Ehealth february 2017 web version

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON THE ENTERPRISE OF HEALTHCARE

VOLUME 12 / ISSUE 02 / FEBRUARY 2017 / ` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-8959

COVER STORY

FEATURED INTERVIEWS SPECIAL FEATURE

Green Hospitals PARTNERS FOR CHANGE

ARUN KUMAR SINHA

Adnl. Chief Secretary, Dept of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of UP

RAJESHWAR TIWARI

Principal Secretary, Health, Medical & Family Welfare, Govt of Telangana

AMEERA SHAH VIKRAM Managing Director THAPLOO and CEO, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd

AMRIT PAL SINGH

CEO, Apollo Tele Health Founder & CEO, Services & HealthNet hospitalforsalelease.

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ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON THE ENTERPRISE OF HEALTHCARE Volume 12

Issue 02

February 2017

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM - DELHI/NCR Senior Assistant Editor: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Assistant Editor: Sandeep Datta, Vivek Ratnakar, Priyanka Sharma Senior Correspondent: Shivani Tyagi, Akash Tomer Correspondent: Rashi Aditi Ghosh, Rajbala BANGALORE BUREAU Associate Editor: T Radha Krishna MUMBAI BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Senior Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty Correspondent: Harshal Yashwant Desai JAIPUR BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma CHANDIGARH BUREAU Assistant Editor: Priya Yadav HYDERABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Sudheer Goutham B LUCKNOW BUREAU Assistant Editor: Arpit Gupta AHMEDABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Hemangini S Rajput SALES & MARKETING TEAM Product Head: Fahim Haq, Mobile: +91-8860651632 Senior Executive: Nilender Kumar, Mobile: +91-8860635837 SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION TEAM Manager, Subscriptions: +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in DESIGN TEAM Creative Head: Pramod Gupta, Anjan Dey Deputy Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur, Shyam Kishore Senior Graphic Designer: Pradeep G EVENT TEAM Assistant Manager: Amit Yadav WEB DEVELOPMENT LEAD Farhan Khan DIRECTOR, ADMINISTRATION Archana Jaiswal EDITORIAL & MARKETING CORRESPONDENCE

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Contents

FEBRUARY 2017 | VOLUME - 12 | ISSUE - 02

12 Cover Story

Startups Dazzle Indian Healthcare Startups are providing a great stimulus to various stakeholders in the Indian healthcare industry, signifying a new beginning based on disruptive thinking, convergence and cooperation to improve healthcare delivery

26 Special Story

Green Commandos Win Immunisation Battle in MP Hills Pati block of Barwani district in Madhya Pradesh is one of the 10 most backward blocks of the country. Providing government services and welfare schemes in Pati block has always posed a big challenge there. Addressing the need for immunisation under such challenging conditions, Tejaswi Naik, Collector of Barwani, has made a major breakthrough

32 Special Feature

Green Hospitals: Partners for Change

Green hospitals are able to increase their efďŹ ciencies and environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and care. Keeping in view these advantages, hospitals in India need to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices in their operations

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Leaders Speak

Corporate Interview 24

22

Arun Kumar Sinha Adnl Chief Secretary, Dept of Health & Family Welfare, UP

28

Rajeshwar Tiwari Principal Secretary, Health, Medical & Family Welfare

62

Dr Sushmita Ghoshal Head, Department of Radiotherapy at PGIMER

Vivek Srivastava CEO & Co-founder HCAH

16

Amrit Pal Singh Founder & CEO, hospitalforsalelease.com

30

Ameera Shah Managing Director and CEO, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd

46

Green Hospitals

18

Krishan Tyagi Co-founder and CEO of MediMetry,

38

Dr Vineeth Abraham Director BMH

48

36

34

Dr Keyur Parikh Chairman CIMS Hospital Sudhir Pillai Sales Director-South Asia, Honeywell Environmental & Energy Solutions

50

Dr Fazal Ahmed Director, AYUSH Medwin Hospital

52

44

Himanshu Zota Director Zota Healthcare Dr Sivakumaran Chief Operating Officer KMCH

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Arvind Goenka Director RMG Polyvinyl India Limited

Shailendra Trivedi Director Channel Management and Operations, R&M India

40 NIPI: Building Synergies for Development

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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editorial

Startups Shine as State of Healthcare in India Perks Up Despite all its complexities and dichotomies, India is endowed with great entrepreneurial spirit. Embellishing the essence of India are all kinds of startups, consistently driving the nation towards ensuring general wellbeing of nearly one-fifth of the humanity here.

With health being an important parameter to evaluate a happy society, the startups appear to be shouldering a huge responsibility in this domain. Our cover story -- ‘Startups Dazzle Indian Healthcare’ -- in our latest issue highlights, how the Indian startup ecosystem is warming up to new disruptive ideas from health-tech startups to rapidly plug the gaps in healthcare delivery -- making it more inclusive and affordable.

Growing concern on the adverse effects of environmental degradation has dominated public discourse in recent times, causing much hue and cry. Addressing the need to make our healthcare providers sustainable, the movement to promote Green Hospitals is gaining momentum in India too. To highlight major advantages of having environmentally sustainable healthcare institutions, our special feature ‘Green Hospitals: Partners for Change’ underscores how patients’ fast recovery is closely linked to the hospitals’ ability to utilise natural resources in optimum way.

Our bouquet of interviews and write ups once again will help people enlighten a bit more comprehensively about the Indian healthcare industry, its course of progression and goals to reinvent in order to expand its reach and intervention to boost quality of healthcare. The various perspectives, expressed by the skippers of the Indian healthcare industry and decision-makers in public health space, highlight the significance of revamping and deepening our expertise in providing world-class quality health services and the various steps already set in motion to achieve these goals.

We expect that the new insights gained by our readers through our endeavour in this issue will help them explore emerging opportunities and bridge the gaps in the healthcare delivery.

Looking forward to our readers’ valuable feedback.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief

ravi.gupta@elets.in

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Cover story

Startups Dazzle Indian Healthcare

Startups are providing a great stimulus to various stakeholders in the Indian healthcare industry, signifying a new beginning based on disruptive thinking, convergence and cooperation to improve healthcare delivery, writes Vivek Ratnakar of Elets News Network (ENN).

A

s India aspires to lead the world, the startup ecosystem in the country has seen a new spark of energies impacting almost every sector of the economy.

Their impact in improving health delivery system is all the more apparent, as it has already started to yield fruits. This has pushed the government and health industry to see healthcare startups in a new light – where they are the torch-bearers of new hope in helping India achieve its goal of “healthcare for all”.

The health startups have been quick to leverage technology to offer out-of-box disruptive solutions to the Indian masses, now empowered by smart phones and better internet connectivity.

The importance of healthcare startups in India was recently bolstered during the Health Tech India-2017, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry concurrently with the 22nd edition of International Engineering and Technology Fair, from February 3-5. The startups which set up their stalls at the first comprehensive show dedicated to health technologies in the country was inaugurated

by Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare.

It served as a convergence point for various health technology companies to showcase their innovations to provide a fillip to the healthcare sector, which is under-

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going a transformation of sorts to make healthcare more inclusive. It also served as a hunting ground for venture capitalists and big investors looking to fund promising innovative ideas that can help them grow their capital at faster rates than any other sector -- highlighting the potential of healthcare startups in the country.

Given that technology holds the key to deliver quality healthcare to people in a country like India where close to 70 per cent of the people live in rural areas, the prominence of startups in disruptive technologies like telemedicine, technology apps based on mobile telephony underscores that they can, to a great extent, help India in achieving universal healthcare in a relatively shorter time-frame.

But how do startups look at governmental push in helping them gain strength.

“The last budget saw (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley announcing a slew of tax cuts and commitments for easing the clearances. The last budget was successful in establishing the commitment of the current government to the startup ecosystem of the country,” said Pawan Gupta, Co-founder, Curofy, a Delhi-based health tech startup which has emerged as one of India’s largest communities of verified doctor networking platform.

In 2016, the Indian healthcare tech startups showed

Cover story

traction with 73 deals worth over $113 million struck, highlighting the future potential of disruptive thinking in healthcare delivery.

Keeping that in mind, the government in the Budget 2017-18 did not disappoint Indian startups. “Being a startup we are happy to hear that government has decided to relax the income tax liabilities applied on startups. The profit deduction period for entrepreneurial juggernauts has also been increased from the previous three out of five years. The startups can now claim 100 percent deduction of profits for three out of the first seven years,” said Mudit Vijayvergiya, another Co-founder of Curofy.

Reflecting on the incentives provided by the government to healthcare startups, Abhishek Dwivedi, Co-founder, Alternacare, said, “As a startup we appreciate the initiative took by the government to relax the income tax liabilities applied on startups. The profit deduction period for entrepreneurs has also been increased from the previous three out of five years. The 100 per cent deduction of profits for three out of the first seven years which can be claimed easily is a great step.”

As per the experts, the government plans to convert 1.5 lakh health sub-centres into health wellness centres which would surely grow the preventive care inclination in the country. A large chunk of health tech startups are in preventive healthcare space and the step would further boost their growth.

Another move by the government -- the push towards digital payments, (by making online transactions tax free) – “would bring more people to consume internet and hence it would support the entrepreneurs solving inefficiencies in healthcare, food, finance, retail, supply chain, etc using technology. Not only this, using BHIM app, people with no credit debit cards can also transact using this app. This move is also a boon in the startup ecosystem by

Given that technology holds key to delivering quality healthcare to people in a country like India where close to 70 per cent of the people live in rural areas, the prominence of startups in disruptive technologies like telemedicine, technology apps based on mobile telephony underscores that they can, to a great extent, help India in achieving universal healthcare in a relatively shorter time-frame the government,” said Dwivedi.

Besides startups in health tech sector, there is also a great scope for startups in research and development (R&D), in order to evolve molecules and drugs that are relevant to Indian conditions, according to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Development of a molecule is not only a painstaking affair but costly as well. Multinational corporations can easily fund such projects that cost several billion dollars.

That is not the case with Indian industry and laboratories, where R&D takes a back seat or hamstrung by lack of funds. Imaginative schemes should be drawn up to address these issues in a cost effective manner.

“Some of pharma companies or start up can take up early development molecules and drugs and once it passes certain stage they can collaborate with larger Indian companies or even multinationals since discovery of new molecules is fraught with very high risk,” she opined.

Despite advances in sciences, there are gaps between biology and technology. Critical medical care for patients suffering from noncommunicable diseases like diabetes, cancer, cardio-vascular diseases etc. can also be addressed by health technology startups.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Industry View

Ensuring Quality Healthcare Delivery

The fast paced developments in healthcare IT industry is ensuring availability of healthcare data at fingertips but due to lack of a standard way in which health records can be shared or stored, we are unable to unlock the full potential of healthcare industry, writes Abhimanyu Bhosale, Co Founder and CEO, Livehealth, for Elets News Network (ENN)

F

or the past two years, the healthcare IT industry has grown quite rapidly, venturing into newer areas like online consulting, Personal Health Records (PHRs) and home healthcare. Who would’ve thought few years ago that we would be able to avail healthcare services at our doorstep, get our medical records delivered right on the app with automated trackers to help you track your health and get personalised insights on your fingertips.

Social entrepreneurs have also contributed their bit in making healthcare more affordable. Companies like iBreastExam are making breast cancer screenings more quick, easy and accessible. UberHealth is making affordable medical devices aimed to reach the masses. But looking at the ecosystem, how will so many different services and devices work together? What about your personal health records? Many platforms are trying to consolidate healthcare data, the so-called PHRs, and almost certainly every health record is either in files or PDFs. But health records are more than just files. These are a snapshot of your health.

Health records serve as an evidence to help predict the possibility of an illness in the future or hold the key to your diagnosis during a medical emergency. But we still don’t have our health records anywhere close to what we can call information. Also, our healthcare providers don’t have the IT systems to share medical records in a format that our smart phones can read.

THE PROBLEM OF ARCHAIC SYSTEMS

We have always presumed that healthcare institutions use the best and the most futuristic IT systems to help improve patient care. Well that was in 2005, and those systems are obsolete and archaic now. We live in a different era, in a mobile and more connect world now. But more than 90 per cent of healthcare provider use IT systems build years back, which limits the healthcare potential in the age

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of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Innovation in areas which disrupts the technology used by healthcare providers will stand as a key milestone in the future of healthcare.

IT systems used by healthcare provider have more organised and accurate information than any other source.

Companies like our, chose this challenge to make healthcare systems more standardised and affordable. Since last year we have upgraded more than 350 diagnostic centres and laboratories to fully automated processes. By enabling them to dispatch reports to patients and consulting doctors in a click of a button, over our mobile apps. Thereby not only reducing their daily workload and human errors but also making it very convenient for patients and doctors.

