provided it will boost the economy. The seven states would turn to be a key healthcare provider,” informed M Nagaraju, Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Tripura. Talking about potential of NE in medical tourism Dr Subhash Khanna, Chief medical director, Swagat Super Speciality Surgical Institute (SSSSI) informed Elets News Network (ENN) that states in the NE region have a great potential of developing it into a medical tourist destination. “The establishment of quality hospitals shall draw not only Indian patients but many patients from other Asian countries and Middle
Infant being checked by a community health worker
Jyoti Ram Das Managing Partner Integra Ventures “Other than Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya (post graduate institute), the rest of the states do not have a single medical college to its credibility. The availability of trained workforce is a prerequisite to the growth of the sector” East and even US where cost of treatment and surgery is at least 12 times more than in India. I have been getting many NRI Indians and many US nationals who have started travelling to this part of the country and with insurgency at all time low many more are expected to come to the north east,” Khanna added. But experts mention that states should concentrate on improving the proper infrastructure facilities like good roads, airport facilities so East India could compete with the rest of the country and the Asian countries. “We always have the edge of having skilled doctors but, we will
Rupak Barua CEO AMRI, (Advanced Medical Research Institute) “The entire healthcare canvas of Bengal has changed with time, today we are fast paced and edgy and we can provide any advanced treatment at an affordable price within the state”
have to provide better facilities for the comfort and safety of the patients flying in from abroad,” Khanna added.
Enhancing Skilled Manpower – A Must Though state like West Bengal and North East states are focused in progressing the healthcare wheel, experts intimate that both in West Bengal and NE region is burdened of manpower scarcity which remains a major constraint in rendering quality healthcare services. The availability of trained workforce is a prerequisite to the growth of the sector. “The entire industry is facing a massive dearth of manpower and we need fresh and talented people who can chip in and meet the demands of the fast growing healthcare industry. People are coming into nursing, but fat pay packages are luring them to the Middle East,” Dr Pandey informed.
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Healthcare segment in east faces dearth of the skilled manpower due to lack of credible medical institutions and availability of quality teaching staff. “Other than Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya (post graduate institute), the rest of the states do not have a single medical college to its credibility. The availability of trained workforce is a prerequisite to the growth of the sector. The state governments have given priority to increase manpower in medical and paramedical institutes across different district headquarters of the NE region,” Das added. However, experts opine that availability of quality teaching staff remains a major challenge for the state governments to deliver education. For the manpower issue to get resolved, another five to ten
Sanjay Prasad CEO, Mission of Mercy Hospital, Kolkata “Though the market share of this industry is extremely small, but because of the apt leadership of the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, the healthcare industry in Bengal is moving in the right direction” years will be required to fill the gap to a substantial extent till the states start producing trained manpower from the newly proposed or recently commissioned institutes in various cities of North East. “The healthcare sector in the region should also focus to improve the utilisation of these facilities. The underlying factor for low utilisation of these healthcare facilities is lack of accountability on part of the employees,” Das added. Bridging the skill gap is on the anvil
Richa Debgupta Zonal Director, FORTIS Hospital “Bangladesh plays a very important part in adding up revenue to the healthcare, economy of the state of Bengal, a gamut of patients comes into Kolkata to get affordable and good treatment in Bengal”
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says Khanna, citing that five years from now there will be a tremendous growth of medical industry in the NE region particularly in the state of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. “The way private hospitals are focusing in the NE region they would give tough competition to the local entrepreneurs to improve their infrastructure and facilities. Many more private hospitals would be added that would provide multiple healthcare facilities under one roof. With insurgency under control it is expected that there would be large investments from business houses in the healthcare facilities. In the next five years we would be able to see various patient centric healthcare delivery systems that would be accessible, affordable and readily available. The SSSSI in Guwahati (Assam) is one such beginning where
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on an average over `70 lakhs per bed is spent to provide best of the care to the people of the region,” he added. The integration of information technology in healthcare and digital patient-enablement journey is growing pan India, and eastern part is also imbibing IT in healthcare to bridge the gap in NE states and upgrade the healthcare reach in West Bengal.
Dr Debasish Bhattacharya, Chairman and Managing Director, Disha Eyecare Hospital “We pick up and train people for our own needs, as the entire industry is going through a massive manpower crisis at this moment”
IT - A Game Changer for East Healthcare With an increase in smart phone usage and telemedicine a vogue, large portion of the population’s health needs served through mHealth technologies both the NE and West Bengal should enable technology. The experts cite that state government should consider a low budget telehealthcentre which would help cities in the northeast, which are ill-connected. “Technology usage in the healthcare sector is grossly concentrated towards selected urban locations like Guwahati, Shillong, Dibrugarh and Imphal. Low paying capacity , lack of after sales service remain some of the major reasons and healthcare facilities both in the private and government sectors are equipped with hospital management software solution , which are used for basic transaction processes like registration and billing,” informed Das. Major advancement in the public health sector is the real time transmission of data to capture
Jashodhara Ghosh, Vice President Operations CMRI (Calcutta Medical Research Institute) “The entire approach towards healthcare changed after a massive influx of managers crowded this space and created a new vision with their stand aside approach towards healthcare and embarked a new era of healthcare in Bengal”
Dr Kunal Sarkar, Senior Vice Chairman, Medica Super Specialty Hospital “The government has to come forward and encourage PPP models in the healthcare domain because the random growth of the private players in the state will not benefit the overall growth of healthcare”
major health indicators which in turn help the authorities to take informed decisions for improvement of the healthcare sector. As for West Bengal there prime focus is to enhance the IT in healthcare state with the help of technology. For example hospitals like CK Birla, AMRI are using latest technologies like Skype, Whatsapp and video conferencing which gives broader outreach to our healthcare facilities.
Taking a New Direction The eastern region healthcare segment is looking into a positive roadmap. With investment trend increasing, opportunities opening for medical tourism, various state governments imbibing digitisation and the healthcare is growing slowly but steadily transforming east into a hot spot for investment in terms of healthcare sector.
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Special Focus
Mission Elevating Healthcare National Healthcare Mission (NHM) is refurnishing itself to meet the surging demands of the healthcare sector, says Sanghamitra Ghosh, Mission Director, NHM, West Bengal while speaking to Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) How is the healthcare mission bolstering the growth of the healthcare industry in Bengal? The NHM is developing manifold in this state of West Bengal. The prime objective of this mission is to modify certain public interventions which are of national level in a particular program. The entire NHM is evolving everyday to cater to a plethora of issues which are related to public health. We are tailoring several programs to address issues related to public health care. The NHM operates with the joint funding of the State and the Union Government.
What is the prime focus area of this mission? The mission is refurnishing itself to meet the surging demands of the healthcare sector. It is constantly evolving with the demographic trend and also with the surge in the population. That is the reason the name of the mission also changed the from National Health, Rural Mission to National Health Mission, as we are now zeroing in on the healthcare needs of the urban population also. Now we have very differently designed projects to meet the healthcare related demands of the rural as well as the urban areas. Since its inception the mission started working towards women and child welfare but now the project monitors and handholds all the healthcare needs of a person. The program now revolves around the RMNCH+A (Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.
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other vector borne diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya. We have special programs for cancer, diabetes and heart related ailments and tailor made healthcare mission for the elderly as we all know that West Bengal is ageing very fastMinor yet important healthcare related projects like iodine deficiency and oral hygiene are other helath issues covered under the mission. As we are catering to the diversed health needs the mission time frame has also been extended.
What are the reasons to lengthen the period of the project? Previously the entire project was bent upon to uplift the healthcare infrastructure related to the women and children, but later we observed that the entire process is creating a massive gap. For instance the adolescent group in the state was said to be neglected, from the minimum healthcare facilities which are leading them towards an unhealthy motherhood or fatherhood. Now we are trying to break that nexus and concentrate on the adolescent group. Another major development which alarmed us is that the rise in the lifestyle related diseases such as heart related ailments,blood sugar and hypertension. A gamut of projects such as Rashtriya Bal Swastha Karyakram and Kishore Swastha Karyakram were trotted out to meet the rising demands of the adolescent healthcare. We are also taking special care on the communicable ailments such as tuberculosis, leprosy and
How the mission is focused on state specific health care problems? Currently certain diseases are more prevalent in the state of West Bengal and we have certain specific programs for them. Thalassemia is plaguing the state and it is a big challenge for us and we have specific plans to combat the same. The state government is taking all possible care to cork the rise of this disease within the state and also trying to build a robust infrastructure to meet with the demands of the patients who are suffering from this disease.
How is NHM balancing between the healthcare demands of the urban and rural population? There is a massive difference between the disease profile of the urban slum dwellers and migrant labourers and the rural population who are living below the poverty line. The skin diseases and pollution related diseases are maximum amongst the urban population but at the same time under
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the urban health mission we access the disease burden also.
What kind of operational changes were clubbed in when the mission started dealing with urban population? What are the current challenges? During the previous stage of the NHM, we were dealing with the rural population and village oriented governance, which was uniform and much systematic. In the new phase of the project we are dealing with municipal corporations which have their own capacity and strengths and weaknesses. For us all these 92 MC’s are individual entities and we are dealing with them on a case specific basis. This is the biggest hurdle of the urban health mission. More autonomy would usher more problems for the civic bodies to operate within a specific framework.
Why West Bengal as a state is important for NHM? The state of West Bengal is very important for the National Health Mission because the state is extremely populous and the state has shown remarkable developments in the field of neonatal care. The child mortality dipped over the years. The issue of child mortality is extremely complex and we need a proper community intervention to deal with it.
How West Bengal has shown some splendid developments under NHM? All the departments worked in harmony which brought parity and added fuel in the progress of all the projects which are implemented under the NHM in Bengal. The synchronisation is very important and we work with different departments such as higher education and animal husbandry which helps us to deal with several zoonotic diseases. We work under a formalised structure, meet regularly and discuss on varied issues which are related
to the healthcare of the state.
How is the state government managing to get skilled manpower for the pleathora of projects mentioned Developing skilled and able manpower is the focus area of the mission. There are two aspects of human resource development under the NHM, one is recruiting the manpower on a contractual basis and also honing their skills. We also train our staffs to meet multiple needs. We are building a strong team of nursing and paramedic staffs. For Critical Care Unit (CCU) technicians training we have tied up with Singapore. We are recruiting massively to complement the health care juggernaut in the state of Bengal.
NHM is building an integrated state of the art mother and child hub. These units will be spread across all the major 15 districts of Bengal such as Murshidabad and Midnapore, Purulia and even in Kolkata How NHM is focusing on the all round development of the healthcare infrastructure in Bengal? The mission focuses on the overall development of the healthcare system, particularly the infrastructure development and on the free flow of drug supplies. We are mulling about the idea of starting up 20 to 25 new neonatal units within the state. Also, we are building an integrated state of the art mother and child hub. These units will be spread across all the major 15 districts of Bengal such as
Murshidabad and Midnapore, Purulia and even in Kolkata. The state health department is building 41 multi specialty hospitals across West Bengal. We have also created CCU in all the district hospitals.
How the PPP model is encouraged under the NHM? NHM runs several mobile medical units and also tied up with several NGO’s and private organisations to roll out several healthcare related services to the people of the state. We run boat dispensaries in remote areas of Sunderbans and also provide high end diagnostics facilities in hospitals which work under the PPP model. Several fair price shops have also been established within the state by following the PPP model.
