Ehealth may2016 web edition

eHealth Magazine

volume 11 / issue 05 / MAY 2016 / ` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-8959

Managing Director, Regency Healthcare

We Capitalise on Skill and Technology for Clinical Excellence

SPECIAL STORY

Creating an Inclusive Medicare Ecosystem Through Diverse Innovations

SPECIAL FEATURE

Clinical Chemistry Advances Paving the Path for Accurate Timely Diagnosis Views from the Diagnostics Chains

INSTITUTIONAL FOCUS

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

Issue 05

May 2016

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM - DELHI/NCR Managing Editor: Raghav Mittal Senior Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Assistant Editor: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Senior Correspondent: Vishwas Dass, Arpit Gupta Correspondent: Manish Arora BANGALORE BUREAU T Radha Krishna - Associate Editor JAIPUR BUREAU Kartik Sharma - Assistant Editor CHANDIGARH BUREAU Priya Yadav - Assistant Editor HYDERABAD Sudheer Goutham B - Senior Correspondent MUMBAI BUREAU Poulami Chakraborty - Correspondent SALES & MARKETING TEAM: eHealth Product Head: Fahim Haq Mobile: +91-8860651632 Senior Executive-Corporate Relationship: Priyanka Singh Mobile: +91-8860651631 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 Senior Web Designer: Shyam Kishore EveNt Team Manager: Gagandeep Kapani ADMINISTRATION Head Administration: Archana Jaiswal EDITORIAL & MARKETING CORRESPONDENCE

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Contents

MAY 2016 | VOLUME - 11 | ISSUE - 05

10 Special Interview

From Regency Hospital to Regency Healthcare

A 20-Year Journey

Regency Healthcare has been able to establish a distinct identity by delivering super-speciality medical services in Kanpur and surrounding areas for the last 20 years.

14 Special Story

Creating an Inclusive Medicare Ecosystem Through Diverse Innovations Mobility Solution is the most inexpensive way to provide quality healthcare

31 Special Feature

Clinical Chemistry Advances Paving the Path for Accurate Timely Diagnosis Diagnostics are the lighthouse for the other branches of medicine

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Corporate

Medical Ranking

34

48

Naresh Jain CEO Ziqitza Health Care Limited

EAST ZONE 52

37

WEST ZONE 54

38

Munender Soperna Chief Information Officer, Dr Lal Pathlabs Ltd

Philip Kurian Country Manager & Director, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment

Institutional Engagement

44

NORTH ZONE 56

SOUTH ZONE 58

46

Dr Ram Chandra Goyal Dean – Rural Medical College, Loni, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences

Dr FS Mehta Member, MCI (representing Geetanjali Medical College Hospital, Rajasthan)

CENTRAL ZONE 62 Start-ups

47

47

Dr Chikkananjappa Ex-President, Karnataka Medical Council

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Dr Raj Bahadur Member, MCI (representing Baba Farid University of Health Science Faridkot, Punjab)

63 64

HealthKhoj Focuses on Ailments with Longer Care Cycles Requiring High Involvement CareOnGo - Disrupting Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Enabling Procurement, Management & Sale On Mobile

editorial

Making a Swasth Bharat in Digital India The Narendra Modi led BJP Government would be commemorating its 2nd anniversary this month. While the entire globe is mesmerised by the power push of Mr Modi, his workaholic ministers have created a sizeable impact on ground zero. The packaging and repackaging of various national programmes launched in a mission mode have made a definitive impact in one way or the other led by an emboldened bureaucracy to whom the Prime Minister gave a pep talk this Civil Services day. The central theme of his long exhortation was that the civil service would need to reposition itself from being a mere Regulator, Administrator, Manager to a change agent.

How much of this change would hit the vast landmass of India remains to be seen. However the domain of healthcare is yet to see a major concerted push. Though a lot of fault lines are being bridged at various levels in terms of doing away with Fixed Composition Drugs, awareness building about overconsumption of antibiotics, creation of a high-powered committee to oversee the overhaul of Medical Council of India, inducing the ripple effect to the position of Supreme Court eventually mandating for a single combined medical entrance examination, initiation of several low profile but important medical programmes as in inoculation of children, training and capacity building of midwives, campaigns around nutrition et al, yet the absence of a comprehensive national programme from the stable of Modi Sarkar keeps the observers gnawing.

Healthcare by its very nature is a very complex and sensitive area to reform and modernise where there is a huge gulf between demand and supply, giving rise to a mammoth spree of malpractices as uncovered in the recently released book by Dr Arun Gadre and Dr Abhay Shukla titled ‘Dissenting Diagnosis’. The rapid expansion without the due rigour of regulation and sheer absence of transparency inducing information systems has led to practices like ‘target system’,’cuts’, ‘sink tests’, etc.

In a country where the integrity and probity of public systems is already under deeper stress, the civil society advocacy compounded with innovative entrepreneurial solutions need to add up to the sovereign government efforts.

The Prime Minister touched the chord of India’s rising urban class when he talked about the quality of education probably for the first time as a refreshing breather in the 19th edition of his Mann ki Baat. May be on the occasion of his 2nd anniversary in power, he shall enunciate a comprehensive overhaul of public health in India. Using his well cherished phraseology, may be Swasth Bharat would galvanise the rank and file of healthcare stakeholders.

We at eHEALTH however remain dedicated to the emergence of a quality, cost-effective and integrity-driven enterprise of healthcare, of which technology shall certainly be a prime mover and influencer. This issue presents a special story on Telemedicine, explaining how the various medical brands are using the power of technology to reach out to the underserved areas and making healthcare further inclusive. The domain of clinical chemistry is yet another breakthrough which is making on spot healthcare diagnostics possible.

We also present herewith in this issue India’s Most Progressive Brands in Medical Education. An in-depth analytics-based ranking framework has been created to gauge the progressiveness coefficient of India’s Medical Colleges.

Dr Ravi Gupta ravi.gupta@elets.in

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Special Interview

From

“Reaching beyond excellence in high-end tertiary healthcare, while doing business with a soul” Dr Atul Kapoor MD, Regency Healthcare

Regency Hospital to

Regency Healthcare

A 20-Year Journey Regency Healthcare has been able to establish a distinct identity by delivering super-speciality medical services in Kanpur and surrounding areas for the last 20 years. Dr Atul Kapoor, Managing Director, Regency Healthcare, tells Elets News Network (ENN) about their achievements, challenges and the way forward Undoubtedly, Dr Atul Kapoor’s heart beats for Kanpur and is committed to make highest quality healthcare accessible and affordable to the residents of Uttar Pradesh and he nostalgically shares thatRegency Hospital was the first multispeciality tertiary care corporate hospital in Uttar Pradesh, which was established in 1995 with a view to fill the wide gap between the demand of high-quality medical services and actually available services on ground.

Our vision is to become the largest healthcare player in the state of Uttar Pradesh over the next 5 years.

In a span of 20 years, the hospital has been able to establish a distinct identity for delivering super specialty medical services to Kanpur and surrounding cities.

In the private sector, the hospital has to its credit a lot of first’s like coronary angiography to angioplasty,

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beating heart surgery to heart valve replacements, dialysis to kidney transplant. Removal of complicated brain tumours and spinal disorder correction, complicated GI surgeries to bariatric surgery, hip & knee replacements, and many more. It would

Regency Healthcare Journey Abhishek Kapoor Vice President – Strategy & Expansion

“In next couple of years, our expansion is strategised to ensure accessibility of quality clinical care to patients across the state. With our roadmap in place, by 2018 we shall be managing 1,000 patient beds across the region. With strategic partnerships with HCG and Fresenius Medical Care, we are bringing top-notch cancer and renal care to the state of Uttar Pradesh and beyond.”