By structuring medical records in a way computers can understand and analyse, Livehealth has made them accessible across the spectrum of healthcare services, the healthcare provider, doctors and patients, owning the same copy of the medical record. This enables a whole new level of interaction, where for the first time, medical information is truly shared across stakeholders. This is already reducing the amount of time spent per test for diagnostic centers by more than half also sparing the time spent emailing or sharing medical records with doctors and patients. This also reduces the time it takes for doctors to get reports and act on the information.

By understanding and highlighting certain vitals and critical parameters in reports, Livehealth gives doctors more time to spend interacting with patients and acting on information than looking through files.

The feedback that we get is that this is definitely what everyone thinks is the future of ehealthcare. But there is still a major challenge ahead, that is, collaboration of services. We need services that work with each other. Services that plug-in information on consent of patients and more collaborative platforms for a more improved and connected healthcare. We look forward to see that in the years to come.

Industry View

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Corporate Interview

Ultimate Remedy for “HOSPITALS IN LOSSES” - The Game Changer Great ideas are often born out of necessity and the need of the hour is not to build new hospitals with massive loans and investment but to buy/lease distressed hospitals available worldwide, says Amrit Pal Singh, Founder & CEO, hospitalforsalelease.com, an idea whose time has arrived.

E

very story that’s worth telling needs to be said – especially when it has the potential to incite human ingenuity to innovate for the public good. The healthcare sector today is on the cusp of transition, which tends to rely heavily on the wealth of ideas to trigger change.

While not all new concepts may stand the test of time, some pioneering ideas are powerful enough to alter the course of the healthcare sector, impacting lives of billions of people in the process. ‘hospitalforsalelease.com’ is one such idea that is as close as it can get to being enterprising.

Underlying this idea is the will of Amrit Pal Singh, Founder and CEO, hospitalforsalelease.com “to make an impact in the life of patients worldwide by making a win-win approach for hospitals and investors.”

Launched on 26th January 2017, hospitalforsalelease. com is already creating disruptive ripples across the global healthcare industry. But like many trailblazing ideas, this too derives its strengths from personal experiences of Singh which made him “find a solution” to the plight of patients as well as hospitals across the world.

“My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 1, by a leading corporate hospital. When we told them to start the treatment, we were informed there were no hospital beds available for the next three months. Reason being my mother was an ECHS empanelled patient,” says Singh.

Singh had no option but to go for alternative medical treatment. “Those doctors kept treating my mother for the next one year with absolute confidence and guaranteed results.”

But when her condition started deteriorating, she was rushed back to the

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Corporate Interview

corporate hospital, and now after diagnosis, they declared that she was in the last stage of cancer and they must start the treatment to save her life.

“The hospital immediately admitted her, did chemotherapy and all other treatments. However, after one and a half month of being admitted to the hospital, she died. I was in a shock that even after paying a huge amount for medication, treatment and ICU admission she died in just one and a half month because that corporate hospital gave us hope that things were improving daily,” Singh adds.

“The above incident and also when I saw the plight of patients undergoing unwanted lab tests, ICU admissions, expensive medications, unwanted surgeries, unwanted implants in the body, huge patient bills and unwanted medical insurance claims, I was disturbed,” says Singh.

During his association with the top management in the healthcare industry for business development, Singh started to develop marketing teams for some of the leading corporate hospitals, and it was then the reality sank in. He began connecting the dots, and soon the big picture started emerging, clearing all the doubts that fogged his mind ever since he lost his mother. The bed manager of a hospital allocates the beds to patients who can earn the highest revenue that day. Preference is for cash patients at high income than empanelled patient at credit and less revenue, due to which less number of beds is allocated for empanelled patients. If the hospital would have given her the hospital bed and started her treatment when she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, she would have been alive today. “What happened with my mother and me, I do not want that to happen to anyone else,” he says.

At the same time, he also saw the plight of hospitals and their management under considerable stress and in massive financial losses -- forcing them to take patients for a ride.

This is illustrated here https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2QgsPUXwLKs Singh kept thinking what can be done to bring a change in the healthcare industry to fix this problem worldwide and after pondering over a solution to fix the problem, he came up with the unique idea of hospitalforsalelease.com The biggest challenge was to understand the pain areas of the hospital management in running their facility profitably.

“Various challenges like soaring infrastructure costs, medical equipment costs, staff challenges, evolving healthcare compliances and fewer patient walk-ins have pushed many hospitals out of business,” Singh observes.

“The ROI doesn’t happen as projected while taking massive loans to set up the new hospital and revenue shortfalls severely impact the income of the business. The hospital management is subjected to high stress and pressure, often leading to bankruptcy,” he adds.

For Singh, the remedy was to help out hospitals on the verge of failure as business enterprises and find a winwin solution for both the hospital management struggling to cope with rising costs without compromising on good patient care.

Our portal has a global reach, and it is unique in the sense that hospitals and investors worldwide are registered on a single platform, 24x7. It has complete confidentiality as the database is encrypted and secured; registration is free, and no brokerage charges. You can close the deal directly offline amongst yourself “The need of the hour is not to build a new hospital with massive loans and investment but to buy/lease a distressed hospital available worldwide. Hence, an investor gets a ready hospital, staff, infrastructure, medical equipment, and existing patient flow which he can upgrade soon enough with a minimum investment as compared to building a new hospital,” says Singh.

“Now since the investment is the least as compared to building a new hospital, there is no need for the hospital investor to set up huge revenue targets for everyone in the hospital and focus is on providing ethical treatment to the patients with complete transparency. It will result in a win-win situation for both the hospitals and patients,” he adds which is explained in the video https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=_Kx44O3fXgo&t=4s According to Singh, hospitalforsalelease.com gives a global platform to investors and hospitals to collaborate to grow together.

“Our portal has a global reach, and it is unique in the sense that hospitals and investors worldwide are registered on a single platform, 24x7. It has complete confidentiality as the database is encrypted and secured; registration is free, and no brokerage charges. You can close the deal directly offline amongst yourself,” says Singh.

Besides improving the operational efficiency of hospitals, hospital for sale lease facilitates leasing out expensive medical equipment to hospitals.

Now you can register your hospital for free on the website for sale/ lease and find investors worldwide. Also, investors can now contact the hospital owners directly and negotiate the deal directly at 0% brokerage charges.

Let us bring a change in the healthcare industry by spreading this idea worldwide.

Amrit Pal Singh is an MBA, a globally travelled, out-of-box thinker, strategist and game changer who wants to make an impact in the lives of billions of people worldwide.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Corporate Interview

MediMetry: Reinvigorating Online Healthcare

Initially launched as a platform for only pregnant women and new mothers, MediMetry has grown into an online doctor consultation platform covering over 10 domains and making healthcare more accessible and convenient, says Krishan Tyagi, Co-founder and CEO of MediMetry, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the vision behind MediMetry? How does it function?

MediMetry was launched in 2014. Initially aimed to solve issues related to pregnancy and post pregnancy care, Dr Bhawana Tyagi and Krishan Tyagi, a couple who learnt a lot about challenges of new parents during the birth of their daughter, fused their skills together. Krishan, who graduated from IIT and completed his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, combined his exemplary product design skills with Dr Bhawana’s medical know how to establish MediMetry, a product that aims to re-innovate how online healthcare functions.

MediMetry is an online doctor consultation platform, which provides an opportunity to connect with the best doctors promptly. Initially, the platform was launched for only pregnant women and new mothers. However, looking at the growing number of online care seekers, the founders decided to expand their services in multiple streams.

MediMetry users can openly ask health-related queries on a public forum for a free doctor consultation and doctors can give an insight on how to proceed with solving the issue.

Later, users can go for one-on-one private paid consultations, for which patients are connected to the doctors within 30 minutes of posting the request. They can share their previous

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MediMetry users can openly ask healthrelated queries on a public forum for a free doctor consultation and doctors can give an insight on how to proceed with solving the issue. Later, users can go for one-onone private paid consultations

reports and health history securely and privately with the doctors.

MediMetry aims to make healthcare more digital, accessible and convenient, covering over 10 domains including mental health, sexual health, traditional domains like ayurveda and homeopathy, among others.

Who are the key people driving MediMetry?

Krishan Tyagi is the Co-founder and CEO of MediMetry. He is a technology strategist and product visionary.

Prior to founding MediMetry, he had been in various key product leadership roles at Winshuttle. In his stint at Winshuttle, he led the SaaS-based offering of its enterprise suite. Prior to his last role, he worked with Aricent and played an instrumental role in architecting the 4G LTE stack.

He holds a B. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, MBA from IIM-Indore and has successfully completed the Executive Leadership programme from University of Pittsburgh. At the core of his heart, he is an innovator, thinker and a philosopher.

Dr Bhawana is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of MediMetry. She is responsible for medical quality by ensuring that doctors are on-boarded after a strict vetting process. She has also done a training programme to handle online consul-

Corporate Interview

tation efficiently. She also heads the whole consultation feedback and peer review process at MediMetry.

She is a dentist by profession who moved to MediMetry to marry the medicine with technology. She has nine years of practice experience and holds a B.D.S degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut.

through online consultations and any person living even in the remotest part of the country can get the benefits of specialists MD/MS consultation through chat, tele-calling or a video call. MediMetry is accessible throughout the nation through its website medimetry.com and through its android app medimetry.com/app.

What is the current number of doctors and users active on the platform?

How do you benchmark quality of consultations? How has been users’ response so far?

MediMetry currently has over 50 doctors for more than 10 specialisations.

Each doctor has the bandwidth of handling up to 25 consultations per day and we strive to connect our users to doctors within 30 minutes of their submitting their private paid consultation. MediMetry has more than 10,000 users and has daily footprint of 500 unique visitors daily and they are not only from tier 1 and tier 2 cities but also from tier 3 cities asking for general health queries like diet charts to analysis of their lab test reports.

Which specialties are being offered on MediMetry? Are MediMetry services available pan India?

MediMetry currently has over 50 doctors spanning across more than 10 specialisations like dermatology, dentistry, psychiatry, gynaecology, paediatrics, sexology, diets & nutrition, general medicine, ENT, oncology, physiotherapy, ayurveda and homeopathy. These doctors are available

Providing the best quality care is the Mantra for MediMetry. We have a three-step screening and verification process to get the best doctors on board, who hold MD/MS qualifications. All the experts go through a screening round conducted by MediMetry’s in-house doctors’ team and only after thorough verification, they are registered on the platform. Also, during the on-boarding process we provide training to our doctors to efficiently handle the challenges of online consultation along with adhering to our quality standards. Moreover, each consultation is reviewed by peer specialist doctors and quality is continuously monitored by our in-house doctors’ team as well.

We have received overwhelmingly positive response from our users and most of them are visiting us time and again.

How do you plan to scale up the platform?

We have been helping users for the last one year and have received some

MediMetry currently has over 50 doctors for more than 10 specialisations. Each doctor has the bandwidth of handling up to 25 consultations per day and we strive to connect our users to doctors within 30 minutes of their submitting their private paid consultation. It has more than 10,000 users and daily footprint of 500 unique visitors and they are not only from tier-1 and tier-2 cities but also from tier-3 cities

really good feedback from our users. We are available both on web as well as mobile and users can consult through chat, phone or on a video call. Now apart from going strong on B2C, we will soon start going after B2B sales where employers can pay a small amount of subscription fees and then employees can consult on a discounted rate. Also, we are planning to open the app for Middle-east and African countries by mid of 2017.

Besides telemedicine, diagnostic market and Medicine e-commerce are the fastest growing segments of the modern healthcare and MediMetry aims to integrate all of them on our platform to provide an end to end holistic user experience for Indian Market.

What is the platform’s USP?

MediMetry is an online doctor consultation on the go. With our mobile and web presence, we are positioned as pocket doctor. With its full fledge services, MediMetry strives to provide: ♦ SkipAppointment: No more Queues, connect anytime, anywhere, just with one click ♦ SkipTravel: No more Traffic Jams, Driving in Cold, Doctor is in your phone Literally ♦ InstantConsult: Pain Today, Get Solution Today, Get Instant Answers to your query.

What are the key challenges you have faced till now?

Key challenge in India is the lack of awareness that online doctor consultation can actually happen as well as the tendency to rely on self or pharmacist medication instead of a doctor consultation. Besides, another challenge is the lack of standard rules and regulation for doctors for online prescription. As far as the telemedicine is concerned, the market is still in learning and developing phase. As technology is reaching in all the corners of the country and government is also promoting telemedicine through its various initiatives like SEHAT, it is required on the part of authorities to come up with the standardisation on online medicine and prescription.