How NHM is working towards a proper nutrition policy in the villages? The mission focuses on the micro nutrition policy by addressing the basic helath needs like folic acid supplementation and iron supplementation for the anganwadi infants. We intervene at a very initial stage, mainly during the puberty and continue it till the woman reaches her menopause.
Often critics say that NHM concentrates on developing the infrastructure and later the entire thing decays because of lack of facilities. Your viewspoint? The biggest problem that we are facing is that we can’t withdraw the existing manpower for training because there is a dearth of serious and skilled manpower. So we are planning for on-site training, where the mentors will develop the skills by reaching a specific location. Also observing the outcome of the projects that we implement in a state helps us to analyse on the loopholes. We are also concentrating on family planning and immunisation.
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Metamorphosing
Healthcare in Tripura Tripura, the land of enchanting beauty, is preparing to take a few big leaps in healthcare domain in 2016 by building a super specialty hospital, creating ehosptials, informs M Nagaraju, Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Tripura to Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN) Could you elaborate on the present healthcare scenario in Tripura? The healthcare scenario in Tripura is the most accessible and low cost healthcare system in the country. We have both Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) and secondary healthcare. As far as medical healthcare infrastructure is concerned we have two hospitals which are almost 1,000 bedded hospital, six district hospitals with capacity of 100 beds each. Communication Health Centres are 19 and 93 PHCs. We also have 1018 sub centres. We have two medical colleges, three nursing colleges and a paramedical institute, five GNMs. Also, the homeopathy and ayurveda hospitals are a huge hit here. Coming to the health indicators, Tripura has been doing very well. The sex ratio of the state is 960 females per thousand males, higher than the national ratio of 940. The state’s performance in major public health care indices, such as Birth Rate (13.9), Infant Mortality Rate (28) and Total Fertility Rate (1.7) is better than the national average.
How has the Tripura Health Assurance Scheme for Poor (THASP) helped transform the healthcare sector? THASP is one of the unique initiatives extended by Tripura. We are having primary and secondary healthcare, but when it comes to super specialty
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healthcare our state has a huge shortage of super specialists and skilled manpower. The government knows that there is a dire requirement and intervention of specialists for the state and many from Tripura go to states like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata for super specialty hospitals. As many studies indicate healthcare is one of the reasons people become poor or remain poor. To mitigate this, we have designed THASP. Features of this programme are very simple, any family which has a earning of 1, 50,000 rupees or below in a year are eligible to apply in this scheme. We don’t have restrictions like only BPL or APL families can apply for the programme. It also covers eight health issues like cardiology, nephrology,
chronic ophthalmology issues, critical condition in ENT, trauma and cancer. We have identified 50 procedures for the eight health issues any person identified with. Some health issues Tripura government refers them to group of empanelled hospitals, which included AIIMS, Max super specialty –Delhi, Nizams - Hyderabad, CMC – Vellore (Tami Nadu) all big hospitals in Kolkata. It’s a cashless transaction when it comes to the private hospitals; mostly government ones, the patient is reimbursed with `1,25,000 per procedure and `15,000 is paid for the transport. The total amount can’t extend further 1, 50,000 per year per family on quarterly basis. It’s a great benefit for the tribal and backward classes. As of now about 140 people have been benefited by the scheme.
Do you think the central government should come with any specialised scheme for Tripura? We would like the central government to come out specialised scheme as per the state and its needs, especially focusing on affordable healthcare. The central ministry was also mulling to roll out Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) in the NE region.
What steps need to be taken to boost the health fraternity of the NE region? One of the key initiative which should
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be taken pan North Eastern states are building up a skilled manpower, as we lack badly. People outside NE states doesn’t want to come here and work here, this condition should be changed. Many go to Chennai,Kolkata or Hyderabad for treatments, there is a need to develop good and proper super specialty hospitals. To encourage and retain the skilled manpower in Tripura we are recently increase the pay scale of teaching staff, increased the retirement age from 60 to 65. We also give training to large nurses, MPW and ANM joining hands with Max healthcare and BM Birla hospital, Kolkata. Our aim is to ensure that all the support staff has necessary skill set to impart quality healthcare to the people of Tripura.
What is the potential of traditional medicine like ayurveda? Tripura is a beautiful state, almost 64 per cent of it is covered under thick forest and many tribal communities live here and they practice traditional medication for large number of disease. These methods are not documented, but it should be done. Being near to West Bengal state which also
can be explored for the same. The medical and wellness market needs to boost the economy. It should be enhanced like Kerala. Though our tourism has been increasing, we are yet to exploit the medical tourism market and we should do it.
In five years from now how do you see the growth in the healthcare domain?
year after April. Currently, we have 1018 centres, we want to escalate it to 2045. Apart from this, we have total PHCs of 125 as of now we have 93. We are strengthening six districts hospitals and enhancing the lab and radiology facilities. To improve the skill development we will be having training institutes for doctors, paramedics, nurses. Each person will be trained for a week.
We are going to construct a super specialty hospital with 11 specialisation of `150 crores, which multi-super specilaisation with the support of Government of India under PMSSY.
How do you see the adoption of IT in healthcare in your state? Any technological innovations implemented?
Tripura will be constructing a a super specialty hospital with 11 specialisation, a project worth `150 crore opts for ayurvedic medicines these methods should be explored, it has a great potential. We are also promoting the Ayush services, initiated by the central government.
Do you think medical tourism is yet an unexplored market in Tripura? What could be the revenue out of this market? Tripura and Assam has good potential in medical tourism and our main target should be to attract Bangladesh markets. We have well populated districts around Tripura and these
The central government will contribute `120 crore and `30 crore by Tripura government. We will be start the building by April or May 2016, this will transform the healthcare situation of the state, making it more self-sufficient in healthcare. We also got an approval of upgrading the building of 100 bedded Agartala Cancer hospital, with advanced medical equipments; cancer patients who are going down to south can be treated in Agartala. Our plan is to have one sub centre in each of the gram panchayat , which we will be starting by next
We are going to launch e-hospital connecting from PHCs to state level hospitals, from next month. Already two state level hospitals are computerised. Any person who enters the hospital - his entire diagnosis, medication, prescription including his details of discharge will be digitised. We have already sanctioned `25 lakhs for the initiative. In next three to four months it will be full-fledged implemented. For accessing the remote areas we are using telemedicine, tele-opthalmology services. In sub regional offices people can access there and get benefitted. In few months we will be starting the tele-radiology services as we have shortage of radiographers and MB radiologists and we want to use the technology to bridge the gap.
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Special Focus
North East Healthcare in Revival Mode North East region can become the new hub of healthcare enterprise in the country. But the change can happen only when more funds, particularly from corporate, is invested in healthcare sector, informs Bolung Siram, Commissioner Health and Family Welfare, Itanagar, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, in a tete-a-tete with Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN) What potential do the North Eastern states hold in healthcare domain? North East is far removed from the mainland India and availability of modern healthcare services in many states in the region is still an issue. Therefore in view of this; the potential in healthcare domain is big, if not substantial. Although a good number of private hospitals have come up in the region such in the state of Assam but then super specialty services are still far from being satisfactory in the region.
What are the key steps taken by the ministry to boost the healthcare delivery in Arunachal Pradesh? Ministry has taken various steps to boost the healthcare services in the state. We concentrate on the outpatient, inpatient services and operation theatre services in government hospitals which are hospital based. Disease control strategy in the community through program such as Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP), National Vector Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP), National Leprosy Eradica-
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tion Program, AIDS control program, Blindness Control Program, Integrate Disease Surveillance Program etc which are under the umbrella of NHM. Maternal and Child Health services are provided through Ante Natal Care services & Routine Immunisation of all children in all health facilities. Under Rastriya Bal Suraksha Karyakram (RBSK) all children under 18 years of age in school are screened for heath related issues which include children who have dropped out. Rational deployment of manpower to health facilities. We are also concentrating on the constant upgradation of district hospitals to general hospitals in four districts, construction of 50 bedded district hospitals, up gradation of CHCs, PHCs & Sub centers & placement of requisite man power are already underway.
financial inputs are required to bring it at par with the states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala in terms of healthcare, infrastructure development & human resource development. North East being distantly located from main land India, high cost index & lack of skilled manpower are the reasons why more funds should be invested in health sector. Inputs in training of manpower are needed because of the fact that no skilled personnel from outside the region have the desire to serve in the region.
What steps should be taken to boost health fraternity in the North East?
How much of GDP is spent on healthcare towards the state? Do you think more should be invested on the same? Reason.
The NE region needs more super speciality hospitals and establishment of AIIMS and Apollo like health facilities in the region. Also interstate referral services would help. To meet the skill gap continuing medical education of medical manpower and digitisation of healthcare delivery system is necessary.
4.48 per cent of total fund allocation to state of Arunachal Pradesh in FY 201314 was spent in healthcare sector. More
How Universal Health Insurance Scheme is helping Arunachal
Special Focus
Pradesh to enable quality healthcare? Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s Universal Health Insurance Scheme (APCMUHIS) is the brain child of NabumTuki; Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has given health insurance coverage to all the families of the state. This unique scheme has made healthcare services available to the people at free of cost. In addition to this it has paved an easy access to tertiary healthcare services to people especially belonging to low income group in cashless manner. This has also facilitated reverse flow of fund to government hospitals thereby removing fund constraints for routine management of hospitals such as renovation, procurement of medicines and consumables etc. This has ensured perennial supply of hospital requirements throughout the year which in previous instance the patient had to purchase thereby a burden on poor patient.
Is NRHM helping the state to boost the healthcare domain? National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has effectively boosted the healthcare domain in the state; ever since the launch of this program the infrastructure development has been practically revolutionised.Under NRHM program
congenital anomalies and twice a year compulsory de worming is done under this scheme. Iron , folic acid tablet weekly administration and counseling of adolescent students are routinely done. Under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK) free drugs and consumables are provided to patients especially pregnant mothers & new born. Under RBSK the achievement so far: l number of school screened: 116496 l number of AWW covered: 1043 l number of children screened in AWW: 33550
Do you think medical tourism is yet an unexplored market in Arunachal Pradesh? What could be the revenue out of this market? Medical tourism is still an unexplored area which needs further contemplation in our set up. But building a health related spa can be considered taking in view of relatively pollution free environment and scenic locations.
Any assistance or help given to rural health practitioners by your government? There is no rural practitioner system in healthcare delivery system in existence in our state. Although under PPP mode a good number of primary health cen-
Availability of super specialty services in the state is still far from being satisfactory and has a long way to go the Human Resource management in terms of placement & capacity building has been accomplished under NRHM.
How is National Health Mission Free Drug Service and RBSK initiatives working for the state. Any new scheme in the pipeline? Under RBSK every school of the state has been put on in the picture of health coverage. Besides screening for various diseases including
tres are being managed by NGO funding of which is given by NHM.
What is the current status of the state in adoption of technology in healthcare? The hospitals are equipped with latest biomedical equipments and training of human resource in relevant subjects is done periodically. Appointment of biomedical instrumentation engineers in health department is also a proposal
under active consideration. The state of the art medical machineries are yet to be a part of healthcare delivery system in the state except in R K Mission hospital where CT scan and MRI is done. Availability of super specialty services in the state is still far from being satisfactory and has a long way to go due to HR constraints.
Do you think there is enough corporate participation in the state when it comes to healthcare? Corporate participation in healthcare delivery in the state is in form of CSR donation. Donation of mobility support such ambulances, building of health infrastructures and equipments are some of the activities done by corporate sector. As such there is no hospital run by corporate sector in the state so far. Oil India, NHPC, ONGC etc are some of the companies provide help under CSR.