1995: 100-bed Regency Hospital 2007: 125-bed Expansion of Regency Hospital 2008: New OPD block added 2009: Regency School of Nursing 2009: AMRITA - A School for Special Children 2012: 100-bed Regency Renal Sciences Centre Dedicated Kidney Transplant Hospital 2015/2014: Regency City Clinic 2016 June: 100-bed Regency HCG Cancer Center 2016 July: 100-bed Regency Hospital, Govindnagar

Special Interview

be fair to say that the hospital has initiated a large number of procedures which were not being done in Kanpur region earlier. Regency Hospital was also the first NABH & NABL hospital in the State, as well as the first centre for Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU).

Gunjan Kumar CIO & Head - New Initiatives

“With the scale and the pace at which we are growing, it calls for an information communication technology (ICT) refresh. We are revamping our IT infrastructure, interconnects, deploying latest generation firewalls & monitoring devices, upgrading servers, adopting virtualisation and are migrating applications to Cloud. We have adopted Rapid Deployment Model for Apps with distributed environment and API integration for utmost clinical data security. Our SAP S/4 HANA initiative will further enhance our operational efficiencies and support governance. We are now braced up to venture into the regions of Uttar Pradesh, where accessibility and usage of IT is primitive.”

Being amongst the top hospitals in the state of Uttar Pradesh, what is your speciality towards serving patients from rural areas of the State?

Regency Hospital is equipped to serve the entire gamut of medical needs of the city and beyond with trust created through medical excellence over the years. Patients from places like Unnao, Kannauj, Farukhabad, Fatehpur to Banda, Orai, Auraiya, Etawah and Jhansi, apart from various other places, reach out to Regency Hospital to get proper medical treatment. The aim is to provide the patients with easily accessible, comprehensive and consistent quality medical care, with

a special focus on patient's need. More than 100 super-specialist consultants offer practically all kinds of medical treatment. Regency Healthcare has a staff strength of 1,400, which will soon be more than 2,000 by the end of 2016.

What are the various IT initiatives undertaken by Regency Healthcare?

We are upgrading our IT infrastructure, the three hospitals already operational have been connected via multiple interconnects on ring topology to central data centre. We are adding various layers of security to network and applications. Our PACS and teleradiology system for CT, MRI units

REGENCY HOSPITAL

GOVIND NAGAR

100 Bedded - Multi Speciality Hospital

2016 >>

ULTRA - MODERN HOSPITAL especially for the residents of South Kanpur

REGENCY HCG - CANCER CENTRE Center of Excellence for Oncology PET CT and “TruBeam” LINAC (Linear Accelerator), the latest technology in Cancer treatment where all forms of advanced external-beam radiotherapies are performed including IGRT, IMRT, 3D CRT, 2D, SRS, Rapid Arc, SRT, Palatine capabilities

<< 2016 REGENCY CITY CLINIC Wellness Center

2014 >> REGENCY RENAL SCIENCES CENTRE Center of Excellence for Kidney Diseases

NABH and NABL Accredited Entire range of Urology services including Reconstructive Urology Management of Chronic Kidney Disease Hemodialysis 100 Bedded Renal Transplant

OPD Consultation by Super Specialist High - End Diagnostics Ultramodern Pathology Modern Preventive Health Center CDER (Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Reproductive Research)

<< 2012

Super Speciality Hospital

REGENCY HOSPITAL

SARVODAYA NAGAR

225 Bedded - Multi Super Speciality Hospital; NABH and NABL Accredited

1995 >>

All Departments & Services Under One Roof

Empanelled with all leading insurance companies and corporates

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Special Interview

Dr Rashmi Kapoor

Director Division of Pediatric Intensive care & Pulmonology

“Today apart from being the only super-speciality hospital, Regency Hospital is considered to be the most sought after center for paediatric care. We have a number of sub-specialities in pediatrics like paediatric endocrinology, paediatric gastroenterology, adolescent gynaecology and paediatric pulmonology. We believe in providing complete care to our children; hence, we have ancillary branches of paediatrics in our hospital, such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy and psychology”. placed across centres, has given our radiologists and consultants access to diagnostic images real time basis from any of the centers.

We are moving towards Digital MRD and wish to make all services paperless wherever possible. We are now implementing SAP-HANA on Cloud and are working to refresh our Hospital Information System (HIS) and Clinical Information System (CIS). We are also installing a Pneumatic Tube System for transport of medicines, lab samples and documents across different departments of hospital.

What challenges did you face in adopting technology in hospitals located in Tier II cities?

There was a time when Tier II cities were lacking in IT-driven services, but now it has changed. Lately, IT companies have developed special focus on Tier II and Tier III cities.

How do you keep your staff updated about the new ITdriven services offered by Regency Healthcare?

We organise training sessions for the employees of the hospitals. There are people working for 20 years with us who have grown along with the organisation, they are the first's to be educated about the new initiatives

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and made to understand the benefits.

Once the positive impact of the new technology is understood, there is hardly any challenge thereafter, as most of the new initiatives are taken to enhance efficiencies and improve patient comfort & convenience.

What is the current footprint of Regency Healthcare and what are the expansion plans?

Regency Healthcare started 20 years ago with the aim of providing trauma and intensive care services that were non-existent in the state. A single hospital called Regency Hospital where super-specialities like Cardiac Sciences, Cosmetic & plastic surgery, dermatology, ENT, general surgery, internal medicine, neonatology & paediatrics, ophthalmology, orthopaedic, pulmonology nephrology, urology (kidney transplant), etc. were all started under one roof for the first time in Kanpur.

Over the last two decades, Regency Healthcare has expanded into renal care and oncology and currently owns and operates 500 beds across three facilities, in addition to nearly 50 dialysis beds in Kanpur. India is going to be the capital of noncommunicable diseases and cancer in the coming years. As a result Regency has a special focus for oncology and renal care.

It aims to expand across the state via these verticals, ultimately having a presence in every city of the state. Its Lucknow facility should see the light by

Santosh Gupta Executive Director - Finance

“We have come a long way, today our processes are reviewed & validated by PwC and EY. Our SAP initiative will ensure further transparency in our processes and bring us at par with the best in the industry. The Analytics tools of SAP will give real-time insight into financials & processes and further assist in informed decision making.”

Salim Rizvi Vice President - Marketing

“We have abundance of skill and experience in our clinicians and surgeons which brings in the challenge to share the nuances and differentiators that places them at par with celebrity status doctors of the metro cities. For this technology & social media acts as enablers to persistently educate people about our excellence in medical care & services and many of them have trusted Regency over metro cities hospitals for most complicated treatment.” early 2018 and the work for Varanasi and Allahabad will also start soon.

How do you relate to Swachh Bharat and medical waste?

It’s a very good move and we all should be a part of it. It would be fair to say that the hospital has initiated a large number initiatives to keep environmental pollution and medical waste in check.

As part of its ongoing diversification and modernisation schemes, Regency Healthcare is presently setting up a modern state-of-the-art centralised kitchen and highly mechanised laundry centre to cater to its five multispeciality hospitals, nurse hostels in the city of Kanpur.