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Corporate Interview

Bridging Healthcare Barriers via Technology

By synergising healthcare services, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), medical equipment and patient information system, Apollo Telehealth Services (ATHS) is tapping its full potential in delivering and reaching remote and inaccessible locations as well as meeting urban healthcare needs, Vikram Thaploo, CEO, Apollo Tele Health Services and HealthNet Global Ltd tells Elets News Network (ENN).

T

he Indian Healthcare system has notched up several able to penetrate geographies which have remained dissignificant achievements in last 50 years particularconnected over a long time. ly in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality rate The increased usage of internet-enabled mobile devices and success in dealing with various dreaded disis changing the way we communicate. Apollo has recenteases. While “Medical Tourism” has become a reality in ly launched the next generation web-based Telemedicine some of the states in India and private healthcare in India platform “Ask Apollo”, with a pool of Apollo specialists is comparable to the best in the world, large segments of available for consultation online. Through the website our population have no access to them. We have the best “Ask Apollo”, patients from across the world can connect doctors in the world; we also have one of the biggest gaps to Apollo renowned doctors via voice, video, web. in healthcare manpower. This widespread and inherent In a first of its kind healthcare service delivery innovavariance in our healthcare system has a profound impact tion in India, Apollo’s Himachal Pradesh Tele Health Proon the health of our nation. India contributes to 16.5% of gramme has been providing the much needed emergency, the total global population and 1/5th of the world’s share specialty and super-specialty consultation services to of diseases. But the true import of this statistic becomes locations at 14,000 feet above sea-level in the Himalayan clear when you consider the pre-existing inequality in mountain range. Due to high altitude, rugged terrain and healthcare services provisioning; this skew is further comextremely cold winters, these areas remain cut off from pounded by geographical, socio-ecothe rest of the country for five-six nomic bottlenecks. months. Providing essential services With the vision of bringing internain this region poses challenges to the tional healthcare standards within the state administration. reach of every individual, Dr Prathap Apollo recently launched anothC Reddy in 1999 established Apollo er innovative PPP model with the Telemedicine Networking Foundation Government of Andhra Pradesh to (ATNF) and Apollo Telehealth Servicmanage and operate 164 eUPHCs es (ATHS), which is the largest and (Electronic Urban Primary Healtholdest multi-speciality telemedicine care Centres) across nine districts network in South Asia. in Andhra Pradesh for three years.

With the vision of providing healtheUPHCs will serve the urban poor care services to rural and remote lofamilies which are below and near cations across India, Apollo has been the poverty line, thereby catering able to quickly connect to 60,000 rural to the healthcare needs of approxiendpoints under the aegis of “Digital mately 20% of the total population of India”, a central government initiative Andhra Pradesh. Such innovations to help them become Rural TeleClinics; show that Tele Health PPPs that apthereby delivering quality healthcare ply technological advancements in to the rural population seamlessly healthcare can change the healthfrom their neighbourhoods. By enacare landscape, thereby bridging the bling remote doctor access through VIKRAM THAPLOO gap between quality of healthcare Telemedicine at Common Service Cen- CEO, Apollo Tele Health Services services and equitable access for tres (CSCs), Apollo Hospitals has been and HealthNet Global Ltd. all.

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Green Hospitals

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

21

Leaders Speak

Overcoming Challenges to Ensure Salubrious Future

As Uttar Pradesh makes fast strides in the public healthcare space, Arun Kumar Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh, highlights key achievements and challenges that need to be surpassed to deliver quality healthcare services across the state, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: Can you please highlight some key initiatives undertaken by the Department of Health & Family Welfare and how is the department ensuring healthcare in urban as well as rural areas of the state?

As you know all the medical care schemes in the country have been brought under the umbrella of NHM (National Health Mission). In Uttar Pradesh also, public healthcare is being covered under the NHM. In ur-

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ban areas, we have the Urban Health Mission. It includes urban ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers, urban PHCs (Primary Health Centres) and urban CSCs (Community Health Centres).

Earlier, the manpower was not available in adequate numbers but with the beginning of NHM this issue has been resolved. Now urban ASHA workers and urban PHCs and CHCs have started functioning.

Currently, the challenge in UP is

to operationalise this urban health arrangement. So far our initiatives are concerned, now the urban ASHA workers are undergoing training.

Similarly, paramedics and doctors are also now in place. In urban areas, health posts have been upgraded and being looked after.

How PPP is used to deliver better healthcare Services in Uttar Pradesh?

In rural areas also the NHM is aid-

Leaders Speak

ing us to plug the healthcare gaps.

On major initiative we have taken in Uttar Pradesh is in the area of diagnostics. We plan to introduce the PPP model wherein agencies would collect samples from district hospitals and community health centres. They (service providers) have been selected and will start functioning in the next two-three months.

Similarly, in the area of dialysis, we have decided to start it in all the divisional headquarter hospitals.

Two such facilities have already started functioning in Azamgarh and Allahabad.

We are also working on introducing CT scan services through the PPP mode. All the district hospitals, which were not covered till now, will soon get this facility.

The department’s another key initiative is the ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulance service. We have ambulances with us and service providers have been selected to equip these ambulances and run them. Now, ALS ambulances will be available in all the districts of the State.

These facilities are in addition to what we already have. As Utter Pradesh (UP) has a big healthcare infrastructure, we have launched the

UP Health Sector Strengthening Project (UPHSSP) in association with the World Bank, which is assisting us in strengthening 51 hospitals across the State. The remaining hospitals, PHCs and CHCs are taken care of under the NHM. We are trying to bring them to the NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) level, so that quality healthcare services can be delivered.

However, the main challenge we are facing is the non-availability of medical officers. We have made one arrangement for superannuated doctors. If they are physically fit, they can work till the age of 65.

Then, on contractual basis also we are supplementing doctors like anesthetists, gynecologists as per our requirements under the NHM and UPHSSP. That is helping us meet the manpower requirement. We are also sending teams to five states which are good in health sector to learn from their experiences and know which good practices we can adopt in our state.

Please share your views on super specialty services in the State. Are there any plans of the department to boost super specialty facilities in the State?

In UP we have two departments. One is the Medical Health and Family Welfare Department and another is the Medical Education Department. The former has been given the mandate for primary and secondary healthcare sector, while the tertiary health sector is with the latter. For super specialty services, the Medical Education Department is better placed to resolve your queries because they form the policy for it.

However, I believe that we need to consolidate the entire government-run healthcare sector because UP is a big state. We have good resources, but we have lot of gaps that require to be filled so that the efficiency of the services we are providing is enhanced.

There is a lot of talk about smart cities, smart health and digital

India, so is there any plan to bring digital transformation in the department to promote e-governance, m-governance to ensure better healthcare delivery?

Information Technology (IT) is a good tool to enhance our efficiency and productivity. Keeping that in mind, we are running a lot of pilot projects across the State. Through the use of IT, we can increase the efficiency of our manpower. There are initiatives like M-Sehat in place and the ASHA workers are capturing data through tablets. Whereever we are finding opportunities, we are trying to adopt them. Initially, we run the projects as pilot before upscaling them.

What are your future plans and what have been your achievements in the past couple of years?

In the Uttar Pradesh healthcare and medical sector, the biggest achievement has been that a lot of attention has been diverted towards improving it. For example, 108 and 102 ambulance services were introduced, which have proven to be a big success.

Recently, we witnessed a number of railway and bus accidents and in all those situations we responded immediately through our ambulance services.

We have also brought many public-private partner arrangements like in diagnostics, CT scan and dialysis space, which is a new intervention.

Earlier, we had only in-house facilities but now we are using the efficiency of private sector to meet our needs. That has been a big change in the last two-three years.

We have also increased the use of technology. Earlier, our procurement of medicines used to depend on the manual method but now we have a software in place to connect our DG office with vendors directly. It has brought in a lot of transparency and efficiency to our system. It has improved management of medicines.

These initiatives will help us in the long run.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

23

Leaders Speak

Nursing Telangana Healthcare Services Back to Life

With more focus on improved healthcare services for mother and children, the Government of Telangana is revamping the State’s healthcare sector, says Rajeshwar Tiwari, Principal Secretary, Health, Medical & Family Welfare, in an interview with Sudheer Goutham and Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN).

What kind of steps government is taking to bring more effective and transparent healthcare systems for the benefit of the people in Telangana? How do you envision the idea of a Healthy Hyderabad?

The Government of Telangana is making all efforts to make health-

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care accessible to every citizen of the State. The budgetary allocation for health sector has increased considerably after formation of the State.

For the year 2016 budget allocation is `5966 crores. Apart from this around `1000 crore is allocated under the National Health Mission. This shows the government’s commitment towards

providing better health services to the people.

The Government of Telangana is focussing more on the maternal and child health. The institutional deliveries in Telangana stand at 96% and special focus is now on increasing the deliveries being conducted in government health facilities. All

Leaders Speak

the government hospitals are being strengthened to provide effective and transparent healthcare to the poor.

Regarding the health care delivery in Hyderabad, since Hyderabad has an estimated population of 7.7 million with population density of 18,480 people per square kilometer (47,000/ sq mi) with 1,466 slums (notified and unnotified) having a population of 22,87,014, it poses a different challenge to the state to provide health services to the poor.

As per norms there should be one Urban Primary Health Centre on every 50,000 citizens. At present the city has 112 functioning UPHCs. The gap is being filled by establishing more UPHCs under National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). The proposed UPHCs are being established as the e-UPHCs.

What kind of functions the UPHCs linked to?

These UPHCs will function from 8.00 am to 8.00 am and will be equipped with ultrasound machines for screening pregnant women. All the existing UPHCs are being renovated. Mahila Arogya Samithies are formed with the assistance of Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA). Each UPHC will be provided an untied grant of `1,00,000 per month. All the ANMs will be provided with Tablet PCs for tracking of pregnant women and children through tab based app called “ANMOL�.

However accessing these health facilities by slum and vulnerable population is minimal as health seeking behaviour is poor. Further, 1466 notified and identified slums are scattered across both Hyderabad district (city) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) parts of other districts, i.e., Ranga Reddy, Medak and Medchal. The health facilities were neither built based on vulnerable population nor were slums developed around the Health facilities for better access to the health care.

Hence, to address the health issues of the vulnerable sections of the community and to take on a proactive health care approach, the urban Mobile Clinics have been planned to pro-

vide health care delivery services at the door steps in urban slum areas.

What about the Urban Health and Nutrition Days?

Outreach through Urban Health and Nutrition Days (UHND) and Special Outreach Camps meant to address health needs of this vulnerable population. Outreach Sessions will be organised at locations such as community structures, primary schools, anganwadi centres or any place that is accessible to the vulnerable population, in coordination with ASHA and MAS members through the teams of mobile health units in coordination with respective UPHCs. The mobile health units/UPHCs will identify the areas to visit and park vehicles very near to these slum population for better access to the health care services. They will also make tie up with local UPHC for referral and tracking of the patients and pregnant women and children for immunization. Special outreach sessions with specialist doctors can be clubbed with these mobile clinics for better outcomes. Drugs, Lab kits and other equipment will be procured separately for mobile health units.

Please elaborate the concept of e-healthcare centres which have been launched by the state government. How these centres are going to boost the healthcare sector?

The government has recently launched e Health Centres at Rasoolpura in Hyderabad under Public Private Partnership (PPP). e-UPHC will have ambiance of corporate clinics that could change the perception about government healthcare institutions. More e-UPHCs will be established in Hyderabad. In these e-UPHCs all necessary diagnostic tests are done and will be available on an MIS system.

How significantly the government is working to improve the facilities at the primary healthcare centres in the rural areas?

Please elaborate.

Telangana currently has 683 Prima-

ry Health Centres (PHC); of these around 350 work 24*7. The main focus of these PHCs is to provide maternal and child health services, disease control services and outreach activities. The government is taking elaborate efforts to improve the functioning of these PHCs. All PHCs are now being painted to give them a better look. With the formation of smaller districts, the district collectors are able to visit these PHCs physically.

Efforts are underway to standardise the labour rooms available in these PHCs.

The state is also planning to set up super speciality hospitals in and around Hyderabad. Will you please brief us on this?

The government plans to ease the workload on hospitals like Osmania, Gandhi etc., by establishing four super speciality hospitals around Hyderabad. These hospitals will have 500 beds for multi specialties and another 200 beds exclusively for Mother and Child care. These hospitals will come up in the Victoria Memorial Home, L.B. Nagar, Mylardevpally and Rajendranagar and near Pet Basheerabad Police Station and Miyapur Bus Terminal.

Research and development institutions play a crucial role in boosting the healthcare system. Is the state government planning to invest in these areas?

The R&D is generally done in the National level institutions like ICMR, NIN etc. However, the state Institute of Health and Family Welfare do undertake some research studies. This year about 5 research studies are planned to be conducted.

How the state government is willing to support start ups in the healthcare domain? Any specific area where the government wants start up to focus?