In five years from now how do you see the growth in the healthcare domain? In consideration to growing health consciousness by the people, the demand for health infrastructures and skilled manpower will increase exponentially. With the present momentum of infrastructure development, skilled manpower placement and enhanced inputs the state will place itself close to achieving Indian Public Health Standard of all health facilities in five year time from now.
DECEMBER / 2015 ehealth.eletsonline.com
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Company Profile
Attune Technologies Pvt Ltd COMPANY PROFILE
Arvind Kumar Chief Executive Officer
Attune Technologies, is a next-generation healthcare IT company that has pioneered Cloud based products designed to help the entire Healthcare ecosystem offer enhanced patient care. Funded by Norwest Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures, Attune is headquartered in Singapore and supports over 10 million patient health record and serves 200+ clients spread across 14 countries in the Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. The company’s platform interfaces with over 1100 devices such as lab analyzers and ICU machines to absorb labs into the health network. In interfacing with them, Attune is bringing to life the concept of Internet of Things or a connected universe for the entire healthcare sector. Attune was recently recognised by leading global research firm, Frost & Sullivan as ‘Emerging Company of the Year 2015’ for its technological innovations in the healthcare space.
COMPANY DETAILS
SOLUTIONS OFFERED
Management Team
Attune’s solutions seamlessly integrate Labs, Hospitals, Pharmacies, Blood Banks, Radiology, Medical 5rDevices (IoT), Insurance Companies, and Accounting resulting in increased revenues and operational efficiency. Attune’s solutions can be deployed across the spectrum of organisations – starting from single physician clinics to a network of healthcare providers making it the largest Cloud based healthcare IT service provider in the region.
Founding Member & CTO: Ramakrishnan V Founding Member & Business Development: Mohanaraj P Founding Member & Chief Medical Officer: Dr Anand Gnanaraj Chief Financial Officer: Amit Kumar Year of Inception: 2008 Employee Strength: 275 Head Office Address: Attune Technologies Pvt Ltd Blk 71 #03-05, Ayer Rajah Crescent Singapore 139951 Fax: +65-6776-7817, Tel: +65-6776-7819 Email: contact@attunelive.com Web: www.attunelive.com Sales Support: 1800-102-8799 or email us at 24x7@attunelive.com Contact Person: Nivetha.V; nivetha.v@attunelive.com; Mobile: +91-9840547817
l l l l l l
Attune HIS Attune LIS Practice Management and EMR Device Integration Business Intelligence Electronic Medical Record
USP l Cloud-based modular solutions and configurable workflows l Robust data architecture for analysis l Build for healthcare ecosystem integration l Scalability from a single general practice clinic to national healthcare network
l Metropolis l Medall l Thyrocare l ASG Eye hospital l Kamakshi Memorial Hospital
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Company Profile
Telecare - the Next Big Thing Improving telecommunication network and bandwidth will boost healthcare service delivery with ICT intervention, shares Ramakanth Desai, CEO, Curespring with Elets News Network (ENN) What are the unique products and solutions offered by Curespring for medical and healthcare industry? Curespring offers a cost effective telecare as a service platform to enable remote patient care transformation and reduce the overall cost of patient care. The platform enables establishing doctors network, sharing of patient data and secure video chat, remote diagnostic review through Tele-Imaging (web-based PACS), and next generation HIS for patient care coordination. Our goal is to provide accessibility of medical practitioners to the remotest regions through state of the art technologies
What needs to be done to change the healthcare service delivery with ICT intervention? Currently, the laws regarding telemedicine practice are not very clear. The government should review the existing policy framework on the practice. Today, the Diagnostic devices are highly priced for clinics and hospitals to afford. Medical device manufacturing needs a lot of incentives. The government has cleared the first medical device manufacturing park in Andhra Pradesh. We need many more such parks. Improving telecommunication network and bandwidth will also boost healthcare service delivery with ICT intervention. EHR/EMR for outpatients has to be made mandatory.
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Do you think ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ programme will be a big booster in the healthcare industry in India? If telecommunication services improve, this will create a huge impact. It is important for India to draw up health data analytics program for preventive care and wellness programs. All this is possible only through the use of ICT. Appropriate laws have to be framed for TeleCare. Today, the Diagnostic devices are very costly for clinics and hospitals to afford. Medical Device Manufacturing needs a lot of incentives.
What is the next big thing happening in healthcare organisation with regard to IT?
Our vision is to enable over 5,000 teleclinics in next five years, says Ramakanth Desai, CEO, Curespring
How does your service help the rural healthcare particularly in Tier II and Tier III cities? Presently, the healthcare delivery is highly skewed towards the urban population. Nearly 700 million people are deprived of quality healthcare. The ratio of specialists available in urban versus rural India is 3:1. Most of the patients travel average 6-7 kms to reach primary health center and specialist care is not easily available. Patients have to travel to Tier I city to receive specialist care. Through our secured cloud-based telecare and Tele-imaging solution, rural patients will now get the required care and interventions from specialists without having the need to travel. Our platform will help patient receive care through moving patient clinical and diagnosis information.
Healthcare is becoming patient-centric. Analytics-driven approaches to public health initiatives for preventive care and improve wellness programs. Telecare, as service for chronic disease management, second opinions, point of care diagnostics and Clinical workflow automation using ICT for preventive care especially around cardiac and cancer-related diseases. Hospitals and healthcare delivery systems will find ways to treat a patient at their homes and place of living since logistics costs in healthcare is becoming very high. ICT can play a huge role there.
What are Curespring’s growth plans in terms of bringing new solutions or products for the healthcare industry? Our vision is to enable at least 5,000+ teleclinics over the next five years with connectivity to many specialists doctors networks such as cardiologists network, neurophysicians network etc. We are focused on integrated care approach for remote patients, diagnostic information as a service, automated approach to patient data capture and empowerment of general physician with specialist expertise through cost effective way of sharing patient data.
Curespring offers a cost effective Tele care as a service platform to enable remote patient care and reduce overall cost of care for patient
We have designed Curespring with inputs from 50+ Specialist doctors & Physicians. We, a team of Doctors & IT professionals have visioned Curespring to extend reach of Specialist Care to remote Patients
Company Profile
MRK Healthcare Private Ltd. & Nulife Global Medical Devices Private Ltd. COMPANY PROFILE
Rajni Shah Managing Director COMPANY DETAILS Management Team Director - Finance & Production: Mahesh Shah Director – Marketing: Kamlesh Shah Director - R&D & Production: Yogesh Shah Director - Strategic & Business Development: Sneh Year of Inception: 1965 Head Office Address: B6, Byculla Service Industries, D.K. Marg, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027, India Tel: +91-22-23748371-72-73 Fax: +91-22-23748370 Email: info@mrkhealthcare.com Website: www.mrkhealthcare.com Sales Support: sales@mrkhealthcare.com After Sales : order@mrkhealthcare.com Customer Care / After Sales Support: +91-22-32488484 Contact Person : Anita Salaskar, support@mrkhealthcare.com, +91-22-66578913
PRODUCT CATEGORY Hospital Disposable
MRK Healthcare began operations in 1965 under the leadership of Mr Ramniklal Shah for the manufacture and trading of molded rubber industrial products and surgical rubber gloves. “NULIFE” is the brand name under which medical products manufactured by MRK Healthcare is marketed. The company is one of the India’s leading manufacturers of medical disposable and having diversified to hospital equipment in the name of Nulife Global Medical Devices Pvt Ltd with a reputed market presence. Company is dedicatedly committed to the care and improvement of human life through continuum of high-quality, cost-effective 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 headquartered in Mumbai. We endeavor to provide healthcare an affordable, accessible and qualitative healthcare to our customers. Our goal is to serve high quality, affordable medical products to all age groups, particularly the healthcare workers.
SOLUTIONS OFFERED MRK Healthcare has a wide product range includes Latex Products, Electro Medical Devices & Plastic Disposables. Latex range includes various types of gloves ranging from Exam Gloves, Surgical Gloves to Speciaility Gloves Range & Foley Balloon Catheters. Electro Medical Devices include 4 models of Nebulizers, Needle Burner & Syringe Destroyer-60 Watt & 100 Watt, B P Monitor, Air Bed & Weighing Scale. Plastic disposables range comprises of IV Sets, B T Sets, Urine bag etc. MRK is expanding its product range with help of leading OEM manufacturing facility in India & abroad.
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 our products. MRK stands committed to R&D, improvisation and innovation.
l Hinduja Hospital l Jaslok Hospital l Saifee Hospital l Tata Memorial Hospital l Bombay Hospital
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Company Profile
Spigot Software Private Limited COMPANY PROFILE
Srinath Bettadpur Chief Executive Officer COMPANY DETAILS Management Team Managing Director: Mangala Srinath Year of Inception: 2006 Employee Strength: 180+ Head Office Address: #531/144, 3rd Floor, 1st Sector, HSR Layout, Outer Ring Road, Agara, Bangalore 560102
Founded by two professionals with over more than two decades of experience in the industry, Spigot Software is a worldclass, customer-focused solution provider with the aim to be the leader in the small and medium enterprise segment with global reach. It specialises in both web and nonweb based solutions – Software Products, Custom Software Application Development, Staffing and Consulting services. It delivers technology enabled software automation solutions for various business segments / industry / domains in agreed upon timeframes and high quality. It believes that technology has a key role in achieving strategic business goals and to gain an edge in this highly competitive global environment. Hence, its focus has always been to use the best of technologies and deliver high-end Business Software Solutions to its clients, which will help them accomplish their business goals.
SOLUTIONS OFFERED l Hospital Information System - Enables hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes to efficiently manage all aspects of patient care l Human Resource Management System - End-to-end information system for more efficient management of all employee administration l Software Services l Staffing Solutions l Business Process Outsourcing l Consulting
Tele: +91-80-65650213-218 Email: info@spigotsoft.com
TECHNICAL COLLABORATIONS
Web: www.spigotsoft.com
l Microsoft l HP l IBM l Cisco
Sales support: Email: salesenquiries@spigotsoft.com Tele: +91-80-65650213/218 Contact Person: Shalini Ramakanth Email: srkanth@spigotsoft.com Mobile: +91-9036016269
USP l Technology-driven l Owner-driven l Small and agile l Heavily Customer Focused l Highly Competitive Prices
l Hope Hospital l Shankara Cancer Care Foundation l Janani Hospital l Bharathi Hospital l R K Hospital
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Company Profile
Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd COMPANY PROFILE
Suresh Vazirani Managing Director COMPANY DETAILS Management Team Executive Director: Mrs. Mala Vazirani Year of Inception: 1979 Head Office Address: Transasia House, 8, Chadivali Studio Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai- 400072 Telephone: +91-22-4030 9000 Email: transasia@transasia.co.in Website: www.transasasia.co.in
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Biochemistry Critical Care Coagulation Microbiology Molecular Diagnostics Hematology Immunology Diabetes Management Urinalysis
Incepted in the year 1979, Transasia BioMedicals Ltd., is headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is one of India’s largest In-vitro Diagnostic Company and offers solutions and products in Biochemistry, Hematology, Coagulation, ESR, Immunology, Urinalysis, Critical Care, Diabetes Management, Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics. Transasia is a part of the global ERBA Diagnostics Mannheim GmbH Group. The ERBA Transasia Group has spread its footprint across USA, UK, Europe, Turkey and Eastern Europe, Russia and France, by means of various acquisitions – ERBA Germany, ERBA Czech Republic, ERBA Russia, ERBA Turkey, ERBA France, ERBA Diagnostics (USA), Diamedix (USA), Delta Biologicals (Italy), ImmunoVision (USA), JAS Diagnostics Inc. (USA) and Drew Scientific (USA). Transasia’s commitment to healthcare has been recognized by various awards and accolades, the latest one from the World Economic Forum which conferred the organisation with ‘Global Growth Company Award, 2014’. With a vision of being recognised as a ‘local for global’ organisation, Transasia continues to provide doctors and patients with reliable, affordable and innovative Medical Diagnostic Systems.