This ambitious “Green” field project will save a lot on electricity usage as it has been designed to utilise about 60KVA power load only. Majority of machines will run on steam available from specialised boilers installed for the purpose. All the new Regency Hospitals have water harvesting & ETP plants, to ensure that 99 per cent of waste water emanating from the kitchen and laundry services is treated & reused, which would roughly be about 1,20,000 litres per day. This will save a sizeable quantity of potable water daily.

This “Green” project will be a unique endeavour in Uttar Pradesh and specially first of its kind in the city.

Curespring is a Connected Health as a service platform for Doctors. Curespring along with our Hospital Information System and PACS enables Hospitals enhance patient outreach by 25-30%

We invite General Physicians, Specialist Doctors, Hospitals and Clinics to join this network to have access to remote patients www.curespring.com +91 9900182555 We, a team of Doctors & IT professionals, designed this Telecare platform and HIS with inputs from 50+ Specialist doctors & General Physicians.

Our vision is to enable Specialist Doctors & Hospitals extend Specialist care

Medical Inclusion

Creating an Inclusive Medicare Ecosystem Through Diverse Innovations

W

ith the stabilisation of the technological backbone whereby almost all media of content - image, videos, sound, text can be transmitted and acted upon in real time, telemedicine is emerging as the frontier for ensuring the inclusiveness of quality healthcare services to the entire population base. Heart and blood pressure monitors can now wirelessly transmit the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data to mobile phones or a central online database accessed by telemedicine centres.

Healthcare chains are increasing their services footprints by expanding their telemedicine base.

A wider spectrum of healthcare innovations are taking shape to facilitate anytime anywhere quality healthcare consultations.

We at eHEALTH chose to talk to some of the finest adopters of this mode of extending their reach and impact which encompasses the conventional telemedicine suites, video conferencing applications,

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mobile healthcare apps and other health devices.

Telemedicine started in a static way with primary healthcare (PHC) got connected to speciality hospitals. Static because people still had to travel to telemedicine enabled PHCs. Even these centres had limited bandwidth. The first revolution happened when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) started their telemedicine programme in 2001 with their mobile healthcare units connecting remote areas to speciality hospitals. State governments started using ISROâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile units for their telemedicine programme. However, the growth was limited, as it was taken up only by state governments and as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity.

Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s healthcare sector is poised to grow to $280 billion by 2020 while it is expected to be a leader in e-health by 2019. It is said that even though Indian telemedicine, is in its nascent stage, it is showing robust growth at approximately 20 per cent and is

projected to grow from $8 million in 2012 to approximately $19 million by 2017. The launch of Social Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine (SEHAT)

by Government of India bolsters the sentiment of the industry considering the fact that Government is equally committed to the segment and intends to empower it in times to come.

The take of various healthcare organisations on the spread and expanse of telemedicine as an extension service to their brick & mortar establishments; ways and means of juxtaposed the two set-ups; revenue targets through these expansion services; policy hurdles faced; envisaged support from the Government; technological limitation posed and the general response and comfort of the patients when it comes to telemedicine solutions were some of our key asks on the subject which were responded quite enthusiastically by the fraternity.

Here we present some of the refined extracts from these elaborate interactions.

Medical Inclusion

Jeyandran Venugopal

Dhruv Suyamprakasam Founder & CEO of iCliniq

Founder & CEO, eClinic247

“At iCliniq, we have noticed that 80% of health issues can be solved online provided a proper process is followed to evaluate patients. We were the first to have a moderation team to devise this process. We discovered that the best medical outcomes happen when ‘doctors ask the right questions to patients’ and not the contrary. Thanks to this approach, we have successfully consulted more than 1,30,000 health issues and are the first platform to have query, phone and video consults”

“As a relatively new concept for both the consumers (patients) and the providers (doctors) in India, Telemedicine faces multiple challenges. Patients seek trust and service credibility from a new, unfamiliar online healthcare medium. Eclinic247 is establishing this by having transparent processes, clear information and top-notch customer service to help customers at every step of the way, as they try out this new way of getting on-demand consultations. On the provider side, the challenges are in adoption of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system and a nuanced understanding of how the medium can be productively harnessed. We have worked very closely with physicians as we designed the product for improved ease of use, innovative features and being very mobile friendly for our doctor-facing platform/application.”

Mobility Solution is the most inexpensive way to provide quality healthcare We feel mobility is the way to go and it is the inexpensive way to provide quality healthcare. Today, a mobile comes with all the elements required for audio/ visual communication and transmission.

It is expected that all mobile phones manufactured and released in early 2017 onwards must have an SOS alert system and GPS tracking. Indian telemedicine is demanding light weight smart healthcare devices which can be carried anywhere and can be easily used by village entrepreneurs or health workers. Mobile penetration in India is very high and it is across the country.

Slowly smartphone penetration is also increasing.

The ‘Make in India’ initiative has helped companies like us to get an extra edge in the challenging Indian healthcare device market.

With government initiatives of fibreconnectivity across villages is going to help India digitally connected and aid digital revolution. Hence, connectivity and reach would become a mute issue.

However, the last mile of collecting the right data and sharing with the quality care providers has become the need of the day. The latest generation medical equipment with sophisticated

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Sridharan Mani

CEO & Director, American Megatrends India

“Our motto is to empower every common man on the planet with the right to know his/her vitals or the family’s health conditions without the dependency a physician unless there is a real need for it” system has supported physicians to diagnose and cure patients from critical and life threatening diseases.

Technological advancements in video/ audio conferencing, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and healthcare information systems (HIS) have made significant inroads in providing better system for patient care. All the notable advancements made in IT are oriented towards sick care.

AMI has entered into a strategic partnership with HealthNet Global Limited (HNG), an affiliate of Apollo Hospitals, aimed at delivering global digital health solutions for Rural Health Connect, Home Health Monitoring and Tele-health Services. Through this partnership HNG will launch a new set of digital health care solutions under the “Control-H” brand. The

Control-H Health Monitoring Device is a fully integrated solution that combines handheld medical device technology developed by AMI with the total remote healthcare solution technology developed by HealthNet Global. Control-H provides the user with essential health information at any time and place by collecting key vital data such as non-invasive blood pressure (NiBP), pulse, blood oxygen level, body temperature, blood glucose, hemoglobin and cholesterol levels via a compact and portable device and sending the data to the HNG Health Cloud. The HNG Health Cloud then connects to the Apollo network of doctors, physicians, consultants and specialists to provide quality healthcare to individual patients anytime, anywhere.

Companion portable devices like AMI B.O.L.T and AMI VitalsFit (Engineered by Top7 company in QTXP global competition) extends the value of the smartphone by taking the quality healthcare to doorsteps of the individuals. The health parameters are not only accurately collected but it is instantaneously transmitted to the caregiver for quality care.

Telemedicine

Infrastructure, Not Technology Pose Problem to Telemedicine Our main focus is to create telemedicine awareness in the rural and semi-urban population, says Dr G N Saxena, Dean, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College to Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN)

W

ith the stabilisation of the technological backbone whereby almost all media of content - image, videos, sound and text - can be transmitted and acted upon in real time, telemedicine is emerging as the frontier for ensuring the inclusiveness of quality healthcare services to the entire population base.

Healthcare chains are increasing their servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; footprints by expanding their telemedicine base.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take on the spread and expanse of telemedicine as an extension service to your brick & mortar establishment?