The government will support the start up in health care. It mainly wants to focus in the areas of mother and child health care.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Special Story

Green Commandos Win Immunisation Battle in MP Hills

Pati block of Barwani district in Madhya Pradesh is one of the 10 most backward blocks of the country. Providing government services and welfare schemes in Pati block has always posed a big challenge because of the extremely difficult terrain and the tradition of the tribes to reside in scattered dwellings. Addressing the need for immunisation under such challenging conditions, Tejaswi Naik, Collector of Barwani, made a major breakthrough, writes Elets News Network (ENN).

M

aking use of the Vanbandhu Scheme – a Government of India initiative –Barwani Collector Tejaswi Naik recently launched a major immunisation campaign in the most backward area of the Pati block of Madhya Pradesh – Rosar. All the women and children of 130 remote hamlets of 33

villages falling under eight health sub-centres were immunised in just two days. This led to the rise of immunisation programme from 40 per cent to 100 per cent in the area.

As many as 130 Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANMs) who have been hailed as the Green Commandos worked tirelessly for two days navi-

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE IMMUNISATION CAMPAIGN • 100 per cent coverage of women and children for immunisation and medical examination.

• Children and women suffering from malnutrition were examined and provided treatment. Their names have entered database so that proper follow ups can be done.

• The immunisation grew from 40% to 100% within two days.

• In total, more than 200 hamlets scattered over an area of 40 sq. km. spread over more than 400 hills were covered.

• 130 ANMs were deployed to the area which normally is covered by six ANMs to meet the targets.

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All the women and children of 130 remote hamlets of 33 villages falling under eight health sub-centres were immunised in just two days gating through difficult inhospitable terrain and harsh weather conditions, carrying their heavy immunisation kit and other required stuffs to cover the whole area. These Green Commandoes went door to door to all the houses in 130 hamlets.

They used to start their day at eight in the morning and end by five in the evening. Under the scheme, these commandoes were provided with lunch, water, and some light snacks in the form of packets for the whole day. The lodging arrangements for the ANMs in the evening were made free of cost at girls hostels at Rosar, where they interacted with young girls. Inspired by the work of ANMs, now many of these girls aspire to follow the same career path. In this initiative, local anganwadi workers, teachers and forest guards also helped the ANMs.

Special Story

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Industry View

AiMeD – Preparing Roadmap for Indian Medical Device Industry The Indian medical device industry is facing the challenge of competing with imports with deep pocketed MNC importers and pseudo manufacturers in a very adverse eco system. That is encouraging importsbased trading instead of manufacturing, says Rajiv Nath, Founder and Forum Coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts: As the founder and forum coordinator for the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), what are the key initiatives have you set in motion?

AiMeD has created a dialogue with various government departments and ministries to highlight the issues faced by the medical device industry and prepare a strategic roadmap to address India’s import dependency in medical devices to reverse it to make India one of the top five medical devices manufacturing hubs in the world.

We have submitted a defined roadmap and task list with Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Department of Personnel (DOP) to enable ‘Make in India’.

With Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH & FW) we have requested for regulations to address patient safety while creating trust for India-made devices but not of traditional License Raj-type relying on inspection by government inspectors but by unbundling of regulations and ensuring maximum governance with minimal government and ease of doing business by utilising third party certification bodies.

Some of the other key initiatives include Department of Revenue and Tariff Commission a review of the inverted duty structure that was making imports cheaper than

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manufacturing, with Department of Commerce and Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) a focus is on creating brand India and a coordinated overseas marketing plan to unleash our export potential.

What are your key achievements in the healthcare industry?

More than AiMED’s list let me share the government’s Progress Report (some of them triggered by aforemen-

tioned initiatives) which includes: i) Request to government to address Inverted Duty Structure and nominal Tariff Protection: - Revise Basic Duty on Import of Medical Devices to 10% Basic, as earlier (now 7.5% done on January 19, 2016 for 78 items, 21 pending) - Government to revise special additional duty on medical devices to 4% as earlier to enable business viability (Done on Jan 19th 2016 for 78 items, rest 21 to be covered) - Government reduced duty on imported Raw Material to 2.5% on Jan 19, 2016 for above 78 items. ii) For enabling consumer protection our proposed tax-based disincentive are pending. However, steps are being taken by Department of Consumer Affairs to ensure all medical devices carry an MRP whether they are an OTC product or not and NPPA is bringing Stents under price control. iii) QCI introduced ICMED 13485 Quality Certification System as a pre-cursor to medical device regulations for enabling confidence in quality of Indian products (Done on 15th March 2016) and have held a series of workshops in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore with financial support from Department of Commerce on capacity building of Manufacturers for building QMS - Quality Management

Industry View

Systems capability development for getting CE and ICMED Certification.

On our request to create a Separate Rule Book for Devices, the MoH&FW responded favourably and subsequently on 19 October, 2016 the initial draft of the separate rules to regulate medical devices was shared with the stakeholders and uploaded on website for public comments.

Comments have been collected and collated and the draft updated and rules are in process of notification.

Also in response to our request for a Separate Law from Drugs & Cosmetics Act, a draft Medical Device Bill has, meanwhile, been prepared

by MOH&FW and is going internal review within the Ministry, thereafter Stakeholders will be invited for consultations and thereafter we expect this to be uploaded on the website for public comments before being presented to the parliament by ministry. v) On our request to government to review and pull back its Auto Approval Brownfield FDI Policy - it’s ok to retain this for 100% Green Field Projects for manufacturing, not trading - for ensuring choice of Indian brands to Indian consumers , RBI has initiated investigation on the 100% FDI policy for potential misuse and its impact.

What are the key challenges faced by the Indian medical device industry?

The Indian medical device industry is facing the challenge of having to compete with imports with deep pocketed MNC importers and pseudo manufacturers in a very adverse eco system that is encouraging imports-based trading instead of manufacturing so that even existing Indian manufacturers are shifting to imports as that is more convenient and more profitable than to produce in India. From being a manufacturing-led economy, India is becoming a trading and services-led economy in the past decade.

Manufacturing was brought back into focus by the honourable Prime Minister with his slogan and vision of Make in India and starting point is to make illegal - pseudo manufacturers by clearly defining it as falsely

AiMeD and Invest India, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to transform India into a global medical devices manufacturing hub in keeping with the government’s ‘Make in India’ mission.

Under the agreement, they will jointly work with central government, state government departments and agencies to establish appropriate policies and regulatory framework to promote manufacturing of medical devices and components. and purportedly claiming to being an Indian manufacturers without actual manufacturing it in India - manufacturing site and country of origin needs to be clearly labeled to ensure transparency and tracking and the site where there is a value addition of over 40% and there’s a change of sub-heading of classification indicating transformation of an output from more than one input so at least it’s an assembly of components.

How government policies can remove impediments to make India a global hub for medical equipment manufacturing?

Most of the policy decisions taken in the past have been based on White Papers published at the behest of MNCs who are ruling the roost in CII and FICCI – (importers with overseas manufacturing facilities) who are comfortable to access the large unregulated Indian market with minimal tariff barriers and while they make right sounding noises they have been opposing most of the five corrective strategic actions suggested by AiMeD that could strengthen Make in India or help make Indian manufacturers more competitive and thereby increase their market share, such as: Tariff Correction, with the plea

that it affects affordability and accessibility to poor patients. Our contention is being to make manufacturing viable and profitable as before and reverse ongoing trend of manufacturers becoming importers / traders.

Later domestic competition will bring down prices.

Regulations, (Short Term Correction of Amending Rules , Schedule MIII, Guidelines, etc.) with the plea that it would lead to further confusion and affects accessibility and better to wait till a law is passed. Our contention being to use the available short term solutions of administrative circulars and of executive orders rather than delay till availability of lengthy legislative process.

Mandatory MRP & Price Capping – With the plea that it will scare away investment. Our contention being that affordability and competition is getting skewed - not lower ex-factory price but higher retail price wins and consumers are suffering from artificial inflation and domestic manufacturers suffer from loss of market share unless they match ever increasing MRP and trade margin.

ICMED – Self Certification and Self Regulation, with the plea that it creates a parallel mechanism with CDSCO so better to have only one control and are afraid it could be used as a non-tariff barrier in due course.

Our contention being it provides credibility to Indian products and low cost access to local certification rather than getting expensive overseas certification for CE / ISO 13485 etc. and respect for Indian brand, a law to regulate all devices may not be there for a few years and a law can permit voluntary certification.

Preferential Market Access – With the plea that it restricts access to quality products in the absence of regulations. Our contention is it will boost domestic manufacturing and also stop usage of USFDA compliance as a mandatory qualifying criteria in many tenders. Why should Indian manufacturers be denied access to our own Indian market unless they comply with a foreign country regulatory approval of CE / USFDA ? It’s unfair. Use ICMED!

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Corporate Interview

Taking Indian Healthcare to the World With 35 years of experience in delivering accurate reports, Metropolis has earned the reputation of being India’s leading and only multinational chain of diagnostic centres with presence in UAE, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and Ghana, Ameera Shah, Managing Director and CEO, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN) says the company wants to grow to 2,000 centres and about 200 labs in the next three years. Excerpts:

We are eyeing 10-12% growth the coming year.

We currently have about 1,200 centres and 150 labs. In the next three years, we want to grow to 2,000 centres and about 200 labs.

How do you see e-health landscape evolving in India?

What are your expectations from the government on the policy front.

Government should spend more on healthcare sector. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) contributes very small percentage for the healthcare.

If the government spend increases, it will hugely encourage the healthcare sector as a whole.

Which governement steps will further push the healthcare industry’s growth?

Healthcare is one of the important sectors in the country. There are various regulations such as custom duty on medical devices and import duty on medical equipment.

The Government should minimise some of the restrictions and tax incentives to push the sector growth.

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What are your plans for the year ahead?

We started off very low; there was no brand, no regulation, and no commonality in pricing. The healthcare condition was worse than it is today. We transformed the industry in many ways. We changed an uneven and unorganised industry to create a chain of reputed diagnostic centers.

Today, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd is present across Sri Lanka, Africa and the Middle East. Our main aim was to expand in emerging markets that do not have proper access to healthcare.

We are more aggressive on our expansion plans.

We are looking for three-four markets for expansion. Currently, healthcare industry growth is 10%.

Healthcare in our country has certain issues in terms of lack of easy access, lack of consumer knowledge, high cost and too many middlemen.

All these have led to a scenario where there is a reduction in the effectiveness of the healthcare system.

India will see an evolution in the e-health space more in terms of technology, thereby, providing consumers with better access to quality knowledge and healthcare solutions.

Through ease of access to information and health services such as e-diagnostics and e-pharmacy, people from remote locations can also have access to quality healthcare without excessive cost.

How will the introduction of GST affect the healthcare industry?

The introduction of GST will affect more on the healthcare sector. GST will affect more for patients and customers more.

Are you looking for any IPO launch?

While there have been numerous rumours, we haven’t made any decision yet.

Corporate Interview

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Special Feature

Green Hospitals: Partners for Change Green hospitals are able to increase their efficiencies and environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and care. Keeping in view these advantages, hospitals in India need to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices in their operations, writes Vivek Ratnakar of Elets News Network (ENN).

N

o one ever actually thinks of good hospitals as massive producers of waste, but they are in reality. It is a fact that is often overlooked when we think of hospitals as care providers that are so critical to a healthy society.

Green buildings are indeed healthy buildings and a green hospital is built around a facility that recycles, reuses materials, reduces waste, and produces cleaner air for its occupants -- patients as well as staff.

According to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which certifies green building standards, the design of green buildings minimises impact on the environment by reducing the use of energy and water.

Environmental disturbance is also limited during the building process and by the choice of the building site.

“Overall, the initial scientific evidence indicates better indoor environmental quality in green buildings versus non-green buildings, with direct benefits to human health for occupants of those buildings,” says Dr Joseph Allen from the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in the US. Allen and his colleagues conducted the first comprehensive review of studies that focused on green buildings and summarised the health benefits for the

Green Ratings that Every Hospital Should Aspire For • IGBC Green Healthcare rating by Indian Green Building Council • Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating developed by the US Green Building Council • Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) rating by Griha Council which was founded by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi) with support from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India • ASHRAE standards accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

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people who work and live in them.

In relation to hospitals, researcher found that green hospitals benefit patients and the medical staff working in them alike. One study, for instance, noted improved quality of care, fewer blood stream infections, improved record keeping and a lower number of deaths among patients.

In India, “few hospitals have gone to the extent of getting Green certification from the authorities to set an example to others. The concept being discussed and debated in many conferences and conclaves shows that the healthcare leaders are supporting this and everybody is serious in implementing”, says Dr Sivakumaran, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Kovai Medical College and Hospital.

He also provides useful insights on the many benefits of becoming green hospitals. Introducing environmental sustainability measures in hospitals not only results in significant savings, but also ensures that operating costs remain low, he says.