SOLUTIONS OFFERED Transasia is the first Indian company to manufacture and export sophisticated, state-of-the-art blood analyzers and reagents. Recently, the ERBA- Transasia Group has added another feather to its cap by acquiring Lumora, a UK based patented molecular technology company. This makes the Group, one of the selected few global companies with its own patented technology for molecular testing. Transasia manufactures and markets equipment and reagents, with an impressive install base of above 45,000 equipments across India. Transasia also exports to more than 100 countries in six continents. The vast network of more than 150 service engineers, 350+ Sales and Marketing Team, 16 zonal offices, and 350+ Distributors allows us to reach out to customers across the length and breadth of the country.
USP Quality Precision Affordability Customer Service Innovation & Reliability
TECHNICAL COLLOBORATIONS l
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Medica (USA) l
Diesse (Italy)
Company Profile
Schiller Healthcare India Pvt Ltd COMPANY PROFILE
Vikram Sanghvi
Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director COMPANY DETAILS Management Team Chief Operating Officer: Bharatkumar Mehta Sr Vice President: V Balakrishnan Vice President: Hormazd Cooper Associate Vice President: Sudip Bagchi Vice President – R&D: Nandaraj Hosabettu Vice President – Service: Vinayak Gudekar Year of Inception: 1997 Employee Strength: 250 Head Office Address: Indian HQ: Advance House, Makwana Road, Marol Metro Station, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 059
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 set-up in 1997 with an idea to make quality products available to the Indian medical market. Currently, our product range covers Critical Care, Cardiology, Radiology, Telemedicine, Cardiopulmonary, Anaesthesia and Surgery. 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 develops at least two to three products every year. The company has 250 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.
SOLUTIONS OFFERED Schiller India solutions are diverse and include ECG machines & monitors, Electrocardiograms, Ventilators, Stress Test Systems, Defibrillators, Portable CT, Robotic Neurosurgery, Patient Monitors, Pressure Injectors, Infusion Pumps, Surgical Diathermy, Holters, Ambulatory BP, Spirometry Systems, Pulse Oximeters, Telemedicine and consumables such as ECG Paper, Defibrillator Accessories, Exercise ECG Accessories, Monitoring Accessories, Resting ECG Accessories, Spirometry Accessories.
TECHNICAL COLLABORATIONS l l l l l l
Swiss HQ: Schiller AG, Altgasse 68, P.O. Box 1052, 6341 Baar, Switzerland. Tel: +91-22-61523333, 1800 2098998 (Toll free) Email: sales@schillerindia.com Web: schillerindia.com
Stephan GmbH of Germany Tecme Argentina NeuroLogica USA Medtech France INTERMEDICAL S.r.l. Italy Mallinckrodt USA
USP Providing Swiss technology and quality at affordable prices
l AIIMS l Fortis Healthcare l Max Healthcare l PGI Chandigarh l Seven Hills Mumbai
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ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON e-GOVERNANCE
ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON THE ENTERpRISE OF HEALTHCARE
A quALITY MAGAZINE ON BANkING ANd FINANCE
Buyers Speak
East can provide a bright future to the health care sector and transform the healthcare industry while delivering a robust and affordable healthcare, informs Rupak Barua, CEO, Advanced Medical Research Institute (AMRI), Kolkata in conversation with Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) The entire healthcare sector in India is passing through a very crucial stage of evolution. How is AMRI complimenting this growth trail?
Emerging Era in Bengal Healthcare
The healthcare sector in India is one of the fastest growing sectors of India. By 2020, the industry will be a US$ 260 billion industry. Though the healthcare, renaissance started quite late in West Bengal, yet we have picked up quickly and I believe we are in a good position. Many of the advanced medical treatments are now available in all the prime hospitals of Kolkata and developments particularly in the field of oncology are remarkable. The patients have started to queue up towards east and not south. So it’s an emerging era in Bengal healthcare. AMRI will compliment this new era by introducing the best possible services to the customers and also by making healthcare reachable to a larger mass. We are digitising out entire healthcare frame work and giving it an edge with all state of the art equipments.
How did the approach of AMRI management changed towards healthcare, post AMRI fire tragedy? Our prime focus is to change the healthcare infra of the east and we are moving with a definite focus. Cur-
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Buyers Speak
rently AMRI has three large setups in Dhakuria, Mukundapur and Salt Lake and we recently flagged off another multi specialty hospital with a 400 bed capacity in Bhubneshwar, Odisha by shelling out around 330 crore. We are going through a transformation process and we are tied up with McKinsey India as our knowledge partner. Evolving from the unfortunate fire incident which occurred in AMRI premises in the year 2011 made us more firm towards our goal of developing a future healthcare system. The incident raised several questions on the management system so we decided to revamp our entire system come back clean, and re-establishes our fractured brand value. Working as a single unified unit, AMRI is looking for excellence in operational clinical and quality. Focusing towards creating an army of skilled manpower and try to meet the daily demand of the emerging trends in healthcare industry AMRI aims to deliver the best possible services to the stakeholders and to the customers.
Despite the massive boom in the healthcare sector, best healthcare is not within the reach of the common man. What could be the reason behind? It is absolutely true that, after reaching the cusp, the best healthcare facilities are still limited within a certain amount of the people of the country. We should immediately expand our territory and must reach into the deepest corners of the country and must try to provide them with best possible services. The Tier II and Tier III cities of the country as well as the state should have a better healthcare base which will cater to the medical needs of the massive semi-urban and rural population. We have to reduce out of the pocket expenses through better health insurance and we must gather able and skilled medical staffs and doctors who will serve in these areas. By overcoming these hindrances we can
easily create an affordable healthcare system.
How can restructuring of the insurance infrastructure strengthen the Indian healthcare sector? The medical industry is growing very fast with massive investment inflow. With a recent restructuring of FDI, we are expecting that many big insurance giants to foray into the healthcare market of India, which will definitely redefine the entire industry and the affordability factor in healthcare. The business models are changing and investors are expecting results and profit which they can reinvest to meet the challenges of the evolving healthcare industry. To make healthcare affordable, robust system of health insurance should be created to bridge the gulf in between.
healthcare system within the state.
Why do you think smart healthcare should be an important inclusion in the smart city projects? Smart cities must have a smart healthcare system backed by modern and innovative technology in healthcare infrastructure. Leveraging technology in the healthcare sector is the need of the hour. Massive innovations are taking place in the field of technology related to the medical industry and it is also an essential part of the healthcare delivery system.
Why is Bengal a preferred destination of the healthcare industry? Bengal has always been the much desired destination for any healthcare
The eastern region needs more skilled manpower to stabilise the demand and supply management in the system PPP model is not much prominent when it comes to healthcare infrastructure within the state of Bengal. How can we implement the same? Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is extremely proactive towards the all round development of healthcare. The government within this short span of time is doing their best to develop the infrastructure related to healthcare. But definitely there is a massive scope of the PPP model and we should work towards the best possible use of the model. Several private hospitals and state government run hospitals are providing the best possible healthcare infrastructure to the people of the state, but still we are in the threshold of the beginning. The boost in the private, public partnership model can take healthcare in the rural area and also develop the entire public
investors because of its strategic positioning, which is making it the corridor to the east. The eastern market started late so it has not yet reached the level of saturation, so the scope of growth is immense in this market. Investors are interested to invest in Bengal healthcare industry and there is lots of hope in store for eastern healthcare industry.
What are the challenges that the eastern market is facing currently? The eastern region needs more skilled manpower to stabilise the demand and supply management in the system. We need good paramedics, nurses as the entire industry is extremely dependent on good human resource. The infrastructure development in the rural areas needs to be given importance for better and smarter healthcare to the people who are living in the twilight zone.
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Merger & Acquisition
HNG Partners American Megatrends: Promotes Digital Health Facilitating the delivery of health services to rural India, HNG, an affiliate of Apollo Hospitals has join hands with American Megatrends, Inc (AMI) as technology partner, introducing Control H, a handheld medical device, to enhance the rural health connect, home health monitoring and tele-health services
I
n this partnership, HNG will launch a new set of digital healthcare solutions under the Control-H brand. The Control-H health monitoring device is a fully integrated solution that combines handheld medical device technology, developed by AMI, with the total remote healthcare solution technology, by the HealthNet Global. The device provides the user with essential health information at any time and place by collecting key vital data such as non-invasive blood pressure (NiBP), pulse, blood oxygen level, body temperature, blood glucose, hemoglobin and cholesterol levels via a compact and portable device and sending the data to the HNG Health Cloud. The Cloud then connects to the Apollo network of doctors, physicians, consultants and specialists to provide quality healthcare to individual patients - anytime, anywhere. Now, consumers using Control-H can observe and track vital health information in the comfort of their homes and then share it with the Apollo network of hospitals, specialty clinics, pharmacies and 24x7 emergency care facilities to receive top quality health advice and recommendations. Expressing importance of remote healthcare and the convergence of healthcare, IT and handheld device, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “In order to address predominant healthcare issues such as lack of infrastructure and access to it, we are constantly striving to develop new models and innovative solutions. One of these
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models – which we strongly feel will go a long way to address these issues - is a device capable of putting healthcare directly into the hands of an individual, like Control-H.” The partnership would augment HNG’s digital healthcare platform with healthcare monitoring technology from AMI to deliver innovative digital healthcare solutions to the masses. Highlighting the need for such devices as an integral part of one’s daily wellness routine, Anindith
Reddy, Director of HealthNet Global, said “Statistics show that more than 40 per cent of hospital walkin patients can be treated at home. Through the integrated use of various technologies, we are building a remote health platform that can treat all of these cases and non-communicative diseases from home and Control-H devices too can play an integral role in this platform.” Control-H will soon become readily accessible to the general public. Both American Megatrends and Apollo Group are working on this health monitoring solution, which makes health information readily available at one’s fingertips.
“Ideally, wide adoption of these products would enable physicians to reach out to patients before health issues become serious problems and also empower patients to take a more involved and proactive approach to their own healthcare. It is our firm conviction that our partnership will help make this vision of the healthy future a reality,” said Subramonian Shankar, President and CEO of American Megatrends and Chairman of American Megatrends India Pvt., Ltd. Elucidating about the device, Vikram Thaploo, CEO of Apollo TeleHealth Services and HealthNet Global, informed that a point of care is shifting from hospitals to homes and from curative to preventive modalities. “In a country like India, where the doctor to patient ratio is 1:1700, we have a strong need for technology which will aid in monitoring and managing patient health around the clock. This is the essence of our collaboration with AMI, to make remote healthcare delivery fully comprehensive through devices such as Control-H,” he noted. AMI, a global leader in BIOS, remote management tools, network data storage products and unique solutions based on the Linux® and Android™ operating systems, aims to deliver global digital health solutions . “Through this initiative, we firmly believe that quality healthcare will become more accessible to citizens across the nation,” said Sridharan Mani, Director and CEO of American Megatrends India Pvt, Ltd.