Mahatama Gandhi Hospital has set up a state-of-the-art telemedicine centre, with desktop

connectivity to superspecialists, such as cardiologists, nephrologists, orthopaedic surgeons and casualty department.

The casualty department is connected to provide 24x7 telemedicine services. The Mahatama Gandhi Hospital telemedicine centre also provides technology support to private medical hospitals and clinics.

Mahatama Gandhi Hospital has been designated as the telemedicine hub for all government district hospitals by the government of Rajasthan.

Telemedicine should be an integral part of the national health mission

In what all ways have you juxtaposed the two set-ups?

What percentage of your revenue targets are met through these expansion services?

The telemedicine centre is an integral part of Mahatama Gandhi Hospital. At present, all telemedicine consultations are free as a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main focus of the hospital is to create telemedicine awareness in the rural/ semi-urban population, for which regular camps are held. Recently, a telemedicine awareness camp was held in Chaksu with the help of a non-government organisation (NGO). Similar telemedicine camps will be held to promote teledentistry, teledermatology, telepathology and teleophthalmology.

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Telemedicine

What policy hurdles do you find in furthering the telemedicine footprint of your healthcare brand? What support do you envisage from the Government to further the penetration of telemedicine services?

Telemedicine should be an integral part of the national health mission.

The doctors and paramedics should be trained to understand the importance of this facility in providing expert medical care to the unreached. All NGOs in health sector should be made to provide telemedicine services to the dependent population.

In what all ways does technology pose a limitation to the healthcare consultations using telemedicine?

Technology does not in any manner pose limitations to telemedicine, rather it is the infrastructure that is posing limitations to telemedicine, as broadband connectivity is not available in the rural areas.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the general response

and comfort of the patients when it comes to telemedicine solutions? How do you overcome the challenge of not presenting a conventional view of healthcare interaction?

Healthcare

in

India

is

very

The doctors and paramedics should be trained to understand the importance of this facility in providing expert medical care to the unreached expensive, as a patient has to pay out of his/her pocket to get his/ her treatment done. Any form of financial relief is most welcome, this is the psychic of patients everywhere in India. Hence, once the technology is explained to the patient, it is well accepted. Our experience in telemedicine awareness camps has been good, as we have received a very positive response from the participating population. This form of healthcare will be accepted for the monitoring of lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac diseases, etc.

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Telemedicine

Sunshine Global Hospitals Aims at 8% of Gross Revenue from Telemedicine Neeraj Lal, Group COO, talk at length about their rendezvous with telemedicine to Elets News Network (ENN)

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your take on the spread and expanse of Telemedicine as an extension service to your brick & mortar establishment?

Telemedicine is two-way, real-time interactive communication between a patient and the healthcare provider at a distant site, supported by audio and video equipment and integrated medical devices. We are using this platform to connect our patients in all our five hospitals based out of South Gujarat from Vadodara to Surat.

It gives us numerous benefits as a complement to traditional in-person medical care.

Telemedicine particularly is helpful in rural areas of South Gujarat, where the shortage of healthcare providers had led to a lack of accessibility to both basic healthcare and specialty care.

Through telemedicine, our patients get access to healthcare faster, which is a leading factor in improved patient engagement and better outcomes.

As the healthcare industry is being

driven towards value-based care, the use of telehealth technologies result in many positive outcomes, including fewer hospital readmissions, more faithful following of prescribed courses of treatment, and faster recovery than that of patients not receiving remote intervention.

This is allowing our tertiary care set-ups in Surat and Vadodara to create hub-and-spoke networks to provide each other with support.

By easily sharing their expertise outside their own institutions, our doctors are offering incredible value to their medical colleagues and those colleaguesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; patients.

Satellite OPDs supported by Telemedicine in and around Vadodara, Bharuch and Surat offering echo, basic pathology and consultation 8 per cent of revenue through Telemedicine initiative

In what all ways have you juxtaposed the two set-ups?

What percentage of your revenue targets are met through these expansion services?

We are having satellite OPDs supported by Telemedicine in various small towns, including villages in and around Vadodara, Bharuch and Surat.

Generally, echo, basic pathology and consultation are extended in these centres. Around 8 per cent of revenue targets are generally achieved through this initiative of ours. Remote analysis and monitoring services and electronic data storage significantly reduce

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Telemedicine

healthcare service costs, saving money for us, your patients and insurance companies. Telemedicine also reduces unnecessary non-urgent ER visits and eliminates transportation expenses for regular check-ups.

What policy hurdles do you find in furthering the Telemedicine footprint of your healthcare brand? What support do you envisage from the Government to further the penetration of Telemedicine services?

The Government is focusing on the penetration of Telemedicine services across rural, semi-urban and urban areas. Therefore, the healthcare chains are increasing their services footprints by expanding their telemedicine base.

A few challenges that remains at forefront are low Internet connectivity, call drop, broadband issues, etc. On the other hand, policy hurdles in furthering the Telemedicine footprint include registration of echo machines with local authority, along with the doctor name. It is a big challenge for all of us.

In what all ways does technology pose a limitation

Key Risks • Error in clinical services • Leakage of confidential medical information • Faulty clinical treatment due to low-quality health informatics records to the healthcare consultations using Telemedicine?

The overall cost of telecommunication system, especially data management apparatus and practical training of medical professionals is huge. Virtual clinical treatment decreases human interaction among the healthcare professionals and patients that increases the risk of error in clinical services, if the service is delivered by inexperienced professional.

Moreover, confidential medical information can be leaked through a faulty electronic system.

Telemedicine might take longer time for the difficulties in connecting virtual communication due to low Internet speed or server problem. Moreover, this system cannot provide immediate treatment, such as antibiotics. Low

quality of health informatics records, such as X-ray or other images, clinical progress reports, etc. run the risk of faulty clinical treatment. Telemedicine system requires tough legal regulation to prevent unauthorised and illegal service providers in this sector.

What’s the general response and comfort of the patients when it comes to Telemedicine solutions? How do you overcome the challenge of not presenting a conventional view of healthcare interaction?

Telemedicine solutions have a greater impact for rural and remote locations and work very well in follow-up visits.

People living in far-flung areas do not require travelling hundred miles and visiting big hospitals for small things today. Interaction between a specialised doctor and patient is possible at nearby community health centre or primary health centre through Telemedicine.

Operational Hurdles • Low Internet Connectivity • Call drop • Broadband issues Policy Hurdle • Registration of echo machines with local authority, along with the doctor name The various benefits of Telemedicine include easy accessibility to hospitals/doctors, irrespective of geographical location, lower chance of clinical errors, quick response at the time of emergency and patient convenience among others.

However, urban population does not seem to be more comfortable to the ideas of telemedicine solutions.

The Government should lay emphasis in urban areas for the adoption of Telemedicine.

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Telemedicine

Embedding Technology as Part of Core Operational DNA Drives Telemedicine Initiatives at Aster Dr Harish Pillai, CEO & Cluster Head, Aster Medicity talks at length to Elets News Network (ENN)

Organisation’s take on the spread and expanse of telemedicine as an extension service to the brick & mortar establishment We at Aster Medcity and Aster DM Healthcare look at telemedicine more as distributed medicine where service gaps/competencies are identified in key geographical zones or institutions and the technology backbone is leveraged to deliver the required intellectual inputs from the providers.