The implications of Green hospitals are clear -- given the return on investment, all hospitals should adopt and expand their sustainability programmes.

ORGANISER

HOST PARTNER

HEALTHCARE PARTNER

Special Feature

Department of Industries Government of Rajasthan

healTh Track

Smt

VASUNDHARA RAJE

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Rajasthan

Shri

P P CHAUDHARY

Key themes

Hon’ble Minister of State, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India

• mapping healthcare e-Initiatives Across India

Shri

RAJPAL SINGH SHEKHAWAT Hon’ble Minister of Industry NRI, Govt Enterprise, DMIC Government of Rajasthan

• CsR in healthcare • smart technology for smart healthcare • Best healthcare Initiatives • Public Private Partnerships in healthcare • Disruptive healthcare startups

proGraMMe chair

session co-chair

special aDDress

Shri AJITABH SHARMA

Shri NAVEEN JAIN

Shri J P GUPTA

commissioner of industries & secretary - csr Government of rajasthan

Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

Secretary Department of Medical, health & Family Welfare MD nhM, ceo shaa Government of rajasthan

stellar iT park, office no: 7a/7B, 5th Floor, annexe Tower, c-25, sector 62, Uttar pradesh, india - 201309, phone: +91-8860651632

principal secretary & commissioner, Department of health & Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat

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33

Green Hospitals

Being one of the first green hospitals in South India, how do you see this concept being received in the health industry?

In a developing country like India, the environment is not healthy due to various reasons. With sick environment no country can develop a healthy society. Keeping these responsibilities in mind, many healthcare providers have taken initiatives to provide an environment which is friendly and healthy. Few hospitals have gone to the extent of getting Green certification from the authorities to set an example to others. The concept being discussed and debated in many conferences and conclaves shows that the healthcare leaders are supporting this and everybody is serious in implementing. As a reputed healthcare leader, KMCH has implemented many green initiatives and got “Best Green Hospital� by AHPI in 2016.

What are the key benefits of a green hospital?

Treatment with a Green Touch

Being one of the first leading hospitals to have pioneered the green concept in healthcare space in South India, Kovai Medical College and Hospital (KMCH), Coimbatore, sees it as its responsibility to provide green environment for faster recovery of patients. In an interview with Elets News Network (ENN), Dr Sivakumaran, COO, KMCH, talks about the key benefits for hospitals for going green.

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The benefits of a green hospital are many. The patients are most benefitted. Patients can feel fresh and pleasant in a green location. After relieving stress get reconnect with nature.

Studies show that the recovery of patients can be faster in green hospitals and can eliminate sick building syndrome. The doctors and nurses will feel motivated, if a patient is recovered fast and hence stress level is reduced to both. This can improve the quality of care and turnover of patients. When faster recovery and fresh feeling is assured, hospital will get more repeat customers and the reputation of hospital goes up. Another important benefit is reduction of operational cost in which any management is interested in this competitive environment.

Which key steps an ordinary hospital can take to become green?

An ordinary hospital can take smaller steps towards this to enjoy the benefit. Right from changing bulbs to LED, regulating the speed of standard three phase induction mo-

Green Hospitals

tors running at various locations of a hospital, generating and consuming bio gas from food waste, installing solar heaters to generate hot water for patient rooms, constructing building which can utilise the natural light in day time, rain water harvesting, providing food without preservatives in the hospital dietary and canteen, using environmental friendly housekeeping chemicals, using electrically operated vehicles for internal movements, proper treating of effluent water recycling of treated water for flushing and gardening are few initiatives leading an ordinery hospital to a green hospital. Using solar/wind power energy will bring down the operational cost drastically.

monitors and fans when not required.

The energy from state electricity is very costly and dependability is in question. If hospitals can afford to invest in solar plant, the energy cost will be substantially reduced and on a long run, solar energy will be profitable. For 4 MW generations, it requires around `25 crores (without land cost) as capital investment and the payback period is 5 years only.

If this investment is not viable, then hospitals can look for buying solar/ wind energy which is cheaper than the state electricity tariff. Hospitals can go for Building Maintenance System (BMS) with which the various energies used in mechanical and electrical equipments, lighting, power system, fire system, security system, etc. could be monitored through computer. This could be controlled and monitored from the desk without wasting time in moving around. The cost may vary between `5 lacs to `25 lacs depending on the specifications.

What are the most important features of a green building?

A green building is one which improves the patient’s well-being and able to utilise the natural resources to the maximum extent. It should not contribute to the burden of disease.

It need to be planned in such a way that there is an ample moving space for relaxation and enjoy the ease environment. Lot of greeneries can be part of the building to make the patients fresh and energetic. Apart from this having watch on other elements like water conservation, better waste handling, energy conservation system, reduced use of fossil fuels, less usage of virgin materials are all form part of green building features.

How technology is incorporated in developing green buildings?

Which important national and international accreditations, certifications a hospital should target to acquire to get the Green tag?

IGBC Green Healthcare rating system is awarded by Indian Green Building Council. They award certification at different level like Silver, Gold and Platinum depending on the best practices at local, national and global levels.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green Building Rating System, developed by the US Green Building Council.

What are the cost implications

for hospitals to reduce their carbon footprints?

Efforts on reducing carbon footprint are nothing but directly reducing waste and controlling on energy usage. This can be initiated by smaller steps like inspection on insulation, heating, lighting, watch on computer

Technology can play a vital role and benefit the hospital. Right from switching on/off the lights at various locations, regulating AC temperature, monitoring the speed of the motor is possible by sitting in a computer system which can be operated at a remote place. Many a times, patients switch on the bath room lights throughout the night. This is waste of energy and it is impossible to request them to switch off every time. If technology is applied, the room sensor will sense the movement and automatically switch on and off. Similar logic is applicable to usage of water.

If it is a sensor based operation, the water consumption could be considerably decreased. By having proper sewage treatment plant, the treated water could be used for gardening, flushing and laundry usage. Usage of battery operated vehicles for the internal movement can reduce fuel consumption and can reduce the air and sound pollution. An automated water level controller can save lot of water getting wasted.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Green Hospitals

Making Hospitals Environment Friendly

A green hospital uses natural and scarce resources efficiently. A well-executed green hospital project can deliver better returns for the investors, says Sudhir Pillai, Sales Director-South Asia, Honeywell Environmental & Energy Solutions, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the most important components of a green building?

A green building refers to both, the building structure and the processes spanning the entire life-cycle of the building. Some of the components include sustainability of the site, innovation and design, energy efficiency, water efficiency, usage of environment-friendly materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, waste and toxic material reduction, and satisfaction & productivity of building users.

KEY OFFERINGS OF HONEYWELL IN HEALTHCARE SPACE Honeywell has a comprehensive list of offerings for various categories of healthcare facilities. The offerings include: • Building management systems (BMS) for higher energy efficiency and workforce productivity. Two of the most popular BMS brands are Trend and Web Enabled Building Managment System (WEBS) • Precision airflow control for critical spaces provided by Phoenix Controls Systems • Smart and conventional field devices • India’s first anti-bacterial range of flat switches (Blenze plus) and cable management solutions • Solar water heaters • Barcode scanners and mobile computers to enhance staff productivity • Personnel protective equipment offering head-to-toe protection • Security and fire protection solutions.

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What are the benefits of a green hospital?

A green hospital would incorporate all the features of a green building with an added emphasis on patient well-being, namely: • Comfort (temperature, humidity and air purity) • Precise environs in critical and controlled areas like Critical Care Units, Intensive Care Units and Operation Theaters • Tight control on spread of infection and disease A green hospital aids in patients’ curative process, is a productive workplace for the staff, and uses natural resources efficiently. A well-executed green hospital project can deliver better returns for the investors.

Which materials are usually incorporated into your products to help hospitals reduce their carbon footprints?

Almost 60 per cent of the energy used in a hospital is for air conditioning and lighting. The challenge is to conserve energy without impacting the performance of critical equipment.

Honeywell offers a suite of Building Management System (BMS) that includes controllers, integrators, and field devices to help hospitals optimise their energy usage.

Which important national and international accreditations, certifications a hospital should target to acquire in India to become green?

The three most important accreditations for green hospitals are LEED Platinum Rating, GRIHA and ASHRAE.

How technology is incorporated to develop green buildings?

Technology is incorporated in all aspects of construction and usage of a green building starting from design, installation, commissioning and usage of green buildings. For example, a building management solution software optimises energy usage without compromising on the comfort and well-being of building occupants.

Green Hospitals

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

37

Corporate Interview

BMH: Pioneering Value-Based Care

Kerala-based Baby Memorial Hospital (BMH) follows the ideology of “more than care”, setting it apart from other super-specialty hospitals in the State. With stress on value-based care, BMH has been able to successfully improve quality, efficiency and accountability of care, while finding ways to decrease costs and inefficiencies, says Dr Vineeth Abraham, Director, BMH, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the vision guiding Baby Memorial Hospital? How is it different from other super-specialty hospitals in Kerala?

The vision of Baby Memorial Hospital (BMH) is to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for all. Dr K G Alexander, Chairman and Chief Physician, started the hospital in 1987 as a tribute to his father, late K C Vargh-

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ese (known as ‘Baby’), with only 52 beds. The hospital now boasts worldclass amenities, which include more than 800 beds; over 40 medical and surgical departments with focus on sub-specialisation; paramedical support system; 16 world-class operation theatres; 13 fully equipped ultramodern ICUs comprising 150 critical care beds; a well-equipped accident and

trauma care unit that functions 24/7 throughout the year.

Adhering to ethical medical practices coupled with compassion, the hospital comes together as a family to provide a good ambience for recuperation. With its array of best-inclass technology, breadth of resources which comprises 300 doctors and over 2,000 nursing, paramedical and

Corporate Interview

administrative staff, Baby Memorial Hospital relentlessly strives to keep up the ideology of “more than care” -- setting it apart from other such hospitals in the region.

Please tell us about key services offered by Baby Memorial.

BMH provides holistic services to provide best outcomes and patient experiences through its nine (Centres of Excellence) and numerous other ancillary specialties and support services.

The BMH Centres of Excellence include: ♦ BMH Heart Centre offering specialised services like Cardiology, Cardio Thoracic Surgery and Cardiac Anaesthesia ♦ Institute of Neuro Sciences offering Neurology, Neuro Surgery and Interventional Neurology ♦ Institute of Liver and Gastro Sciences offering Gastroenterology, Gastro Intestinal Surgery and Bariatric Surgery ♦ Institute of Oncology is known for its specialised services like Medical, Surgical and Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine ♦ Centre for Orthopaedics, Spine and Sports Injuries ♦ Plastic, Micro-Vascular and Reconstructive Surgery ♦ Renal Care with services like Urology, Nephrology Renal Transplant ♦ Women Care having world-class offerings like Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Infertility and Laparoscopic Surgery and Foetal Medicine ♦ Child care with offerings including Paediatrics, Neonatology, Paediatric Surgery and Child Guidance

How is Baby Memorial utilising Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to bridge gaps in healthcare delivery?

Baby Memorial Hospital has always focused on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a core area of development and that has helped bridge time and distance between clinical care and patients.

Some of the offerings at BMH are:

♦ Online Appointments ♦ Video Consultation ♦ Online Query Management – “ask a doctor” ♦ Online Chat Services ♦ Fully Automated lab with Laboratory Information Management Systems ♦ Fully integrated Hospital Information Management Systems ♦ Electronic Medical records ♦ Interactive Service Displays ♦ Digital signages ♦ Digital token systems ♦ Integrated Email and SMS gateways

What have been the achievements of Baby Memorial Hospital in recent times?

Baby Memorial has been a flag bearer when it comes to healthcare services innovations and achievements. Apart

Adhering to ethical medical practices coupled with compassion, the hospital comes together as a family to provide an ambient environment for recuperation

from our numerous CSR activities, some of our noteworthy works in the recent past include establishment of the first integrated burns unit in Kerala and introduction of INNOVA IGS 520 with PCI assist in Cardiac Sciences for the first time in India. We also successfully held the 3rd HEAL (Healthcare Excellence through Administration and Leadership) Conference recently.

How the hospital is leveraging new technologies to improve its operational efficiency and quality of services?

In its shift to value-based care, BMH has been able to successfully improve quality, efficiency and accountability of care while finding ways to decrease cost, reducing inefficiencies and medical errors.

To further advance care team collaboration, BMH has implemented ERP system to integrate health system communication platforms with EHRs and other clinical administrative systems. This integration empowered clinicians to deliver better, more efficient care across the patient’s journey by remaining connected with the latest patient information.

This mobility centered connectivity between clinical systems, EHRs and communication systems improved the quality of patient-centered care.