Industry Speak
Medical Coding - Changing Trends Omega Healthcare is ready to adapt the changes accompanied by ICD 10, shares Gopi Natarajan, Co-Founder & CEO, Omega Healthcare with Rachita Jha of Elets News Network (ENN) What is the market potential of medical billing industry and how will it change with onset of ICD 10 coding norms coming in US? Medical coding and billing is considered very crucial in healthcare industry. One of the advances in Business Process Outsourcing industry, medical coding and billing has emerged as one of the attractive and successful careers, which probably has a good amount of deficit of talent in the sector. Now with the transition of the medical coding process from ICD-9 to ICD-10, it will create huge demand for certified medical coders across the globe, especially in US, Middle East and in India. The accelerating pace of technological changes and advancements has pushed the organisations across the globe to be more swift and agile to be a step ahead of the competition in the market, at the same time maintaining the quality of services being offered. Amidst all these, implementation of ICD is the next big step that will change the healthcare industry in US and the outsourcing industry across the globe.
What are your target customers and your presence in India? We serve the niche segment market of revenue cycle management of healthcare sector in the US and include the hospitals, physicians and healthcare providers. This is also called medical coding and medical billing industry. The need for an third party partner who can add value and make the system more efficient, hassle free and smooth operations. We are one of the largest players in this segment in India. Our focus was to leverage the talent in India and the time difference to be able to
provide better quality services to the US healthcare providers. We have a smaller footprint in the US and larger workforce is in India that caters to our US clients. We have been strategic to have a very focused and niche service of medical coding and our business model is based on the wholesale model that has its foundations on scale of Busniess. Currently, we operate in three cities in India, Chennai, Trichy and we are about 9000 employees and have an operation Manila, Philippines. Trichy is now our largest focus.
What are the growth drivers of the industry and how will ICD 10 change the scale of medical coding Business? ICD 10 is a big driver of this growth of the medical billing industry. And we have the largest talent pool of medical coders outside the US close to 2400 and represent a big segment of our business and are known for coding in the industry. And we have also started Omega Medical Coding Academy (OMCA) as we saw the skill gap of medical coders in India and it will help to sustain our business
and get industry ready manpower. ICD 10 is a big shift in how medical coding is done from 16,000 to nearly 166,000 codes and will be a very complex process in which lots of systems and processes will have to change. We are on of the few companies today that are ready to code in ICD 10 while others are still waiting to see what happens ahead. A lot of our clients have already shifted to ICD 10 and we are serving them on the latest upgrades modules. The medical coding will accelerate by leaps and bounds following the onset of new coding norms in the US and it’s a huge opportunity for players in this industry to be right there at the right time.
You have most of your centres in South India, what are the key reasons for the same? Initially we were associated with Manipal Group in Bangalore and the initial start of our venture began when they approached us to start operations from their facility in the city itself. The advantage of a ready infrastructure and technology support with ready to hire manpower made us take the decision to begin from Bangalore. These initial support was so good that we went operational in 45 days. Due to our roots in South India we have been present mainly in the southern cities as of now. These were strategic decisions to expand in cities to ensure operations are not hindered due to local risks. As our business is time sensitive with 24hour cycle of critical operations, we have decided on cities that easily ensure business continuity for our customers. To read the complete article, log on to: http://ehealth.eletsonline.com/
DECEMBER / 2015 ehealth.eletsonline.com
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Special Focus
Pharma Sector T
Needs Growth
West Bengal needs to focus on pharma market. The State shared more than 80 per cent of the national drug production in pre-independence era, which is currently at eight per cent informs Dr Chintamoni Ghosh, Director of Drugs Control, Government of West Bengal to Elets News Network (ENN)
he Indian pharma market is foreseeing significant growth opportunities; the industry is trying to sustain a robust growth rate of 15–20 per cent by 2020. In order to meet the requirements, the state government and pharmaceutical companies needs to adopt new business models. West Bengal being one of the oldest and probably the largest public health and government hospital-based healthcare delivery infrastructure and network, needs more focus on the pharma industry. In the immediate pre-independence era (1940), the Pharmaceutical industries of Bengal shared more than 80 per cent of the national drug production that has gradually been reduced to less than 8 per cent today. Health remains primarily a State subject. Although health policy and drug policy are formulated and revised periodically by the Government of India (GoI), the major responsibility of their implementation lies with the state governments.
West Bengal Promulgates Free Medicine In the state a large number of population avail the government service and enjoy the access of
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Special Focus
drugs that constitute an integral part of healthcare. West Bengal is probably the pioneer state in India in promulgating free distribution of drugs concept for patients in all government health facilities. Recently with view to expensive treatment cost for cancer and lifestyle diseases like cardiac and diabetes, State Government has declared to make available such medicine in health facilities free of cost. West Bengal is one of the few states in India where the vendors are selected to supply the drugs through e-tendering process only to keep it transparent. The drugs are procured with generic name and International Non-proprietary Name (INN) on decentralised process. A carefully selected list of items, called Central Medical Store (CMS) catalogue, much akin to the Essential Drugs List (EDL) of World Health Organisation (WHO) is the basis for such procurement.
Digitised Drug Distribution Procurement, planning and monitoring procurement performance of the medicines are fully software based, it’s overseen by State Health Information Management System (SIMS) throughout the State as a part of e-governance programme. The system being user friendly, a large number of Indian manufacturers including multinationals are participating in this tender process. As a part of promoting the industrial sector in the state, the government has introduced purchase preference policy in tender documents for State based Small Scale Industries involved in drugs manufacturing. Yet, people’s access to essential medicine has remained far from satisfactory. There is a lot of scope for Pharmaceutical Industry to be involved in drugs procurement system in government hospitals in West Bengal.
Advantages of Pharma Industry in West Bengal l Potential market with a target
l
l
l l l l
l l l l
large population in the eastern and North Eastern states Through successful implementation of Land reforms, the rural economy has developed resulting in increase of purchasing power Prime medical facility in Kolkata, Durgapur and Siliguri for patient from neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan NIPER campus is established in the state A proposed Pharma Manufacturing zone and Chemical Hub Special Export Processing Zone (SEPZ) at Falta NPPA-CIFG in Kolkata for redressing the grievances of consumer Biotech Policy is declared Country’s main Patent office in Kolkata Abundance of Professionally equipped Technical Personnel The state government is adopting
a number of policy measures in order to accelerate the growth of the pharmaceutical industry & to make it internationally competitive
Aim and Goal of State Policy in Health Sector: l To promote rational use of
medicines l To facilitate rational pharmaceutical management in
government health facilities l To foster growth and sustainability
of state level pharmaceutical industries (not sacrificing people’s health goals and rights) l To ensure compliance of drug legislations / regulations and quality assurance The State Drugs Control Authority is entrusted with the regulatory mandate for availability of quality drugs with affordable price. Harvesting and integrating the drugs control activities in best interest of people is a priority commitment of Government of West Bengal. A strong motivation within the pharmaceutical industry is now required to regain its lost pride and position. The driving factors, however, remain as availability of skilled manpower and phyto-chemicals, raw materials and access to different global regions through East.
Domestic Market The industry has enormous growth
potential. Factors listed below determine the rising demand for pharmaceuticals. l The large population of over of a billion l Increasing income capacity l Demand for quality healthcare l Change in disease patterns l Increased demand for new medicines to combat lifestyle related diseases.
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Buyers Speak
Eyeing Growth Strengthening health insurance in eye care segment can change the entire demography of ophthalmology in India, shares Dr Debasish Bhattacharya, Chairman & Managing Director, Disha Eye Hospital with Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) How important is ophthalmology segment in Bengal?
The ophthalmology industry has not grown in an organised way in Bengal. Your views.
forward to a growth of 30 per cent in the coming few years. Many sub specialties are dependent on NGO’s and other small unorganised players. The absence of organised effort is not possible as industry insiders believe that it is easy to organise this subspecialty in small units. This is probably the only medical stream where a small town doctor can stand up to a big institution which is there in the market. The individual skill set level in this segment is extremely good and reproducible. Even the entire tertiary care can be reproduced by a person who is working in this field for the last 10 to 15 years. Because of this challenge the corporates have not involved in this health domain. Regionally, small players are still ruling the market of ophthalmology.
Currently all the players which are related to this industry are looking
How is your organisation
With the invention of modern technologies the entire arena of ophthalmology has gained a new momentum and established a strong service oriented economy with in healthcare segment. The penetration of eye care industry is extremely good in Bengal’s healthcare market. The reach of the ophthalmological surgeries has crossed the urban territory and touched upon the remotest corners of the country as well as the state. Being an industry insider I’m pretty hopeful about the future of this industry. I’m expecting a value growth of 10 per cent and numerical growth of 10 per cent in the coming few years.
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bridging the gap between rural and urban health care? The rural population of the country is still devoid of the minimum healthcare facilities. Balancing between maintaining quality, cost and reaching out to the lowest strata of the society is the biggest challenge which the entire healthcare industry is combating at the moment. We divide our resources and utilise to the fullest, thus we balance between cost, quality and we reach our target customer. Skilling workers and using them in the best possible way and also looking at the numerical dividends and looking for quantity turned Disha Eye Hospital into a cost effective and customer friendly eye care institution. The entire health care industry has evolved over time.
How have Disha Eye care hospitals encouraged the
Buyers Speak
growth of PPP models in Bengal? The awareness towards the vision related ailments are minimum within the society. The government and private both should facilitate the awareness campaigns which are related to eye care. The PPP model can be encouraged in awareness building. The Disha Eye Hospital is currently working with several government institutions such as RG Kar Medical College and also with other organization which are under the government canopy.
The health insurance market in India has not bloomed properly over the years. Where is the problem? The strengthening of the insurance related infrastructure can change the entire demography of the ophthalmology in India. If every Indian pays 100, then all the treatments related to this branch of healthcare can come under the umbrella of health insurance. The ophthalmology related insurance market has reached 8000 crore and the Rashtriya Swasth Beema Yojana (RSBY) has gained some promising results within a very short span of time.
Do you think digitisation is possible in healthcare? Can government walk the talk? Over the past few years ophthalmology has been digitised massively and there are multiple electronic interfaces which are there in this stream of health care. The diagnosis in eye care has gained a mammoth boost because of modernisation and digitisation. Tele ophthalmology is used in the field of diagnostics but treatment has to be done by a doctor. The digitisation will improve the overall scene of eye care in the country .
How is Disha Eye Hospital sensitising the citizens about the different eye care related ailments? Are people of Kolkata
Today, the Bengal’s ophthalmology segment is facing massive challenges from Nepal as this country has developed a very strong system of cornea treatment and that is attracting several patients from the border areas of India eager to donate their eyes after death?
The City of Joy has lost its battle to diabetes, that’s what most of the doctors feel. Presently there is a massive rise in the diabetic retinopathy, an eye ailment which is closely related to diabetic disorder. Also diseases like glaucoma and age related eye ailments are plaguing the city at the moment. The Disha Eye Hospital has been continuously trying to address to these eye disorders and trying to give the patients proper and smarter eye care, though their modernised systems. The awareness related to eye donations is 100 per cent in Bengal which is quite encouraging for all of us. As per reports, the eye banks have solved several cornea related problems and successfully corked the rise of blindness in Bengal over the past few years.
What is the ratio of patients coming from neighboring countries and states for the eye care industry of Bengal? The entire eye care ecosystem of
Bengal largely depends on the inflow of patients from the other neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Bhutan. Today, the Bengal’s ophthalmology related industry is facing massive challenges from Nepal as this country has developed a very strong system of cornea treatment and that is attracting several patients from the border areas of India. Nepal today has some of the best hospitals in eye care and they are doing more than one lakh cataract surgeries.