We firmly believe that embedding technology as part of our core DNA will enhance multifold the ability of our team to serve a larger number of patients without compromising quality.

On juxtaposition of brick & mortar set-up with telemedicine Currently, we are in the stage of juxtaposing technology, as well as the brick and mortar model for community outreach programmes, through our CSR initiatives; the example of connecting the Haripad Early Detection and Diagnostic Center

with Aster Medcity is a good example.

We are also leveraging technology backbone to provide teleradiology services across our network and telepathology is the next service in the pipeline. Continuous medical education programmes are also being broadcast via the Aster Academic Alliance on a weekly basis throughout our network.

Policy hurdles & governmental support We have not encountered any policy hurdles in furthering the telemedicine footprint within our geographical set-

Technological Limitation • Lack of tactile sensory inputs in the touch and feel of the patient Key Services Offerings • Teleradiology • Telepathology

up. The primary support envisaged from the government is to accelerate the penetration of telemedicine services, rationalise the duty structure, and reduce the cost of hardware and software involved in telemedicine application devices.

Technological limitations The primary barrier at this stage, is the lack of tactile sensory inputs in the touch and feel of the patient; experimental studies using 3D virtual reality and biosensors will soon breach this barrier and may act as a game changer.

General response and comfort of the patients with telemedicine In terms of natural and expected demand, seeing a doctor or healthcare provider in person is a preferred option. It’s to do more with legacy practice and human psychology.

The way to overcome these mental barriers is by consistently providing top-notch quality of one-to-one teleconsultations.

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Telemedicine

i2iTeleSolutions Believes in PlatformBased Approach to Healthcare

Leveraging online technology is the only way to address the problems of geographical separation, says Sham Banerji, CEO, i2iTeleSolutions to Elets News Network (ENN) Mission of i2iTeleSolutions is ‘Making Geography History... for Healthcare’. What does it mean?

One of the biggest problems facing healthcare delivery is that patients, diagnostic centres and medical specialists are dispersed and often isolated geographically. This results in a huge mismatch between supply-side density of healthcare providers versus the demand-side density of patients.

Access to medical diagnosis becomes very difficult. Through the use of technology and Internet connectivity, our aim is to remove this geographical barrier for diagnosis and make it a part of history.

How do you offer access to high-quality healthcare that is universal and affordable?

Quality healthcare that is accessible to all continues to be a challenge. Quality can only be established through standardised diagnostic processes, reliable 24x7 access to medical records and enhancing the skill set of the physicians through continual learning in the latest clinical practices. Cost can be drastically reduced by selecting optimal procedures and diagnostic protocols driven by awareness of the latest technologies and coupled with an enhanced skill set. We believe this requires a platform-based approach

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to healthcare access and delivery, maximising the use of Internet and cloud-based technologies backed by online access to second opinion and skill enhancement.

Brief us about your products i2i CONNECT and Trillium and their achievements.

Our i2i Connect platform provides solutions for patient diagnostics when there are no doctors on-site. Currently, we provide this facility to over 60 diagnostic centres in India and a few facilities in Africa. A patient with a critical injury in a remote location can be diagnosed for treatment within a few minutes by a specialist who may be thousands of miles away for followup and life- saving treatment.

Our Trillium platform is targeted at improving doctors’ diagnostic and treatment skills online, without having to leave their practice. Hundreds of obstetrics and gynaecology (OB/GYN) physicians have been trained on the Trillium platform in the past two years, to detect foetal anomalies and provide better quality treatment to the unborn.

In a country where there are nearly 30 million births every year, this approach of expert screening will ensure every foetus’ right to health. Trillium also supports other domains, such as infant blindness and oral health.

What role technology does play in bringing medical professionals, specialists and healthcare service providers under one roof for better healthcare delivery?

Leveraging online technology is the only way to address the problems of geographical separation, multiple healthcare suppliers, equipment and pharma vendors and over 7 billion potential users. Internet and cloudbased technologies have already transformed communication, banking, transportation and the food industries. Today, they are much more competitive and consumer oriented. Now’s the time for healthcare.

What are your plans on making telemedicine a day-to-day practice in this country?

We are partnering closely with medical specialists, diagnostic centres, pharma companies and equipment vendors in developing our solutions.

It will require collaboration and team effort to effectively combine what is largely a high cost, high overhead brick and mortar model today with a blend of shared resources, easily accessed ‘patient-centric’ model of the future. That is what telemedicine is supposed to be.

Telemedicine

Curespring to Herald Clinical Pathways

by Connecting All Stakeholders

Technology enables real-time consultation amongst doctors and hence enhances quality of care for patients, says Ramakanth Desai, CEO, Curespring to Elets News Network (ENN) What is the mission of Curespring for bringing quality healthcare access universal and affordable?

Our goal is to address the issues of access to a specialist doctor, optimum utilisation of his/her time, enable evidence-based treatment and reduced cost to patient for specialist care. Curespring (cloudbased connected health platform) enables establishing a specialist doctors’ network, secure video chat, sharing of patient data and diagnostics, picture archiving and communication system (PACS) viewer and hub of integrating medical devices.

Curespring will help in the extension of hospital (provider) reach, home care, remote care and health screening. This will be particularly useful for second opinion, pre- and post-surgical tele consults, enhanced use of a doctor’s time, improved clinical outcomes, better management of chronic conditions, improved patient compliance, streamlined clinical workflow, lowering long-term healthcare costs and improving patient education.

Our mission is to enable at least 1,000 connected physician clinics with specialists doctors’ network over the next 3 years.

Brief us about your products and their achievements.

We have three solutions to enable

connected healthcare delivery: • Base Curespring platform • We have integrated Curespring with our HIS package, enabling remote consultation for hospital patients. We are enhancing HIS to offer hospital performance analysis, integration with other diagnostic apps and mobile enablement – IP Case sheet & Diagnostics on tab and mobile • We have integrated Curespring with our PACS solutions, enabling doctors to provide remote diagnosis. We are enhancing our PACS solution with subspecialities (e.g. cardiology, lesion management, post processing for vascular analysis), images – access anywhere, anytime and on any device We have 40+ hospitals and 10+ diagnostic labs, where we have installed our various solutions.

What role does technology play in bringing medical professionals, specialists and healthcare service providers under one roof for better healthcare delivery?

Technology plays a huge role and enables care continuum for patients. Technology enables consistent real-time access to patient information, so that a patient always gets informed care. Technology

enables real-time consultation amongst doctors and hence enhances quality of care for patients. Technology enables optimum utilisation of specialist doctors’ time. Technology enables connecting all stakeholders (diagnostics/providers, medical devices, doctors and patients) on one platform and hence clinical pathways are feasible by ensuring consistency of treatment.

What are your plans on making telemedicine a day-to-day practice in this country?

We will like to: • Enhance our specialist doctors’ network, thereby bringing all specialists under one roof and connecting them with their fellow colleagues.

• Enable all multispeciality healthcare providers to connect to mid-sized hospitals and office clinics, thereby extending their reach to remote areas seamlessly.

• Enable integrating multiple diagnostic devices into our connected health platform and hence multiple clinical pathways are feasible.

• Integrate our connected health platform Curespring to other HIS and PACS packages in the market, thereby enabling further optimum utilisation of specialists’ time.