Leveraging newer technologies that enables real-time care, team communication, collaboration, efficient resource utilization and optimizing workflow in clinical environment has helped to achieve operational efficiencies and improve overall patient outcomes at BMH. Real-time communication has been seamlessly integrated between systems at BMH to ensure clinicians have the right information at the right time. The need for integration, real-time communication and the ability to provide analysis and reporting to key stakeholders have helped BMH meander through the complex financial and operational challenges that hospitals face and come out winning.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

39

Public Health

NIPI: Building Synergies for Development

The beauty of Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) is that it has a high risk profile and the willingness to take risk, which means the organisation is willing to fail, willing to test things and if they don’t work out get rid of them and move on, says Rannveig Rajendram, Counsellor, Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi, in an interview with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN).

Norway is known worldwide as the top country when it comes to human index, how do you see Norway supporting India to improve on human development?

I think Norway doesn’t have to teach a lot to India. India is probably more important to Norway than Norway is to India. This is because of its sheer size. NIPI (Norway India Partnership Initiative) is a good example in that sense because what we are provid-

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ing in India is obviously not funding.

It is all about technical support. We do not have a bilateral programme as such in India, but we have a 50-year-old relation. We were one of the first donors that had full-fledged programme in India.

As, over the time, India evolved and developed, there was no need of funding. So far as small donors are concerned, in 2003, India said that administrative cost of managing the funds is outweighing the benefits.

So, the focus shifted on big donors.

We do still have bilateral relations in trade, environment, renewable energy, etc, but we are not providing funding as such but only techno-managerial support.

However, because of a common interest between the then prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Jens Stoltenberg to cooperate in achieving the MDGs 4 and 5 to reduce maternal and child mortality, they agreed to have a programme despite the fact

Public Health

that we are not engaged bilaterally.

So, we do not have a cooperation agreement with the government as such, but we are working through our partners.

What are the key areas where NIPI has been active over the years?

NIPI is only active in maternal and child health. We are working on research projects between Norway and India in other areas as well. But our main focus is on child and mother health. It’s not a programme as such but we are testing innovations in this particular field and if any of these innovations found successful, it would be taken over by the government.

The beauty of NIPI is that we have a high risk profile and the willingness to take risk because without risks there are no gains. In development lingua, you always want to showcase the best example but don’t want to fail. However, I have learnt a new phrase – ‘failing with dignity’. It means that we are willing to fail, willing to test things and if they don’t work out we have to get rid of them and then move on. It is the best example of how a development work should be carried out. It is one of the key success factors.

The second factor of our success is that we work only with and within government structures. We don’t have any parallel structures and we work in total alignment with governments. We are a partner in the National Health Mission.

Survival of mother and child is one of the important targets, do you have any mission beyond that also? What about the overall development of the child?

Going by the fact that we are a small donor, our scope is up to the age of one year on the newborn projects.

Obviously our job is not done after the child has survived and is oneyear-old, but beyond that our other partners are taking care of the overall development of the child and mother.

Do you see technology play-

ing an important role in providing smarter healthcare?

Many actors are doing excellent work in the field of innovating technology for that purpose. But that is not our main concern. When we talk about innovation, many people see it as synonymous to technical innovation. But what our innovations are focusing on is finding new ways in organising the healthcare system.

Apart from Rajasthan which other states NIPI is focusing on?

Besides Rajasthan, we are focusing on Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. We have limited support in Jammu and Kashmir.

What sort of challenges you face while working in these States?

There are challenges on the ground.

Implementation always comes with challenges. I think innovations are always about finding ways around challenges. Everything we do is about identifying the bottlenecks.

We face all the challenges that anyone with a sincere mission faces in the social or medical sector. But until now we haven’t encountered any challenges that we cannot work on.

Are you also providing funding for testing innovations?

There is limited funding involved when the innovations are tested. Obviously, when we are working on financial incentives for ASHAs to carry out our programmes, we need to provide some financial incentive to them through state health missions for a limited period.

The financial support from Norway is absolutely minimal. The money that we are providing is almost negligible when compared to what is put in by the National Health Mission itself.

Despite bottlenecks, what are the good things you find in India?

In India, there is a lot of energy, creativity and willingness to do something about the issues that we are facing.

We also find that India has an incredibly strong civil society which is very important in terms of accountability.

India is one of the few countries I have worked in where there is also demand from the general public to know about what is going on in terms of public spending or electoral process, etc.

Where do you see the maternal and child healthcare in India in the next few years? For how long Norwegian government plans to extend its support?

I think the challenges are incredible in India. However, much we achieve in the Indian health sector, the high population growth prompts us to do more.

This is the second phase of NIPI and we have been working here for 10 years, which is not very long in terms of human development programme. I think what we are looking into the future is how do we consolidate the results of what we have achieved so far. It is about learning from the results -- both good ones and not so good ones. Then, building on the experiences in future to find common platform between India and Norway to see how we work in the future.

We are also looking for possibilities of using the experiences here so that India can play a role regionally. We know there are countries in close proximity that are interested in learning from India’s experiences.

Then there is also the global agenda.

India is a huge actor on the global level. So, I see there is a possibility of having more dialogue on global issues.

There is a young breed of startups in India, how do you see aligning your goals with the healthcare startups?

What we need to see is that we all need to work together. We need to work on regional as well as global level. There is a need for lot of common research to be done. The best minds from private sector need to be working closely, as there are enough issues to be addressed.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Leaders Speak

Palliative Care: A Collaborative Way to Fight Cancer

Palliative care, with its focus on providing relief from not just physical symptoms but also pain, mental stress and psychological trauma that a cancer patient nearing death suffers, has become an integral part of the National Cancer Control Programme. Dr Sushmita Ghoshal, Head, Department of Radiotherapy at PGIMER, shares her experience and vision on this pioneering treatment with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN).

M

edical care for people afflicted with cancer is no more restricted to just treating the disease physically. With more than two third of patients queuing up in the Regional Cancer Centre at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) palliative care, the institute has formulated what is now called the “Chandigarh Model� to provide comprehensive care.

With an increase in number of cancer patients and rising morbidity, palliative care, which is a specialised medical care for those with terminal illness, has become an integral part of National Cancer Control Programme

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More nurses are showing inclination for doing palliative care courses than doctors. The basic principle that we are following at PGI is to learn about the basic ingredients of palliative care and apply it to everyday practice

Leaders Speak

PGI’s initiative and quality of treatment provided has earned it accreditation from European Society for Medical Oncology as ESMO Designated Centre of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care for 2016 to 2018 as well. A multi-disciplinary approach, palliative care focus is to provide relief from not just physical symptoms but also pain, mental stress and psychological trauma that a patient nearing death suffers.

The head of department of Radiotherapy at PGIMER, Dr Sushmita Ghoshal, who is also in-charge of the Regional Cancer Centre at the institute, shares her experience and vision. “Palliative care has come a long way in the past decade or two but has still a long way to go. In a country like ours it would be too much of a luxury to have dedicated and specialised palliative care. So we have come up with a unique model, referred to as Chandigarh Model, where multiple disciplines are working as a unit and taking care of the patient’s multiple

problems,” says Dr Ghoshal. This means that radiation oncologists are coming together with psychiatrists, and doctors from various other departments to tackle the physical, psychological, economical and even spiritual issues of the patients facing death.

PGI is running a certificate course for counselling patients suffering from terminal illnesses. Though palliative care is more associated with cancer disease, it is relevant and necessary for any illness that is terminal – be it kidney failure, stroke or any other disease that cannot be cured.

“More nurses are showing inclination for doing palliative care courses than doctors. The basic principle that we are following at PGI is to learn the basic ingredients of palliative care and apply it to everyday practice. So, no matter where the doctor or the nurse goes they can still practice as much as they can,” says Dr Ghoshal.

Somehow, palliative care is more organised and available in the southern states of India compared to northern states. North of Delhi, PGIMER is the only centre that is providing palliative care. Besides regular out-patient department, the institute is running home care and a 20 bed hospice in collaboration with Red Cross.

PGI’s initiative and quality of treatment provided has earned it accreditation from European Society for Medical Oncology as ESMO Designated Centre of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care for the period 2016 to 2018.

This was declared at the 18th ECCO-40th ESMO European Cancer Congress held at Vienna, Austria in September 2015. PGI is the only government centre in the country to earn this distinction.

The number of cancer patients who are queuing up at PGIMER for treatment has been going up every year.

Last year, 6,236 new patients sought treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre. Out of these, two-thirds would require palliative care, says Dr Ghoshal. “Our misfortune is that we get patients when they are in advanced stage. Early detection is the key to treatment. So, now we are trying to spread awareness as much as we can. We are trying to catch them young – we organised a flash mob in Sector 17 to catch people’s attention and then involved them in an interaction about cancer. There are many cancers like that of breast, cervix and oral which can be treated completely if detected early.”

Apart from caring comprehensively for patients facing imminent death, PGIMER is going all out to make people aware that they can adopt a healthy lifestyle to prevent cancer and, if afflicted, save life by reporting early.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Green Hospitals

Wonderfloor: Providing Bespoke Flooring Solutions to Hospitals

With advantage of providing dust free and germ free bespoke solutions for all departments of a hospital, Wonderfloor’s international quality products have been installed in prestigious hospitals across India and the world, says Arvind Goenka, Director, RMG Polyvinyl India Limited, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

How hospital flooring solutions are different from other flooring solutions?

Hospital floorings should be resilient, need to have minimum joints which ensures no accumulation of dust and germs in the joints and also it helps in noise free and vibration free movement of wheeled stretchers and trolleys.

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Does vinyl flooring fulfill this requirement? There are so many joints in a PVC tile flooring?

Vinyl floorings are available in rolls and tiles. For hospital floors only the rolls are recommended. The rolls can be installed from one end to the other joint-free. These floorings are available in wide widths and the joints are thermo-welded with special welding

cords which create an impervious surface.

Vinyl is a plastic and is it not a health hazard?

Plastics are not a health hazard. Are you aware blood bags are also made from Vinyl. All our drinking and irrigation pipes are of vinyl material.

Rather for hospital use, Wonder-

Green Hospitals

floor’s vinyl floorings have an additional imported and sophisticated ingredient which is a fungicide and does not allow any bacteria or fungus growth on the floor.

Wonderfloor adds this ingredient in the entire thickness of the floor and not only on the top surface as done by some other manufacturers.

Vinyl flooring is Hygienic and that’s why used highly recommended for sensitive area like operation theatres, ICU, blood banks, burn centre, clean rooms, pharmaceuticals, etc.

You have informed about the floors, what about the walls?

They are exposed to germs & dirt.

Hospital walls are often difficult to maintain. Peeling of paints/scratches/ stains is quite common due to movement of wheel chairs, stretchers, trolleys, people leaning against wall, etc.

Wonderfloor offers special wall claddings for use in Hospitals. These are normally two metres in height and are on continuous lengths. It offers a joint free installation between two doors or windows. The wall claddings are equipped with germicidal ingredient thereby offering a fully protected environment. These are available in matching colours and shades with the floorings. The wall

A hospital must see the credential of the supplier as well as the product for adhering to the basics.

Recyclability, non VOC and local availability of PVC flooring can contribute towards getting points for a Green building cladding offers good impact resistance, are easy to clean and maintain.

Also special accessories like skirting, capping, etc, are offered to hospitals.

shades and colours to suit the architects theme and decor. For institutional projects customisation of shades, colours and patterns are also possible.

Are these products available in several shades & colours?

Which important national and international accreditations, certifications a hospital should target to acquire in India to become Green?

Wonderfloor has a vast palate of

Wonderfloor’s products are produced using latest technology at its factory near New Delhi.

The company is also the top exporter of PVC floorings from India and exports to Europe, Middle East and several other countries

Wonderfloor’s products have been installed in prestigious hospitals like AIIMS, Apollo, DMH-Pune, Global, Raheja, Jaslok, Hinduja, Metro, Rockland, among others. All its products are tested as per building safety regulations and meet international quality requirements. A hospital must see the credential of the supplier as well as the product for adhering to the basics. Recyclability, non VOC and local availability of PVC flooring can contribute towards getting points for a Green building.

Please tell us about your key offerings in the healthcare space?

Wonderfloor’s products are produced using latest technology at its factory near New Delhi. The company is also the top exporter of PVC floorings from India and exports to Europe, Middle East and several other countries. Wonderfloor offers complete solution for almost all department of a hospital. The range includes homogeneous flooring, conductive flooring, wall cladding, heterogeneous floorings, fitness flooring, anti-skid flooring and so on. Also produced are sports floorings for gymnasiums, kindergarten schools, badminton and table tennis courts etc. The company also produces floorings for residential and commercial buildings and for buses and trains.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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Corporate Interview

CIMS: Building Trust through Quality Care & Patient First Can you share the vision of CIMS? Who are the key people driving the hospital’s growth?