Do you think there is crunch of manpower in ophthalmology segment? Most of the hospitals in Bengal often complain about manpower crunch which is also restricting the growth and spread of the healthcare industry of Bengal, but in ophthalmology the scene is little different. The industry has ample manpower which is well compensated and that’s why the industry is growing in full swing. To give healthcare a push a proper inflow of manpower with proper skill set is the need of the hour.
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Special Focus
Stitching a Perfect Smile Maxilliofacial surgeries needs more attention, as most of the specialists in India are diverting and shifting to dental based treatments for their own survival, informs Dr Srijon Mukherji, Director, Calcutta Institute of Maxillofacial Surgeon to Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) Can you elaborate on maxillofacial surgery and how it is positioned in the healthcare ecosystem? The maxillofacial surgeries are anatomy specific and it revolves round the facial area of a human body. Maxillofacial surgeons are experts in doing surgeries which are related to the face of a person. It is a skull based surgery and this surgery calls for a significant investment, as it’s critical in nature and many of the neurosurgeons even dodge the maxillofacial surgery. This surgery is the most ill publicised surgeries and very few amongst the mass really have a clear idea about this specialised stream of treatment. Corporate based hospitals are not much interested in this field because other sub specialties such as onco surgeons, plastic surgeons are surrogating maxillofacial treatments. Government hospitals do not have the infrastructure to support such surgeries. Currently, most of the maxillofacial surgeons in India are diverting from the core area and shifting to dental based treatments for their own survival.
What future you see for the maxillofacial surgery in the country? It is an unique treatment; we need more specialists in this particular field. My sub-specialty is a state- ofart organisation which tries to create the next breed of maxillofacial sur-
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district level hospitals of the state which is a big achievement for us.
When a patient should search for a maxillofacial surgeon? Individuals who suffer from jaw joint pain, clicking, locking and inability to open the mouth should immediately approach maxillofacial surgeon. Most common chronic facial painful conditions are jaw joint related. Or any lump or bumps, ulcer, red or white or patches inside the mouth need attention of a maxillofacial surgeon only.
The level of oral cancer is increasing every day, how can we restrict the spread?
geons who are passionate about this profession. Located in east, we train students from different parts of the country.
How you can enhance the awareness level of the people about maxillofacial treatments? The awareness on the treatment is yet to reach many in the country. As far as Kolkata market is concerned for the last seven years we are doing comparatively well. The awareness amongst the government hospitals has increased. Now the Bengal government has also decided to depute one dental and maxillofacial surgeon in all the medical collages and other
Tobacco is not the only reason which can cause oral cancer; a simple broken tooth can lead a person to oral cancer. The awareness levels are extremely less amongst the commoners. The oral area is mostly prone to cancer and 40 per cent of cancer takes birth inside our oral surface. There is a very strong corporate nexus which is running within the society which is diverting the attention of the community towards other types of diseases such as breast cancer. A publicity campaign planned for breast cancer gets ample amount of money and support but campaign for oral cancer in India still lives in darkness. We need more stringent laws to curb the spread of tobacco related products and we must fine them and use that money in funding sensitisation programmes.
Buyers Speak
Enabling Innovative Healthcare We need to complement the government healthcare system through PPP model, says Dr Om Tantia, Medical Director, ILS Hospitals to Elets News Network (ENN) The Journey The ILS (Institute of Laparoscopic Surgery), is mainly focused on laparoscopic surgeries and we are doing all the possible developments in this field. We are one of the pioneers of the minimal access surgeries in laparoscopy in the east and we grew from eight beds to 400 beds and we are complimenting this growth with skilled manpower and apt infrastructure. Today, we have the capability to deal with multiple disorders and we are properly equipped to handle any critical care. But obviously our prime focus is laparoscopy. Over the years, we have excelled in pediatric surgery and diabetics related surgeries. We are also forging ahead in cardiac surgeries in our newest unit which is bustling in the Dum Dum area of Kolkata. We also have a very strong team of doctors in our gastroenterology department and we are doing quite well in it.
Serving Differently The healthcare industry of the East has huge potential and it is growing pretty fast. This is a service based industry, which is catering its services to the lowest strata of the society. So I believe the entire industry is riding on factors such as philanthropy and has to keep its human face alive. We are regularly dealing with ailing people who come to us for treatment
and believe in us blindfoldly. Every day newer and newer inventions are coming in and the industry is growing manifold.
system through which the best possible services can be provided to the rural population in India.
Government, Private Bonhomie
ILS as an organisation is working actively towards affordable healthcare and we embedded stringent policies which promotes affordable healthcare. We offer free healthcare facilities to people from BPL category and we also treat all thalassemia patients free of cost. ILS also conducts free surgical camps in Haridwar and through these camps we take healthcare to the underserved and underprivileged of the society.
It is definitely not possible for the government healthcare system to deal with all the challenges of healthcare alone and at the same time it is also not possible for private healthcare to cater this massive population for free. So we have to find out a balance between the two. We can complement the government healthcare system through PPP model and it will benefit us both.
Digitising Healthcare The need for digitising tertiary healthcare is very important and we must digitise the records which will help us in building a massive pool of data which will help in the overall development of healthcare.
Rural Healthcare We can’t have a tertiary healthcare in the rural areas of Bengal. We have to segregate the manpower the infrastructure as per the need of the rural healthcare and we have to establish a very strong system to address the problems of rural healthcare. We also have to completely hone and polish the existing infrastructure of rural healthcare and create a proper
Ushering Affordable Healthcare
Minimal Use of Defensive Medicine We should and we must cork the use defensive medicine, which is increasing within the healthcare canvas. The use of defensive medicine is something detrimental to the patients and the government alongwith and judiciary and medical councils should take cognisance of this issue. It is an evil in the entire medical system and it is slowly but steadily diminishing the entire glory of this profession. The defensive medicine soars the healthcare cost of the patients and it is the foster child of the modern healthcare system. It increases the health risk and degenerate the relation between the patients and doctors.
DECEMBER / 2015 ehealth.eletsonline.com
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Buyers Speak
Transforming From Hill Station to Medical Hub Well equipped state-of-the-art hospitals in different parts of the North East is the need of the hour, informs Dr Subhash Khanna, Chief Medical Director and Chief Consultant, Swagat Super Specialty Surgical Institute (SSSSI), Guwahati, Assam to Prathiba Raju from Elets News Network (ENN) What steps should be taken to boost the health fraternity of the NE region? The medical fraternity in the region has evolved a lot and many new hospitals have come up that are technically at par with the renowned hospitals of the country. The only reason the regional fraternity has not been able to perform has been the lack of good fully equipped state-of-the-art hospitals in different parts of the north east. Thus many doctors of the region have left as without a back up good hospital the doctors at times feel helpless and frustrated. There are various ways that health fraternity of the north east can get a boost in this world one important step is participation of corporate hospitals in a big way. North East has always been considered as below par with the rest of the country in terms of healthcare delivery, and much need to be done to change that mindset of the people.
What are the steps taken by the union ministry to boost the healthcare delivery in the NE region? The union ministry has tried to improve the health delivery system in the North East region by establishing some medical colleges in Assam but even today majority of the states in the region not only lack medical colleges but even good government run hospitals. Most of the medical colleges
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are understaffed and are not able to provide the healthcare facilities as is expected from these institutes. The North East Regional Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences at Shillong has not been able to help the region the way it was expected to perform, simply because of its geographical location and communication problems. The schemes proposed under NRH needs proper implementation.
How will SSSSI enable quality healthcare in Guwahati and neighboring areas? The recently launched SSSSI is in fact the first such specialised center of excellence in the entire NE region that aims to bring cutting edge technology and state of the art infrastructure to the region. The success of our first center Swagat Endolaparoscopic surgical Research institute prompted us to provide yet another center of excellence in the region. The institute has a round the clock centrally air conditioned environment for the safety. At Swagat, a patient would get specialist surgeons, intensivists and cardiologists under one roof, with a back up of expert accident and trauma team. Their experience and surgical expertise and high sophistication will be the backbone of our precision and care.
What is the specialisation of SSSSI? At our institute our endeavor would be
to enable world class technology driven surgeries reachable and accessible to the people of the region. We could successfully carry out over 15000 endo laparoscopic surgical procedures over a span of 15 years. Our new center primarily would be to be able to provide world class care to the gastrointestinal, bariatric, orthopaedic, neurological, urology, cancer and cardiac patients of the region. My endeavour would be to provide liver transplant surgeries and robotic surgeries in this region in near future.
How do you see the growth of healthcare domain in the NE region five years down the line? In five years from now I believe we shall have a tremendous growth of medical industry particularly in the state of Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. The way private hospitals are focusing in the region they would give tough competition to the local entrepreneurs to improve their infrastructure and facilities. Many more private hospitals would be added that would provide multiple healthcare facilities under one roof. With insurgency under control it is expected that there would be large investments from business houses in the healthcare facilities. I hope in the next five years we would be able to see various patient centric healthcare delivery systems that would be accessible, affordable and readily available.
Buyers Speak
Insuring Feasible Well-Being Insurance acts as a catalyst and leverages affordable healthcare to the common citizens by keeping the growth curve intact of the industry, informs Dr Kunal Sarkar, Senior Vice Chairman of Medica Super-Specialty Hospital to Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) How do you interpret the boom in the private healthcare sector of West Bengal?
NABH an institution has to maintain certain standards and which are actually polishing the service level and ensuring patient’s safety.
It is a fact that the private healthcare sector is growing with a standard pace and they have a massive pie of the market share. The contribution of the healthcare industry in Indian economy is extremely bleak in comparison to other industries such as IT or retail. Most of the private players are in their own cocoon and they are not addressing the holistic problems which are there within the industry. Because of the absence of consolidated insurance platforms the private players should be little less parochial. The entire healthcare industry suffers from policy paralysis and not meeting the standards of the healthcare. The presence of the government in the healthcare should be minimised and rather restricted to keep the growth of healthcare intact.
How can we make health insurance affordable? All the insurance platforms which are related to the healthcare should be strengthened. A multi Tier health insurance system should be laid down to make healthcare affordable for all. The insurance should be an integral part of our social system. Because insurance is the only bridge which can minimise the gap between the affordable healthcare and the common citizens of the country by keeping the growth curve intact. To establish a smart and intelligent medical facility, an investor pumps in money and that fund incurs interest. To meet all these loose ends, a proper insurance infra-
Do you think the heart related treatments are beyond the reach of the common man in India?
structure is the need of the hour. The absence of proper insurance back up has made the healthcare industry extremely patchy in India. We need a uniform healthcare which will have the strength to develop and upscale, then only it can cater best possible services to its patients.
How is National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) certificate fortifying the patient safety? With my experience of more than two decades in the health sector of this country, the best possible thing which happened is the NABH. Through this certification the institutional standardisation has developed a lot. To get
The heart related treatments are extremely low cost and affordable in India. But there are several nexus which is present within the system which are hampering the cost of the operations and other medicines. The government over the years has tried to cap this malice but by rolling out several low cost medicines and stents but they have no clinical authenticity. But over the years India has excelled in catering a cost effective heart treatment.
Do you think the manpower dearth is really evident in the healthcare sector at the moment? We should build up an army of manpower by keeping it at par with the people infrastructure. I think 80 per cent of the skilled manpower such as nurses and paramedics lies within the 20 per cent population of the country. So we should have proper distribution and of manpower and the infrastructure expansion is a massive problem. We should and must develop manpower which is less illusioned and cushioned by proper infrastructure.