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Telemedicine

Lifesizeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Simplified Technologies to Increase Adoption of Telemedicine Simplification of technology will increase adoption of technology, says Gagan Verma, Regional Director & Head for India, ASEAN & SAARC Region, Lifesize to Gaurav Srivastava and Priyanka Singh, Elets News Network (ENN)

How do you vision your contribution to the healthcare vertical of smart city?

As LifeSize has always been a trendsetter in high-definition (HD) videoconferencing, we look forward to being one of the key stakeholders in the entire smart city project. In the light of the objectives of the smart city, around 30 per cent to 40 per cent degrowth in infrastructure business and dynamic changes in videoconferencing industry, we have invested in infrastructure in 15 data centres globally. Moreover, our customers need to invest only in subscription packages and not hardware. By experimenting new models, we have created low-cost high-quality end points that get paid by cloud. As the smart city project visions to provide easy accessibility to healthcare services, the scale to which the government

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is talking about smart city is achievable only through cloud and not hardware. In comparison to hardware, any cloud application is scalable within minutes. Our cloud service resides on mobility, laptop and normal conference rooms, in fact anywhere. In terms of smart city, there will be no requirement to invest in hardware to connect to any office or any part of the smart city. Our application will allow users to connect to different departments anytime, anywhere. Both the end users can have the same application for direct videoconferencing with no investment in hardware. Moreover, all addresses will be available in the directory; one can connect to the call by just clicking on the icon. The best part of our application is that it is interoperable by anybody or at any end point, such as any H.323 device and provider. Users just need

Adoption of telemedicine among medical professionals, medical service providers and common masses as a concept remains cumbersome

a laptop or any other electronic device with Internet connection and a camera to access our services. Our application is freely downloadable with 14-day free trial. Apart from videoconferencing, our service also allows audio conferencing.

Alternatively, our application is easy to use, as the user can send

Telemedicine

a guest invite to others, who can copy the link and paste on Google chrome and directly connect to the call. With the demand for videoconferencing exploding, our cost-effective services will play a key role in making life easier for the users. At the end, everybody wants high-end video conferencing at a reasonable cost.

Although the entire telemedicine sector is expanding, we continue to witness challenges in its adoption among the medical fraternity. How do you foresee your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in addressing these challenges in telemedicine sector?

I have been associated with telemedicine industry for close to 12 years. Despite being a concept in use for long, telemedicine has not seen much actual development due to lack of funding. Secondly, the adoption of telemedicine among medical professionals, medical service providers and common masses as a concept remains cumbersome. As a result, we have simplified the technology for all types of users. The users need to just have the basic knowledge of laptops, electronic devices and browsing to access our services through our application. Additionally, we can connect as many users as possible from different ends. We have also made local numbers available in 60 countries to avoid international calls. Our videoconferencing pack is bundled with all facilities and flexibilities for free of cost. By sending a guest invite, we can ensure all flexibilities, such as connect users in different locations and through different sources. This plays a crucial role in expanding the footprint of telemedicine in both rural and urban areas.

Will your application and local

Our application will allow users to connect to different departments anytime, anywhere.

Both the end users can have the same application for direct videoconferencing with no investment in hardware numbers allow undisrupted services to users anytime, anywhere? Has Lifesize outsourced any of its services for efficiency and better management?

The selected 60 numbers of 60 countries are toll-free hunting multiple line numbers.

Our applicationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relevancy is to the tune of geographic redundancy.

Even if our data centres go down due to some unforeseen circumstances, the calls get directed to Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. In cloud, everything is configured in a geographic redundancy manner, unlike hardware. During a videoconference, if any user gets disconnected, videoconferencing will not stop. Overall, we have ensured users access services without any disruption by addressing the core issues. We have made the technology simpler by ensuring control at the end of the users. Moreover, IBM, the leader in the data security centre services, provides the software platform; this gives us flexibility to focus on our core area of service.

Which are the other sectors and states that Lifesize is targeting for business

opportunities? How are you supporting institutions involved in research and development (R&D)?

The government and education sector are our key spenders. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is one of our clients. Through our application, any professor can use local numbers or connect anybody on an ad hoc basis with no investment in hardware and highquality service. Our application offers a better actual use scenario than that in a conventional business environment. Personally, I have sold videoconferencing packages to most of the states and educational institutions, as they can foresee the benefits of cloud.

How has been your experience with healthcare industry? What are the major challenges you face while selling video conferencing packages to the government?

Overall, the experience has been wonderful; however, the adoption of technology or videoconferencing remains a challenge in the healthcare sector.

Despite hardware being expensive and not easy to use, the real use of cloud has been minimal. Therefore, we have made it easy and flexible by taking care of all hardwarerelated challenges through cloud.

Procurement process is a challenge and before procurement usability factor is another challenge. Though usability has improved to quite an extent, yet people buy but fail to use it adequately. Therefore, it is essential to educate the government.

Secondly, government has its own pain areas in terms of procurement due to the tender scenario. Earlier only the National Informatics Centre (NIC) used to be there, now the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) has also come up with rate contracts.

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Telemedicine

With Over 600K Users and 45,000 Video Consults, seeDoc Stewards Online Healthcare Ecosystem Vivek Bansal, Founder, seeDoc talks further to Elets News Network (ENN)

Give a brief about your company and your product? seeDoc is India’s leading medical consultation company that combines advanced video, voice, mobile and artificial intelligence with the medical knowledge and experience of India’s leading doctors and specialists. Founded by two serial entrepreneurs from the Silicon Valley - Jaideep Singh and Vivek Bansal, seeDoc focuses on providing the highest quality of medical care in a transparent and trustworthy manner.

With seeDoc, users can either opt for instant video consultation or ask a free question, get medicines delivered at home, or have blood tests or any diagnostic test done from home (in limited areas), while keeping all their medical records organised at one place. Many leading doctors and specialists from top medical institutions have joined us as doctors find video consultations equally rewarding as the patients.

What had been the inspiration behind the foundation of the company?

The inspiration behind launching something as revolutionary as seeDoc was the realisation that though there

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are almost 1 million doctors in the country, yet access to high-quality medical care in India is limited to a few geographic locations, sections of society and only at limited hours.

Hence, seeDoc was created to provide a convenient, high-quality, trusted and transparent medical service that is easy to access from the comfort of your home or office at extended hours as well.

What has been seeDoc’s approach for making quality healthcare access universal and affordable?

The foundation of seeDoc is based on creating an accessible and highest quality of medical services for our users. We thrive for transparency and hence we charge a standard fee of Rs 400 for our instant video consultation service, making it highly affordable. Our free services, such as asking a medical question from our panel of doctors or the diabetes assessment test, further strengthen our focus on offering an affordable and accessible service to all. seeDoc also transfers all discounts available from partner chemists and labs to the end user, thereby making the entire proposition a very lucrative

and high value one for its users.

What role does technology play in bringing medical professionals, specialists and healthcare service providers under one umbrella for better healthcare delivery? seeDoc is a video consultation service that focuses highly on technology to connect the medical fraternity with people seeking medical advice and guidance. With most doctors remaining highly underutilised otherwise during their working time apart from a select few; being in the panel of doctors of seeDoc ensures a steady flow of patient queries and consultations with ample learning opportunities for doctors. Patients who don’t have access to high-quality doctors due to geographic or time constraints are also able to consult doctors even from remote parts of India via video and voice, making it a win-win proposition for both entities.

Integrating delivery of medicines and lab tests to be delivered at home provides further convenience to the users. seeDoc is perfectly positioned to drive all the aspects of the healthcare ecosystem together with all partners benefiting from the association.