Our vision is to become one of the most trusted hospitals in India by providing personalised care for the best patient experience, which was conceived by a group of elite doctors and made a reality in the form of Care Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) Hospital in 2010. Since its inception, CIMS has established its reputation as a trusted healthcare provider and doubled its capacity to become a landmark 350-bedded hospital focused on quality, safety and patient trust.

The board of directors, most of them practicing clinicians, has been driving the growth of CIMS. At the hospital, we are a team of medical, para-medical, nursing, volunteer and administrative staff working closely to deliver personalised experience to our patients coming from all over the world.

What are the key features that help CIMS Hospital stand apart?

We strive to be an institution of excellence by strictly conducting within our philosophy of care, compassion, courtesy and competency. Our first priority -- “PATIENT FIRST ALWAYS” -- is imbibed in the culture of CIMS which makes us stand apart from other hospitals. The hospital has contributed towards clinical excellence in healthcare industry. It is the first hospital in Gujarat to have successfully performed heart transplantation. Alongside, its ethos rests on the pillars of innovation, technological superiority; patient’s well-being, ethical practices, research and academics. We are rated as one of the best hospitals in cardiology across India.

We truly believe in providing smooth and

Striving to be an institution of excellence based on its philosophy of care, compassion, courtesy and competency, CIMS Hospital is at the forefront of leading the healthcare revolution in India, says Dr Keyur Parikh, Chairman, CIMS Hospital, in an interview with FEBRUARY / 2017 Network (ENN). Excerpts: 46 Elets News ehealth.eletsonline.com

coordinated patient care in the most humane and empathetic manner.

We want to share a small story written by one of our patient’s relatives: “Recently one of our relatives was admitted to your health centre for delivery. Her case was of the rare of rarest category. High risk was involved while treating her and in spite of best medical care, only miracle could have saved her life. But everything went smoothly and the delivery was normal. Both mother and child are recuperating well. Our entire family expresses our gratitude for the efforts taken in this case. The infrastructure of the hospital is indeed fascinating.

Equipped with state-of-the-art facility the medical centre can be

Corporate Interview

termed as one of the best in Gujarat.

The hospitality shown by the serving staff and their dedication will always remain in our heart. The experience will remain with us for a lifetime.”

Please brief us about your services and key achievement?

We have ultra-modern facilities which are supported by expert clinicians in departments of cardiac sciences, oncology, orthopaedics, dentistry, paediatrics, neurosciences, urosciences, women health, and gastro sciences, critical care and emergency medicines -- all under one roof. The manifestation of commitment towards patient care is numerous milestones achieved by the CIMS Hospital. The biggest achievement has been getting the international quality accreditation like Joint Commission International from the USA, which is a symbol of quality and patient safety. The hospital is proud to be the recipient of several awards in recognition of its excellent delivery of healthcare services. The American College of Cardiology (ACC), one of the leading global institutes, certifies CIMS Hospital as an “ACC – Center of Excellence”. In addition, CIMS Hospital was also honoured by national accreditation bodies like NABH (National Accreditation Board of Hospital and Healthcare Providers) and NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratory) for its quality standards. We became the first hospital in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan practicing operation theatre activities in environment -friendly and safe manner and certified as “Green Operation Theatre”. The journey goes on as recently we have received the National Quality Excellence Award and were recognised as the “Best Multispecialty Hospital in Gujarat”.

Can you throw some light on the hospital’s short-term and long-term goals?

CIMS Hospital is driven by “Patient First”, always and “Quality Care” which build trust. In terms of infrastructure, the hospital has expanded its current bed capacity by adding 200 more beds to cater to the pa-

We are proud to be the recipient of several awards in recognition of excellent delivery of healthcare services.

The American College of Cardiology certifies CIMS Hospital as an “ACC – Center of Excellence” tients’ needs as compared to the previous year. Simultaneously, we will be expanding our services by adding paediatric bone marrow transplantation, in vitro fertilisation and blood bank by December 2017. We have planned for digitalised ICUs and OTs (e-ICU and e-OT), which will reduce the errors and will optimise access to patient records for providing better treatment and care as we are working towards becoming a green hospital by reducing paper usage and wastage. To cater to the services of the needy patients suffering from chronic diseases and requiring radiotherapy, we have expanded the radiotherapy services for oncology patients through Khambatta Trust and with other philanthropic bodies.

How do you leverage technology to improve healthcare delivery?

In order to achieve the mission of CIMS Hospital, we are equipped with the latest diagnostic and interventional equipment to take care of in-patient, out-patient and day care patients in the most professional manner. CIMS Hospital through CIMS Cancer Centre is the first hospital in Asia to commission the Elekta Versa HD Linear Accelrator -- the most advanced radiation machine for cancer treatment. In a short span of a year, we have commissioned the second Linac Machine (Elekta Synergy).

And in the area of radiology, we have installed CT Scan-Revolution EVO model (first in India) and MRI Signa Explorer (first in Gujarat). CIMS Hospital is first in Western India (en-

compassing Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) to have procured ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine to save lives.

Angiography in seven seconds only – The fastest angiography machine is at CIMS with stent boost technology.

We also have 3 Cath labs with stent boost facility -- the only private hospital in Western India that can boast of such facility.

Please tell us about innovations happening in the Indian hospital sector. How do you plan to adopt them?

Today, patients from adjacent countries visiting India to receive specialised medical treatment are on the rise. The paradigm shift from unskilled to skilled work force is also booming in the Indian healthcare industry leading to a qualitative jump in service. Moreover, healthcare has become accessible to all the strata of the society with hospitals offering affordable healthcare. Also, with globalisation, innovations in medical technology are available all across the country giving patients access to leading healthcare solutions. Also, personalised clinical care pathways are being developed all across medical centres on the basis of evidence-based medicine creating a strong structure and framework to dispense healthcare services.

The decision to accredit ourselves with leading national and international accreditations like JCI, ACC, NABH, NABL, Green OT certification is a testament to our commitment to adopt all the newer innovations taking place globally.

Which are key developments you see transforming the healthcare sector in near future?

Digitalisation in healthcare sector is evolving fast, which is improving healthcare delivery continuously.

At CIMS, we have recently installed the facility of digital operation theatres and ICUs for better continuity of care. Digitalisation in healthcare has also given easy and fast access to read reports and deliver diagnosis and treatment.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

47

Corporate Interview

Medwin Hospitals: Bringing New Synergies to Healthcare Medwin Hospitals has recently established the AYUSH wing to treat many diseases in by bridging the gap between the Indian traditional medicine system and allopathy. The hospital is first of its kind in the corporate sector that is bringing new synergies to improve healthcare delivery, says Dr Fazal Ahmed, Director, AYUSH wing at Medwin, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the vision behind Medwin Hospitals? How is it different from other super-specialty hospitals in Hyderabad?

Medwin Hospitals is the first super-specialty corporate hospital of our state. The deeply ingrained credo – “healthcare with a smile” – has earned Medwin Hospitals accolades

and acclaim from more than 150 private and public sector enterprises that rely on the hospital for treatment of their employees. Over the years, it has constantly evolved the quality of super-specialty healthcare. So much so, that today the name of Medwin Hospitals is synonymous with excellence in healthcare.

Our rates are comparatively much lower than other corporate hospitals in the city. The philosophy of winning over medical maladies with meticulous applications of the medical advances is being nurtured by our team of eminent and experienced medical professionals. This distinguishes us from other hospitals.

What are the key services offered by Medwin which make it one of the finest hospitals in the region.

Patient safety is paramount at Medwin Hospitals and it is the underlying motto of the Medwin quality movement. We have an active system in place to ensure patient safety and treatment outcomes, in the form an established continuous quality improvement programme. The quality movement at Medwin hospitals addresses all aspects of quality in healthcare as envisaged by the National Accreditation Board for hospitals and health care providers (NABH) in its book of standards. It is a very good centre for cardiology headed by renowned senior cardiologist Dr Ramesh Babu, (Managing Director) and oncology driven by a team of expert oncologists.

Another milestone is the estab-

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Corporate Interview

lishment of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddah and Homeo) wing at Medwin, the first of its kind in the corporate sector.

Please tell us about recent achievements of Medwin Hospitals?

The recent achievement of Medwin is the establishment of AYUSH wing.

Many chronic cases like diabetic foot, non-healing ulcers, lumber disc prolaps, azoospermia, vilitiligo, psoriasis and PCOD are getting treated successfully with Ayush treatment along with regimental therapy (like Hijama cupping and leech therapy).

The AYUSH wing has senior experts in Ayurveda, Unani and Yoga & Naturaopathy under the directorship of Dr Fazal Ahmed.

What led Medwin to join hands with Unimed to offer Allopathy-AYUSH combine treatment?

Please share your views on this collaborative approach.

Each system of medicine has certain strengths, so the collaborative activity is to synergise these strengths in the interest of patients.

UNIMED is a non-profit organisation recognised by KVIC for the development of AYUSH system, having a group of expert doctors in Unani and Ayurveda. We had the opportunity to invite our UNANI scientific workshop KS Rao, former union minister and chairman MEDWIN. He was very much impressed with AYUSH presentations and showed his interest to start Ayush in Medwin. Managing Director Dr Ramesh Babu, CEO Dr Sri Nagi also played a very important and positive role in establishment of this new wing along with Dr Mohd Samiullah Khan, Medical Director, Medwin, who was the driving force to establish the AYUSH wing. As there is demand for Unani and Ayurvedic treatment in Hyderabad, MEDWIN accepted the proposal for a joint venture to bridge the gap between AYUSH and Allopathy. It aims to prove clinical efficacy of the Indian traditional system of medicine based on scientific approach.

FACILITIES AT MEDWIN HOSPITALS All our facilities including pathology, biochemistry, microbiology, immunology, vascular laboratory, cardiology and radiology and imaging are fully automated and have facilities for tumour maker studies, electrophoresis, ELISA, chemilumiscence, western blot and CD 4 and CD 8 counts.

BIOCHEMISTRY This diagnostic facility covers Clinical chemistry and Endocrinology. The department is equipped with AUTO ANALYSER, BLOOD GAS ANALYSER, and ELECTRO PHORETIC UNIT among other hi-tech devices. Medwin has a tie-up with Boehringer, Knoll of West Germany, and the world leaders in Quality Control Programme. The department has facilities to carry out all hormonal assays and RADIO-IMMUNO ASSAYS including Enzyme Labeled Immune absorbent Assay (ELISA). Medwin Laboratory Services is in the threshold of being accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories, yet another emphatic affirmation of the efficacy and accuracy of the services.

MICROBIOLOGY This Department has facilities for carrying out all culture and sensitivity tests with specific identification of pathogenic organisms, antigen-antibody reaction, torch complex, compliments and many more investigations not performed in other labs. The unique feature in Medwin Diagnostic Services is the availability of sophisticated backup equipment for all the hi-tech devices it possesses. It is this unique feature that makes the 24 hours services possible, of course with absolute diagnostic efficacy. Medwin Laboratory Services is in the threshold of being accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Laboratories, yet another emphatic affirmation of the efficacy and accuracy of the services.

VASCULAR LABORATORY Possibly the best-equipped non-invasive vascular laboratory with Duplex scanner and the Doppler Assist from Huntleigh Diagnostics, UK which can perform color spectral analysis, photo plethysmography, pulse volume recoding, segmental pressure recording and venous reflux tests.

CARDIOLOGY A digital cathlab with image quality of 1024 matrix from Shimadzu, Japan with 3D DSA application package forms the backbone of cardiac diagnostic and interventional services. Other facilities include 12-Channel ECG, TMT, and the latest GE Vingmed System 5 Color Doppler.

RADIOLOGY AND IMAGING The department is equipped with two X-ray plants with image intensifiers, two ultra sound scanners with special probes, whole body CT scanner and MRI with facilities for MR angiography. It is the first lab to be accredited under the new accreditation system.

SLEEP LAB Many individuals experience fatigue, irritability, depression and lack of concentration due to sleep disorders. If remain untreated, these sleep disorders may increase the risks of high blood pressure, heart attack or stroke.

Medwin Sleep lab helps individuals return to their normal lifestyle through diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

49

Corporate Interview

Zota Healthcare: Striving Hard to LeŸ the Pack

From a humble beginning to becoming one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in India, Zota Healthcare strives to expand its global footprints by stressing on R&D and focusing on emerging market for nutraceuticals and Ayurvedic products. Himanshu Zota, Director, Zota Healthcare, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN) shares his expansion plans, patent products and more. Excerpts: Tell us about your journey from a small retail shop to becoming one of the leading players in the Indian pharmaceutical industry?

Initially, we started as a retail chemist and over a period of time hard work, dedication and experience in dispensing and compounding, helped us to aim for something bigger. With the time, we achieved our goals but we are still learning and working hard to maintain the success and are focusing on being a globally recognised pharmaceutical company.