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Buyers Speak
Need for Inclusive Healthcare In order to meet the rising healthcare needs, the state government of West Bengal is pushing for overall growth of the healthcare fraternity, informs Sanjay Prasad, CEO, Mission of Mercy Hospital to Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) The healthcare industry of Bengal is evolving fast. How do you think the big and the small players can co-exist in this arena? As far as the healthcare market is concerned, the urban market is completely saturated and all the big players keep flocking to Kolkata will not benefit the overall growth of the industry the creation of a proper healthcare ecosystem is need of the hour for stakeholders to survive. The private players can cater to the population with higher income and government can be a very good option for the lower income group. The entire system should be cushioned by a proper insurance infrastructure which will also benefit the middle class population of the state and will help them to get better healthcare.
Many medical students flock to Russian and Chinese medical institutions for a medical degree. How can we reverse this process? The state government over the years has taken some revolutionary steps to deck up the medical education system of the state. Currently the state has more than 300 medical colleges which are spread across the state and the entire licensing process has been revamped to encourage more private and government medical colleges. As prudent citizens of the state we have to be cautious about disbursing license, we should hand over license to an authentic institution. Though I don’t want to be geographical but nursing degrees are sold in the southern part of India and a massive pool of nurses are coming into the market with
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fraudulent degrees. The government has taken cognizance of the fact and dealt with them with iron hands. Currently we are not churning out an ample number of doctors and the industry is running with this crisis but we are still maintaining the quality of the doctors and that is more important.
How can healthcare be made affordable and brought to the rural population of the state? The mind-set of the people in the state is that good healthcare is dispensed only in those hospitals which are multi specialty. As per industry analysis 70 per cent of our ailments need good secondary care, but because of our attraction towards the multi-specialty we get easily attracted to these selected hospitals. People should have that advocacy of matching their needs with the facilities. So small or medium level hospitals can be a good option for patients and they can facilitate a patient with good healthcare.
The government also is doing a great job in revamping the rural healthcare of the state. This is a massive market of 1.6 billion people who are still waiting for a better health care structure. So we should explore this land opportunities to the fullest.
How can digitisation be used as a vehicle to transform healthcare? I believe digitisation is the only possible path which can change the face of health care in India. Through digitisation we can not only take healthcare at the doorsteps of the people of India; in addition the entire initiative can gain pace through it. The industry is running with a shortage of one million doctors and two million nurses, so to meet the needs of the patients we have to ride the digital wave which is there in India. To make healthcare reachable we have to depend on technology.
Do you think the government and the private players should work together to boost healthcare sector? How it will help in the future? The healthcare is a completely state subject and private player’s way of functioning is completely different. They have their own profit outlook and also CSR initiative which they abide religiously. We cannot completely merge them but we can create a bridge between the two. The private players can partner government in building a good health care system within the state. These are two different worlds of healthcare they can exist as two subsets and they can never completely become one ecosystem.
Buyers Speak
Shoving IT in Healthcare Deployment of IT and IT enabled services has gained paramount importance in every field in Indian healthcare delivery segment, while the use and growth of Healthcare information technology is very low, shares Jashodhara Ghosh, Vice President – Operations CK Birla Hospitals with Elets News Network (ENN)
H
ealthcare industry is experiencing a steady and stable transformation the world over, majorly with Information Technology (IT) playing a core role in every aspect of healthcare value chain ensuring faster adaptability of advanced technologies, reduction of service costs and provision of quality healthcare at affordable prices. India is one of the leading countries that tend to yield quality healthcare services. Even though, India being the hub of the IT and IT enabled services industry, the use and growth of Healthcare information technology is very low. The technology shift has cast itself over the field of healthcare, bringing with it a digital transformation in the way doctors and patients interact. Along with the growing popularity of digitization in hospitals, market penetration of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) is likely to increase further in the coming years. A shift in thought and implementation has made healthcare providers take notice of the ample opportunity that technology can provide. The adoption of IT will help hospitals develop innovative and efficient healthcare infrastructure necessary for rural and urban population. Information Technology (IT) is a critical contributor to transform care delivery and helps improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare delivery. The possibility of innovative new technology that is simple to use, cost effective and helps data to be
portable – is a phenomenal change in how care could now be delivered. Additionally, the information could also be used to standardise the delivery process inside the provider’s facilities. According to a report by Frost and Sullivan, India’s healthcare information technology market is expected to hit $1.45 billion in 2018, more than three times the $381.3 million reached in 2012. And yet, Currently, the IT budget for Indian hospitals does not exceed 10% of their revenues, substantially lower than allocation on IT in hospitals in the developed nations. Technology and the positive impacts on the healthcare delivery market is manifold. The convergence of healthcare with upcoming technologies such as cloud computing and wireless technologies will play a key role in improving accessibility and meeting the challenge of manpower shortage.
The coming years are expected to witness greater deployment of tools such as telemedicine, teleradiology, hospital information systems (HIS)/ hospital management information systems (HMIS), online or electronic medical records (EMR), etc. Today, healthcare organisations need to streamline their IT infrastructure, to be able to provide simple, quicker and more efficient healthcare service or delivery. The healthcare solutions promote a new productivity model whereby the ultimate winner is the patient, who will now have instant equitable access to the best clinical expertise. However even though the industry is taking large strides towards effectively incorporating IT systems in the delivery of healthcare services, the country is still faced with several challenges in this department. These are to name a few - lack of standards; cost of IT systems implementation, lack of IT expertise; reluctance of medical, nursing and other staff to adapt; fear of technology failure (paper systems appear more reliable); poor support from vendors and lack of other infrastructure support. Also while standard features are available, advanced features like Q It or Quality Inspection tools are not available in the HIS available in HIS in India. Another challenge is the low use of IT in the public sector which is still the prime healthcare provider. This is largely due to cost and complexity of usage. To read the complete article, log on to: http://ehealth.eletsonline.com/
DECEMBER / 2015 ehealth.eletsonline.com
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Government Desk
Organ Transplant to be Availed in all Major Hospitals: J P Nadda
U
nion Health Minister J P Nadda informed that the government has taken some decisive initiatives to accelerate the number of organ donations and to open organ transplant facilities at all major government hospitals. Informing that the central government is trying to increase the number of voluntary organ donations in the country, Nadda urged the people to voluntarily endorse and take part in organ donation. The minister admitted there has been a delay by the government on the organ donation issue, and said his ministry has decided to impart training in organ and tissue transplants at the government hospitals. “We have also decided to train the paramedics in hospitals and sensitise them about organ donation, so that they can further pitch about the issue in the society,” Nadda said at the sixth Indian Organ Donation Day at Vigyan Bhavan recently.
National AIDS Contral Programme will be a Central Scheme
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“Of course, there has been a delay by the government towards promoting organ donation but the decisions we have taken in the last one year will make this cause a meaningful activity,” he added. The minister called upon NGOs and voluntary organisations to come forward and work with the health ministry. According to the health ministry, India needs around two lakh kidney donations every year but less than 7000-8000 donations are possible at present.
he National AIDS Control Programme will continue as a Central Sector Scheme 1 and government is committed towards the fight against AIDS, Union Health Minister J P Nadda informed. “There had been concerns in some quarters about the ability of some of the states to contribute their share to the programme. These doubts should now be laid to rest. This decision clearly demonstrates the government’s commitment towards this cause,” Nadda said at an event to mark the World AIDS Day. He also said that government has decided to provide third-line treatment to HIV patients and increase the beneficiaries of Anti Retrieval Therapy (ART). “The cut-off level for initiation of ART will henceforth be a CD4 count of 500. Till now, people with CD4 count less than 350 were given the treatment. “With this decision, additional one lakh persons will start getting benefit of treatment. NACO has been asked to gear up for these initiatives and we hope to start actual delivery in the coming weeks,” the Minister said.
Vaccine Preventing Re-emergence of Polio Introduced
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n injectable vaccine to prevent reemergence of polio was launched by the central government and it will be administered in addition to polio drops to double the protection from the deadly virus, which has chances of coming back. The Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV)
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will be introduced in the routine immunisation programme of the government to do away with the risk of re-introduction of the disease. Union Health Minister J P Nadda said that though India was certified poliofree on March 27, 2014, the battle against polio is not over yet. “The virus is still active in our neighbouring countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan. Cases of polio still happen there. So the risk of reintroduction of the disease remains, particularly through importation from these endemic countries,” he said. “We are there to give them all kinds of support including technical, experience or vaccine-related assistance. But we
will have to be vigilant till the virus is eradicated globally,” Nadda said at a function here to launch the vaccine. In the first phase, the IPV injection is being introduced in six states — Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. However, the children will continue to receive OPV (polio drops) dose under routine immunisation and in pulse polio campaigns till they are five years of age. “Even after receiving the IPV vaccine with the third dose of OPV (polio drops), the children must continue to receive OPV doses under routine immunisation and in pulse polio campaigns till they are five years of age,” Health Secretary B P Sharma said.
DEADLINES FOR ABOVE ARTWORK - 23rd December 2015 | EDITORIAL - 21st December 2015
International News
Big US Health Insurance Group Mulls to Quit Obamacare
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he UnitedHealth Group Inc, biggest US health insurer is considering to pulling out of Obamacare as the company indicated that it loses hundreds of millions of dollars on the program. The step which could be a huge drawback for US President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Chief Executive Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth Group Inc informed media,” We would decide in early 2016 whether to sell on the marketplaces the following year. We cannot sustain these losses and can’t really subsidise a marketplace that doesn’t appear at the moment to be sustaining itself.” According to media reports, UnitedHealth Group Inc. has scaled back marketing efforts for plans sold to individuals this year and may quit the business entirely in 2017. It’s an abrupt shift from October, when the health insurer said it was planning to sell coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 11 more states next year, bringing its total to 34. The company also cut its 2015 earnings forecast. While millions of Americans have gained coverage under Obamacare since new government-run marketplaces for the plans opened in late 2013, in UnitedHealth’s case they haven’t been the most profitable. Customers the company has added have tended to use more medical care. UnitedHealth also stated that some people are signing up for coverage, getting care and then dropping their policies.
UnitedHealth said it expects as much as US$500 million in losses on the Obamacare plans in 2016. The insurer will record US$275 million of the costs in the fourth quarter. Added that it’s booking US$350 million in losses tied to the 2015 performance of its ACA plans. The company’s shares fell 5.6 per cent to US$110.63 at the close in New York. Anthem Inc. and Aetna Inc., the two biggest health insurers after UnitedHealth, also declined, as did hospital stocks including HCA Holdings Inc. and Community Health Systems Inc. Insurance markets rely on premiums paid by healthy people to subsidise the medical costs of the sick. If an insurer sets premiums that are too low or attracts customers that are too sick, it can suffer losses. That can be a particular risk in new markets that an insurer may not be as familiar with. UnitedHealth has been slower than some of its rivals to sell Obamacare policies. Meanwhile the Obama administration pointed out that many people are signing up for Affordable Care Act policies. About 1.1 million people have signed up for coverage in the first two weeks of enrollment, which began on November 1. UnitedHealth covers fewer than 550,000 people on the Obamacare exchanges. About 9.9 million people had insurance through the US and state-run insurance markets as of June 30.