Paradigm Shift

Nurturing the Biotech Start-Up Ecosystem from First Principles Dr Renu Swarup, Managing Director of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) explains about the succor which her organisation is extending to ensure Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ascendance on the Biotechnology forefront. She talks at length to Priyanka Singh & Kusum Kumari of Elets News Network (ENN) You have overseen the biotech movement in the country almost from its inception and pioneered many a key initiatives in the building up of the sector. How has been the journey so far. What have had been the key hurdles. Which of them still need due attention.

BIRAC was set up by DBT about 4 years back. Earlier, DBT itself had been promoting healthcare innovation research for the last 30 years. The reason why BIRAC was set up because we felt special impetus was needed on industrial innovation research to assist the start-up ecosystem and biotechnology innovation ecosystem to grow. This is the reason why a separate body was set up to look into that component. Growth of that has been tremendous, data and statistics available in public domain self-speak for themselves.

A couple of years earlier, we were always discussing strengths we have in our academic research institutions that DBT had built so beautifully. However, now we can

comfortably say that we have an innovation ecosystem with the startups and small companies that can enable movement of research from laboratories to the market and help them take forward.

BIRAC has supported all the sectors of biotechnology, but healthcare occupies more than 60 per cent of the support provided.

Within healthcare, 50 per cent goes to medical and diagnostic equipment, which is where the thrust is.

We have seen real changes in the overall scenario in the last

Though we have not been the best communicators of our projects, we are trying to explore this area with the government now getting into communication

couple of years, with more young entrepreneurs coming forward to take up risks, probably because we have an ecosystem that is enabling them to do this. We have incubation centres that provide mentorship and infrastructure to enable networking. We have a lot of hand holding conducted by our mentors.

The government itself is committed to the entire project and finances are also available. We are enabling start-ups to connect with investors and people are recognising that India has got such an ecosystem.

Most importantly, the gap between academia and industry has started narrowing down, as a lot of these incubators are located within academic institutions, especially IITs. It is easier for students at IITs to move out from academic institutions to the incubators; it is about the level of confidence that comes in.

There are no hurdles for BIRAC as an organisation as such, as BIRAC is looking at the functioning of the biotechnology sector. But, how do you get the ecosystem to grow. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think they are hurdles;

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Paradigm Shift

I look at them as challenges and it is important for us to find solutions to address these challenges. That is what we have been doing constantly.

I don’t think there will ever be any phase when we can say that we have addressed all challenges and now we are on a smooth path. It is such a growing technology and area that having challenges into the system is part of the growing system. Each time we address challenges, a set of 10 new challenges comes before us.

That’s part of the growing ecosystem to be at par with all the global units.

There are challenges even today with us, such as finding the right investors for our start-ups, finding the right mentors for our start-ups, getting an efficient regulatory system in place, access to the required infrastructure, trying to see how we can help our innovators to move into actual innovation, rather than just looking at technologies that are just B2B type, etc. We look at these as our challenges.

Do you see the innovations being witnessed by BIRAC as ‘real innovation’? Do you think they can be considered innovation only for the Indian market or innovation for the global market?

They are innovations, though we cannot say 100 per cent of them.

We do see increase in the number of innovations now. Innovation is what caters to the requirement of your own ecosystem. BIRAC focuses totally on products that are affordable and accessible to the society. Innovation may be a small incremental innovation in terms of technology, process or product.

It may have also brought down the cost of the product or made it more accessible in terms of technology through mobile application system.

These are innovation for us. Also, let me tell you, such innovation may not stay limited to India itself. For

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BIRAC, the ultimate destination is not the developed market only. There are a lot of emerging and developing markets where products made in India find place due to similar socioeconomic needs. So, such opportunities do exist for us.

What is the footprint of startups nurtured by BIRAC? Could you please share some figures with us?

It’s a huge number. Each time we put out a call, we are flooded with applications. However, I would not take it as any parameter or measurement of success, as it is an

Now, we can comfortably say that we have an innovation ecosystem with the start-ups and small companies that can enable a movement of research from laboratories to the market and help them take forward online process and anyone can come and apply. I would look at how many successful applicants we really support, as that will portray the level of good quality research coming to us; we have as of now 500 companies that we have supported and nearly 300 young entrepreneurs and young innovators whom we support through an initial grant. We are also looking at 50 innovation fellows who are postgraduate and postdoctoral students who are not entrepreneurs and still deciding upon their career paths, but we have given them preincubation space in universities and research institutes to set up university research clusters to be

used as testing ground. At the end of three years, they decide whether they actually want to set up their enterprise or continue research as a researcher. Through about 15 incubation centres and 1,50,000 sq feet of incubation space, we actually incubate at a given time about 200 incubatees, who obviously directly and indirectly get funded by us.

The above scheme covers all the areas of healthcare.

In the context of national focus on themes like ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Make in India’ how do you see the biotechnology innovation ecosystem shaping up in India?

We have put this as one of the agendas in our action plan. If you read the action plan of ‘StartUp India’ announced on January 16, there is a whole section on biotechnology. We have said we will have 2,000 start-ups in next four to five years. Currently, we have around 500 start-ups, so scaling the number by four to five times is what we are currently looking at. We have also said that the government will now come forward to launch its own equity fund, which shall be treated as a “fund for funds” and would go along with private investors. While at the moment we are only making grants to projects, going forward we will become investors along with private investors, which will become a key factor for risk mitigation.

When private organisations realise that the government is actually investing in companies, they would know the government has validated such projects and companies. It’s a kind of authentication of companies.

Some of the investors with whom we have discussed with are not so behind the point of the government’s role as just investors, but look forward to validation from government’s end for a particular product and company. These investors feel that

Paradigm Shift

with BIRAC-certified technologies, products and companies validated after technology due diligence, they will be confident enough to go ahead and try the market. This will be part of the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

What are your key innovation areas onto which BIRAC is focusing on?

Sectors would obviously remain the same. We cover all the sectors of biotechnology. From the perspective of innovation, as mentioned so far, we have been supporting grants from ignition to pre-commercialisation.

However, the next step in the ecosystem would be equity funding and providing seed funds to our own incubators. Therefore, it is all about financing.

Secondly, we have put major thrust and focus on mentoring and skill development. We have BIRAC Regional Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, which focuses on mentoring and skill development.

We hope to be able to set up BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre and other similar organisations. We have been talking to the Ministry of Skill Development for partnering with us to support the projects.

If so, fine, else we will try finding other partners.

We are also trying to set up partnerships in the PPP mode as well. Some of our private industries have said they would be happy to come forward and become mentors for knowledge sharing and under the mentor network. Probably, this will

• Healthcare occupies more than 60 per cent of the support provided by BIRAC • Within healthcare, 50 per cent goes to medical and diagnostic equipment

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CHALLENGES • Finding the right investors & mentors for start-ups • Getting an efficient regulatory system in place • Access to the required infrastructure • Helping innovators to move into actual innovation strengthen the innovation space.

The domain of biotech and its wider implications on healthcare are largely oblivious to the masses.

What DBT is doing in this regard? What communication measures and media campaigns are being undertaken by the DBT to spread awareness about biotechnology innovations, new projects and new medical equipment in the market that can ease access to healthcare?