We are glad to be recognised as one of the leading players in the Industry but we are surely looking forward to leading the pack one day. We believe in inspiring and getting inspired, and we are sure this mantra will motivate us to achieve our desired goals.

What new plans do you have

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FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

for the global market, especially in important markets like North America?

The global market is now shifting to nutraceuticals and Ayurvedic range of products. India is considered ideal for Ayurvedic products and we are using the blend of Ayurvedic, nutraceuticals and herbal products to create a niche market for our products.

Our products are incorporated with more of purity and less of chemicals, keeping the essence of Ayurveda in our products intact. This would help us to make quick and easy entry to global markets. For North America, we would be focusing on nutraceuticals and Ayurvedic range of products only.

Please tell us about Zota’s patent products?

Zota’s Research & Development team is working extensively to develop more products for the betterment

of the society. So far, we have been awarded six patents. RTFiT, GMFiT, Vitamin B12 oral spray are among these patents. We are awaiting approval for 16 more patents. Also, we are yet to commercialise a few patents which would be done in the near future. Our patented products have also received a great response from the customer end which makes us push ourselves to the extremes. At the end of the day, it is our work and achievements that make us credible and trustworthy.

What contributions has the company made in eHealth space to improve healthcare delivery in India?

In India, e-commerce has grown at fabulous rates and is still growing rapidly, but contrary to this there

Corporate Interview

is not much advancement in the e-health space. We have launched an app-based web portal focusing on herbal cosmetics, nutraceuticals and Ayurvedic products, wherein user can easily surf through health products and purchase them online. Also, we would be launching ‘Davaindia’ app that would help patients on chronic therapy to save more on medical bills. Generic products guide would be made available handy for patients. Beta testing is being scheduled to end by this quarter and subsequently the application would go live.

How important is Information and Communication (ICT) for Zota? How does the company leverage ICT to improve its efficiency and productivity?

Our products are incorporated with more of purity and less of chemicals, keeping the essence of Ayurveda in our products intact. This would help us to make quick and easy entry to global markets. For North America, we would be focusing on nutraceuticals and Ayurvedic range of products only.

Zota Healthcare has understood the need for ICT and already implemented a few tools to improve productivity and efficiency. We have launched Zota app wherein all our distributors across India can place orders over the app. This has reduced paper works and time in processing orders. Also, errors have reduced, as no wrong products get delivered to distributors which have reduced returns.

How has going public helped Zota strategically? What goals have you set for yourself in

near future?

Going public has helped a lot as to expand and go beyond geographical boundaries requires huge funds.

These funds help us to perform better which would indirectly help our shareholders to gain more. In the near future, we would be strengthening our presence in exports markets, expanding our product portfolio and penetrating to rural India. We aim to provide the rural India a true and reliable source of good health, and we ensure to build an even stronger network to reach ever corner of the country.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

51

Corporate Interview

Committed to reducing risk of contracting infections in hospitals, R&M, a Swiss company, offers R&M healthLine anti-bacterial range of cabling solutions that is the first consistent and complete solution for cabling systems in patient rooms and comparable highlyfrequented areas of use in India, says Shailendra Trivedi, Director Channel Management and Operations, R&M India, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts:

R&M HealthLine: A New Way to Fight Infections in Hospitals 52

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

Corporate Interview

What is the demand scenario of anti-bacterial cabling solutions in the Indian healthcare industry? What led you to launch this product?

On its own, a reliable network is not enough, when there is a risk of cross-contamination between patients due to contact with cables and outlets. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 16 million people die every year from infections contracted in hospitals.

R&M wants to make a contribution to reducing risks of this kind and to promoting health in clinics. The latest development is the R&MhealthLine antibacterial range. This is the first consistent and complete solution for cabling systems in patient rooms and comparable, highly-frequented areas of use. Clinics can extend their IT risk management to the field of hygiene by installing R&MhealthLine products.

What are the key features of the product.

As an independent Swiss cabling specialist with internationally recognised expertise in the healthcare market, R&M sets standards for the modern clinic infrastructure. In dozens of projects, R&M has acquired expertise enabling the unique needs and requirements of medical facilities to be met both convincingly and comprehensively.

R&M maintains a programme with experienced planners and qualified installers as project partners to supply a future-proof cabling infrastructure. Only the best is good enough for healthcare. That is why R&M is the strongest partner for healthcare cabling.

The R&MhealthLine range offers the same installation and user friendliness as standard products and fits into the R&Mfreenet range. In particular, the product line includes the following: Outlets with RJ45 sockets for local data and communications networks Shutters from the R&M security system Shielded Cat.6A and unshielded Cat.6 patch cords for connecting comput-

ers, medical devices, telephones, call systems, etc.

How can cables reduce the risk of infections in healthcare institutions? What are the key benefits hospitals and patients can draw from it?

Special additives are permanently incorporated into the plastic materials to inhibit the growth of bacteria and reduce the risk of cross contamination. All parts of the cabling that are accessible to patients have antibacterial properties tested in accordance to ISO 22196. This test demonstrates the protection against the two bacterial strains, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli trough cabling located near the patient’s bed. This can assist in reducing the potential of cross contamination of disease causing bacteria.

Given the low-level of awareness about such products in India, how will R&M promote these cabling solutions?

Choosing cabling solutions from R&M gives clinics a secure and durable foundation for their IT infrastructure.

Healthcare cabling from R&M makes a crucial contribution to ensuring the

Healthcare cabling from R&M makes a crucial contribution to ensuring the best possible medical care and long-term operational reliability for the entire hospital.

Specific cabling solutions from R&M for the healthcare sector solve concrete problems found in a clinical environment

best possible medical care and longterm operational reliability for the entire hospital. Specific cabling solutions from R&M for the healthcare sector solve concrete problems found in a clinical environment. Certified high-end technology and continuous quality assurance help ensure the professional, flexible and profitable performance of medical tasks.

Even clinic areas with harsh and damp ambient conditions or with rigorous hygiene requirements (cleaning) can be reliably connected to the network using the resilient R&M solutions for protection classes IP54 and IP67. Areas of use are laboratories and operating rooms, ambulances, supply stations for gases, fluids and refrigerants, or outdoors with access control and video monitoring.

The Splash Line retrofitable rubber grommet provides protection against splashing water and dust. It makes a simple RJ45 connector into a protection class IP54 connection.

Splash Line can withstand cleaning agents and disinfectants. The IP67 type 6 plastic grommet ensures even higher protection. It protects connectors against mechanical loads such as shocks and impacts. Grid clamps prevent connectors and cables from being pulled out in error. It is especially suitable for movable equipment. The IP67 type 6 grommet is particularly suitable for waterproof connection of mobile devices to LAN sockets using cables.

What are the key challenges you see in terms of adoption of such solutions by healthcare facilities?

We don’t see any challenges as such because the benefits are there for everyone to see. R&M provides platforms that are adaptable and future-proof. Previous investments retain their value.

The healthcare industry requires these kinds of solutions and R&M is making it available to them. R&M looks to build a partnership, supporting healthcare projects from start to finish, i.e., from the design of the building network, via installation, through to ongoing operations.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

53

Leaders Industry Speak View

As a leading home healthcare services provider in India, HealthCare At HOME (HCAH) sees Indian patients opening up to the idea of getting treatment from the comfort of their homes. Vivek Srivastava, CEO & Co-founder, HCAH, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN) shares how his company’s cost effective services are bridging the big gap in the Indian healthcare sector by reducing huge pressure on the hospital infrastructure.

HealthCare At Home: Breaking Myths, Bridging Gaps Where did the idea of HealthCare At Home come from?

How do you ensure the cost-effectiveness of your services?

At HCAH, we know how important it is to be by the side of your loved ones especially when they are not having good health. Patients are most comfortable in a familiar environment and do not prefer to move from place to place for treatment. This thought,

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compounded by poor healthcare infrastructure in India, made the promoters of Dabur, the Burman family and founders of HAH UK, to conceptualise HCAH. Through homecare we use the existing capacity in patient homes to take care of this huge gap in Indian healthcare, immediately and cost effectively. By shifting load off the hospitals, we can offload the doctors,

allowing them to treat more sick patients. India has already leapfrogged technologies in the past and hence this can also follow the same pattern.

The home healthcare services cover around 70 per cent of all healthcare requirements of a consumer and extend to management of lifestyle and chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, etc. over consumers’ lifetime. Its advantages include cost

Industry View

effectiveness with excellent clinical outcomes as customers end up saving 10-50 per cent costs as compared to regular hospital treatment depending upon the services taken.

How do you see the scope of home healthcare evolving in India? What is its current market size?

The overall Indian healthcare market today is worth `6.7 lakh crore and is expected to grow to `18.7 lakh crore by 2020 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 22.9 per cent. Globally, home healthcare segment comprises 3-6 per cent of the healthcare market, and on extrapolating Indian home healthcare market can reach `10 lakh crore by 2020.

As per World Health Statistics (2015), India needs to add at least 6,50,000 beds by 2017, requiring a capital investment of `1.6 lakh crores. Home healthcare can help bridge this gap, reducing the pressure on the hospital infrastructure, ensuring smooth transition from hospital to home, reducing chances of re-admissions, giving quality healthcare in Tier I and Tier II cities and reducing treatment cost.

We believe, in the near future, the health industry will align its services and offerings with the concept of home-based healthcare. Big corporate houses have already started to realise the importance of home-based healthcare. This will help in setting up a robust healthcare infrastructure across India where patients get adequate beds and care.

What is the reach of HCAH in India?

We have served over 300,000 patients across India by our presence in more than 40 cities including major cities like Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur etc.

We will soon have presence in southern cities, including Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Please tell us about key operational and other challenges faced by the company and how do you plan to overcome them?

One of the major challenges we face

stems primarily from the view of healthcare sector among Indians.

People find this hard to believe that high-end home healthcare services are possible. They feel that they can get good services only through admittance in hospitals. We attempt to break this myth by showing evidence and experiences of existing consumers. By far we have done more than 1,000 chemotherapies/immunotherapies at home and have looked after more than 300,000 patients and that too with a high customer satisfaction rate (NPS>70%) since 2012. We have a repeat rate of more than 50 per cent which is testament to the fact that people who take this service really find it worthwhile to continue Also, healthcare industry is facing a crunch of not just doctors but also qualified and trained paramedics.

HCAH has overcome this problem by investing in people. Not only have we upskilled the medical professional through training on simulation models, but we have also trained people with non-medical background. Depending on the skill set exhibited they are trained to either nursing attendant or a phlebotomist or an ECG technician. This eases out the work pressure on nurses, helping them to focus on more patients.

Another major challenge is that several hospitals are reluctant to give a try to the concept of home healthcare. They mistake us for a competitor instead of viewing us as an extension of their services. We try to partner with such hospitals explaining them our role to help them widen the reach of doctors and physicians, by vacating the beds occupied by bedridden since a long time.

Through meetings and seminars, we explain how we help in increasing the horizons of treatment for patients who need immediate medical intervention, as we free up both their resources and trained staff.

What are the key services offered by you? What quality parameters have been set by you to ensure credibility?

There are different set of services we offer: ProCare atHOME, MedCare

atHOME, LifeCare atHOME and add on services.

Our ProCare atHOME services include basic offerings like physiotherapy, healthcare attendants and everyday healthcare management (like injection administration, wound dressing etc.); MedCare atHOME services include medical procedures and prescription led services like home cancer care, ICU atHOME, post-surgical care etc.; LifeCare atHOME services include management of lifestyle changes, chronic diseases and wellness segment such as elderly care, diabetes management and mother & child care programme. Our addon services include pathology tests, medical equipment rentals and purchase, medicine delivery at home, etc.

We have a B2B segment which works with pharmaceutical companies, insurance houses, corporates, and hospitals. We partner with pharmaceuticals to provide services covering the patient journey starting from disease awareness to disease detection, treatment initiation, drug distribution, disease management, compliance management and showcasing clinical outcomes. We have done patient support programmes, patient assistance programmes and direct delivery of drugs in association with pharmaceutical companies.

With insurance companies, we would in pre and post-policy checks.

Some of our services are getting cashless approved by insurance companies. Our quality parameters include personalised care by competent professionals guided by customised care plan prescribed by patient’s doctor; quicker patient recovery; and professional protocol-led healthcare.

As customer experience is concerned, we are backed by NPS of over 70% (Net promoter score, an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research, correlated with revenue growth). Some of the well-known organizations with NPS are Apple (75%) and Amazon (70%).

We follow highest quality and clinical standards, benchmarked against those of Care Quality Commission (CQC), an independent regulator of health and social care in the UK.

FEBRUARY / 2017 ehealth.eletsonline.com

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