Smartphone App to Monitor Mental Health
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esearchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain have designed a new app that allows doctors to remotely monitor a psychotic outpatient’s mental state and improve overall adherence to treatment plans. Collaborating with researchers from the INCLIVA institute for biomedical research, the team at the Polytechnic University of Valencia has already piloted the web and smart phone application which, among other things, reminds patients when they need to take their medication. Psychosis is a condition of the mind described as involving a “loss of contact with reality”. The conditions include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, manifesting in the form of hallucinations, delusional beliefs and sometimes violence. The smart phone app is easy-to-use and requires minimal effort on the part of the patient.
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The app reminds patients to take their medication, but it also periodically asks them a set of questions designed to elicit their mental state and feelings about the prescribed medication. Doctors can also program which questions are sent to each patient and monitor their answers online, giving them an overview of the patient’s mental health at all times. It also allows them to adjust the treatment plan in response to the patient’s feedback regarding the medication and its effects, refining dosage and daily doses as necessary. Using the app, the patient receives four types of message: reminders, mood updates, side effects and feelings towards the medication. Besides these messages, the app also includes a request urgent contact button for if they think they are experiencing an episode, which sends an alert to the doctor in real-time.
Hospital News
Super Speciality Heart Hospital in Odisha
`130 cr for Trauma Centre under PMSSY
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he Odisha government has given approval for setting up of a super speciality cardiac care hospital under public private partnership (PPP) in Jharsuguda district. According to an official statement, the empowered committee on infrastructure (ECI), convened under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati, approved the proposal of the health department envisioning a hospital with 50 beds and two operation theatres. The hospital will be set up under joint aegis of the state government and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd with an estimated cost of about `40 crore. The statement further added that Pati has advised the department to develop a human organ bank in the proposed hospital in the future. He also directed the fast-tracking of infrastructure development projects taken up in PPP mode. The project reviewed by the committee include development of storage and warehousing for rice under state PEG (private entrepreneurs guarantee) scheme at 15 locations, city bus service in Berhampur-Gopalpur-Chattrapur-Hinjilicut urban cluster, two affordable housing projects under ‘housing for all’ policy in urban areas. The committee also reviewed four-lanning of SambalpurRourkela section of the state highway number 10, 23 road projects and three flyovers.
nder Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) Malda Medical College and Hospital will get `130 crore to set up advanced trauma centre in its premises. Dr Pradip Kumar Kundu, Medical College Principal said that the amount sanctioned will be utilised to set up a trauma centre well equipped with modern emergency ward and a burnt unit. As the hospital is located beside NH-34, accident cases would be handled in the six storey building of the trauma centre. The existing nurse’s hostel would be demolished to make way for the building and hostel would be shifted to a nearby house, Kundu added. PMSSY has also sanctioned an additional `37 lakh for the renovation of the house.
Win Vision Eye Hospital Plans for 20 Centres in Five Years
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yderabad based Win Vision Eye Hospital over the next five years plans to open 20 more centres with an investment of `100 crore. Their first centre was inaugurated by Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami recently in Hyderabad. “Our plan for first year is to consolidate our first hospital where we have invested `12.5 crore. We are looking for expanding the hospital chain across Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh besides will also enter Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, said N V Ratnam Choudary, Director”, Win Vision Eye Hospital. Other than this the hospital will
be establishing their centres in Karimnagar, Khammam in Telangana and Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. The company plans to expand into Chennai and Bengaluru which will have one major centre each besides two small centres during their fourth and fifth year expansion plan. With the expansion plans the funds would be arranged by venture capitalists, bank loans and their own resources.
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Company News
Healthcare App Medinfi Raises Two Crores
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edinfi Healthcare Private Limited, which provides an Android application to help users locate the nearest doctors and hospitals for their everyday check-ups, has raised Rs 2 crore from individual investors and entrepreneurs. The company intends to use the funds for launching mobile application for iPhone users, apart from expanding its operations to 10 Indian cities over the next three months. The investors include Ram Kumar Kakani, professor at management institute XLRI, Pradeep K Jaisingh, Chairman, Healthstart; Sunil T V, co-founder, IVFA; Vijay Ghadge, COO, Gojavas, Hemant Kaul , exCEO & MD of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Gurmeet Chahal,
senior vice-president and head of healthcare at HCL Technologies Ltd, among others. The company, which is looking to expand its team, was started by Ravi
Shankar Mishra in July last year. Prior to forming the company, Mishra, who is a graduate from Birla Institute
of Technology, Ranchi, and a post graduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur, spent one-and-half-years on market research. “We have always thrived to offer genuine and trustworthy information to our users. With this funding, we would be able to further strengthen our content operations in multiple cities while also scaling our user base to both Android as well as iOS users in these cities,” said Mishra. Earlier this year, the company was selected by Facebook Inc. for its Bootstrap Program for start-ups called FBStart, wherein the company received free resources worth $30,000 from Facebook and its partners. Later, it was recognized by Facebook for its social impact.
Philips India Gets New VC and MD
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hilips India appoints V Raja as the new Vice Chairman and Managing Director for Philips India Limited, effective from 1st December 2015. Raja will be responsible for driving and building the Healthcare and Consumer Lifestyle businesses for Philips in India. Raja takes over from A Krishna Kumar, who moved to a new role effective 1st September 2015 as Head of the Emerging Businesses Group for Philips globally and is based in Netherlands. Raja brings in experience of spanning over three decades across diverse industries including Healthcare, Consumer Products and Food, in leadership roles in finance, business development, and procurement. He joins from
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TE Connectivity, where he was the President of India Operations since 2011. Prior to TE Connectivity, Raja worked with GE for 14 years of which seven years as business leader of GE Healthcare South Asia and has a proven track record of delivering strong growth and profitability, and nurturing and growing talent.
“We are pleased with the appointment of V Raja and we are confident that Philips will greatly benefit from Raja’s leadership and rich experience in business to consumer and business to business industries,” said Ronald de Jong, Chief Market Leader of Royal Philips. “Based upon the solid foundation that was established under Krishna’s leadership,
Raja will play a key role in further strengthening our position in the Indian market as the leading company in health and well-being.” “I am very excited to work with Philips, the company that has been innovating consistently to cater to the needs of modern day customers while maintaining the technological lead that lies at its core since its inception. It will definitely be an enriching experience to be part of a team that is changing the way India defines healthy living,” said Raja. He is a Commerce graduate from Kolkata, Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary. Before GE, Raja has worked for other multinationals including Hindustan Unilever for over eight years.
Pharma Buzz
Cipla Inks Pact With FIL Capital
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rug maker Cipla, has signed an investment agreement with FIL Capital Investments (Mauritius) II Limited for its consumer healthcare business. “Cipla Health and FIL Capital Investments (Mauritius) signed and investment agreement subject to approvals from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and transfer of Cipla’s consumer healthcare business to Cipla Health,” a statement from the company said. On July this year the company’s board had approved an investment by Fidelity Growth Partners India and US based Fidelity Biosciences, through FIL Capital Investments (Mauritius) II or its affiliates in its recently launched consumer healthcare business. Through the consumer healthcare business, the company has entered the over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare market in India. Cipla’s board had approved divestment of its consumer healthcare business to Cipla Health, by way of a slump sale for a consideration of `105 million.
EU to Review Weight Loss Drug
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uropean regulators are set to review a novel drug designed to treat anorexia, cachexia, or unintended weight loss in nonsmall cell lung cancer patients. Helsinn’s anamorelin is a novel, orally active ghrelin receptor agonist that stimulates multiple pathways in the positive regulation of body weight, lean body mass, appetite and metabolism. The firm is hoping that the drug will become the first novel treatment for cancerinduced anorexia-cachexia - a multifactorial problem typified by the loss of lean body mass - in more than a decade. A pooled analysis from two Phase III trials involving non-small cell lung cancer patients showed that anamorelin significantly improved lean body mass and increased body weight compared to placebo and was well tolerated, raising hopes that it might influence cancer therapy across the oncology spectrum.
Strides Shasun Receives US FDA Approval for Dutasteride Softgel Capsule
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trides Shasun has received approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Dutasteride Capsules, 0.5 mg in American market. The drug is used in treating enlarged prostate gland. According to IMS data, the US market for Dutasteride Capsules is approximately US$ 470 million. “The product has gone off patent on November 20, 2015 and Strides Shasun is amongst the first wave of generic players to receive this approval”, said the company. The product will be manufactured at the Company’s Oral dosage facility at Bangalore and marketed by Strides Shasun in the US Market.
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Start-up
Connecting Tech to Last Mile
iKure is filling the workforce and infrastructure gap by providing accessible and affordable healthcare at the grass root level using Wireless Health Incident Monitoring System (“WHIMS”)
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ural healthcare in the country is plagued by umpteen issues like poor access to healthcare, long distance and travel time to tertiary facilities, the limited financial strength of customers and lack of knowledge about hygiene, killer diseases, etc. In order to cope with this scenario ‘iKure’ - an entrepreneurial venture, provides better healthcare through IT. In iKure the ‘I’ stands for information technology and ‘kure’ for healthcare, connecting the rural belt with low-cost wireless technology to link rural clinics to urban hospitals. As per National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) out of 22,000 primary healthcare centers (PHCs), eight per cent do not have a doctor, 39 per cent are without a lab technician and 18 per cent are without a pharmacist.
Bridging the Gap iKure helps rural clinics by providing improved healthcare to poor, rural communities at lower costs to patients than traditional healthcare service. It helps in bridging the gap by providing accessible and affordable healthcare in last mile communities using technology platform WHIMS. It sets up Rural Health Centers (RHCs) in villages resourced with qualified MBBS doctor, nurses and para-med-
tions around sanitation, hygiene and nutritional components, creating a livelihood for local communities and improving the quality of life at grass root level. The venture came into existence after founder Sujay Santra’s father suffered heart ailment after wrongly prescribed medicines in Kharagpur, West Bengal. That moment, Sujay realised, the paucity of specialised doctors in rural or semi-urban locations is a major challenge for accessing quality care at the time of need. iKure was founded on 19 April 2010 to provide affordable and accessible healthcare in rural India. iKure received investment from CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad & Village Capital, USA; Calcutta Angels; Mumbai Angels; Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N); WEBEL, Government of West Bengal; Arun LLC, Tokyo, Japan and has raised an investment of `2.25 crore till now.
Accomplishments
Sujay Santra, Founder & CEO ical staff. It also links each of the RHCs with network hub hospitals for real-time consultation and escalation. All of this is enabled by patent applied for software platform WHIMS, which helps in patient records management, inventory management and connects with network hub hospitals even under conditions of limited internet connectivity. Leveraging technology innovation, skills training and capacity building, iKure healthcare model is an inventive approach that not only treats diseases but also ends diseases from its roots. It works with healthcare partners, doctors, academicians, local NGOs, and corporate on endemic health issues in communities, designing holistic healthcare solu-
In November 2012, iKure opened its first centre in Keshiary block, West Midnapore district and added 28 rural health clinics operating in different parts of west Bengal. It had set up 28 RHCs in Birbhum, West Midnapore treating 32,000 paid patients at clinics covering 140 villages with three lakhs population. 500 pregnant mothers & infants were monitored in West Midnapore covering 40 villages for mother & child intervention. Screened more than 80,000 patients in Haveri district, Karnataka in 15 villages covering 28,000 population. 200 pregnant mothers and 300 infants were monitored in Torpa Block Khunti district, Jharkhand covering 1,00,000 tribal population. In Kandhamal and Raygada district of Odisha 1,50,000 population was screened for malaria and anaemia while in Dima Hasao district of Assam 1,00,000 population was covered.
Business Plans iKure plans to spread across the length and breadth of the country’s rural population and extend their network in overseas as well. For more information visit: www.ikuretechsoft.com
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