Though we have not been the best communicators of our projects, we are trying to explore this area with the government now getting into communication. But, we are definitely trying to get more into this. The ‘Make in India’ cell of the biotechnology sector has right now been positioned at BIRAC. With this change, we are trying to bring out regular updates, particularly with regard to what is available for young entrepreneurs in terms of the ecosystem and what comes out from the ecosystem as product for the market. So, we are trying to build a whole communication strategy around it, and we hope in the coming weeks we will be able to come with some new strategies. We are trying to partner with our key communication

partners to take this activity ahead.

Technology is obviously our forte, but we are trying to combine both technology and communication.

How is BIRAC ensuring that start-ups, investors and entrepreneurs are aware about the regulation regime around biotechnology sector?

Looking at the entire debate pertaining to regulations around the pharmaceutical sector, how would BIRAC ensure that regulations are accessible and follows a transparent pattern?

We do have some challenges in our current regulatory system. However, over the last couple of months, you can notice that things are obviously getting much better now. We have more technical competence that is being built into the regulator’s office, which is very important. Transparency part was always there and only some sort of competence building was required.

So, that is already being looked into.

The bill for the separate regulatory authority is in advance stage right now. We hope to be able to table it as soon as possible, as this will bring drastic changes in the ecosystem. If you look at either our ‘Make in India’ campaign or any other action plan, from the DBT we have been saying, we are committed to bring in a very well-structured and transparent regulatory system that is at par with the global benchmarks. I think this is our real aim. We have achieved some success on this front already, but obviously not completely. I think in the next couple of months you should see changes, as the regulator’s office is currently focusing a lot on skill development and competence building. Additionally, the regulator’s office has been strengthened and given more technical hands now.

Obviously, any organisation that gets competent will also deliver the best to its capacity.

Medical Diagnostics

Clinical Chemistry Advances Paving the Path for Accurate Timely Diagnosis

M

odern diagnostics is based entirely on the advances in clinical chemistry. Rapid growth in the diagnostics market due to increase in healthcare spending, as well as increasing incidents of lifestyle diseases, awareness for preventive healthcare, aging population, reagent rental agreements and demand for laboratory automation is boosting the demand for clinical chemistry analyzer products. The

global clinical chemistry analyzer market which was valued at $8,965.00 million in 2014 is poised to grow at a CAGR of 5.52 per cent between 2014 and 2019, to reach $11,728.01 million in 2019. eHEALTH spoke to a spectrum of pathological labs employing the latest innovations in clinical chemistry about this expanding industry vertical and tried to find out their purviews and projections.

Newer diagnostic techniques are reducing the window/silent period of diseases smaller Dr Vishu Bhasin, Director, Bhasin Path Labs

Diagnostics are the lighthouse for the other branches of medicine Dr Sherry Khanna, Director, Khanna Path Labs

On innovative diagnostic tests As 70 per cent of clinical decisions depend upon diagnostic tests, innovation in diagnostics help clinicians not only diagnose faster, better and more easily, it also provides valuable insights into treatment response, prognosis and devising action plans. It is due to innovation in diagnostics that newer treatments are able to come up more frequently and are being being accepted sooner into practice since newer tests and better diagnostic facilities make comparisons & evaluations more objective. And definitely ahead of all, newer diagnostic techniques are reducing window/silent period of diseases smaller allowing earlier diagnosis and faster treatment and giving us a wider opportunity at primary & secondary prevention strategies.

Diagnostics are the lighthouse for the other branches of medicine guiding them towards the right diagnosis.

Without the guiding light of innovative diagnostics it may be impossible for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clinicians to reach the right diagnosis and treat the patient.

Innovations in the diagnostic fields are happening at a rapid speed because they are backed by decades of research in the fields of biotechnology, immunology, genetics. In fact, our government is making great efforts to bring together all these field on the same platform and help translate the research into commercially viable kits and technology.

Having said this, a word of caution though is required. The innovative diagnostic tools may give you a compilation of a few numbers and images but the clinician must not forget the basic art of looking at the patient as a complete human being and with a touch of compassion.

We have always believed in the dictum that â&#x20AC;&#x153;If there is a way to do it better. Find itâ&#x20AC;?. This is the reason our laboratory started with a research unit 5 years back is recognised by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Besides many other projects, our research unit in association with neurology departments of AIIMS DELHI, is endeavouring to produce a point of care testing kits for detection of HLA B 1502 gene for epileptic patients using the LAMP technology.

Innovation no doubt holds the key to future healthcare but a few questions need to be answered before bringing in a new technology /kit What is desirable to the user?

What is possible with technology?

What is viable in the market?

Innovations at Bhasin Path Labs We believe we do our bit for innovation in accordance to our role in healthcare and modality development i.e. providing feedbacks to diagnostic equipment companies whenever and wherever required, regular participation in discussion forums and allowing under trial techniques and methods to be experimented at back end for comparison and validation with established techniques.

We do embrace and invest in such innovations as and when they reach the appropriate stage.

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Innovation

Achira’s Platforms Transforming Point-of-Care, At-Home Diagnostic Testing

The homegrown Achira Labs is developing two broad testing platforms - Microfluidics Platform and Fabric Platform - to drive accessible and costeffective diagnostics. Dr Dhananjaya Dendukuri, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Achira Labs, interacts at length with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) on what drives the firm and its future plans What’s the buzz around ACIX 100? How is it going to make blood testing accessible and cost effective?

Achira Labs has introduced a new portable platform - ACIX 100 - which uses patented, next-generation, microfluidic technology for testing blood samples. The path-breaking ACIX platform generates accurate and fast results while enabling improved accessibility and cost-effective medical testing solutions. It was designed and developed in-house by a team of scientists and engineers.

Innovation has been the keyword in Achira’s DNA. Therefore, the platform has been designed and manufactured in India with the idea of giving local diagnostic labs and doctors a chance to offer fast, high-quality medical testing to consumers within their premises, rather than relying on larger labs for testing. We believe that this will empower small, independent labs and bring about a big change in the way testing is conducted in India while also improving accessibility to high-quality diagnostics in rural markets.

The technology, which will enable a reduction of 50 to 60 per cent in diagnostic costs, will also stand out for its portability factor since the equipment can be placed at the doctor’s clinic itself. This would aid the doctor in making informed decisions through quick, accurate diagnosis and testing.

Tell us more about the Microfluidics Platform of Achira.

Microfluidics allows one to effectively manipulate tiny amounts of fluids that makes it a perfect platform for reducing costs in clinical testing.

The key cost drivers for any clinical tests today are the direct costs related to consumables and the machine time it takes to perform a test, and indirect costs related to shipping samples from the collection centre to the main lab. Microfluidics can significantly reduce all the direct costs, as the amount of consumables and the size and cost of the machine are significantly lower. In addition, our approach of developing a point-of-care device with microfluidics removes all indirect costs.

We also work on multiplexing; where a single chip can be used to diagnose more than one health condition.

All this makes our platform ideal for the Indian diagnostic

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Innovation

environment, which is currently characterised by few large labs in urban areas and a greater unorganised diagnostic lab marketplace.

What’s all about the Fabric Platform?

Achira is also pioneering the use of silk fabric for simple at-home testing for infections and blood glucose levels.

This platform takes advantage of our large weaving community and local weaving skills to manufacture such devices.

Our approach to scale this is through decentralised manufacturing, where several local communities will be trained to weave our fabric sensors. This reduces the capital investments required to set up a manufacturing plant, and lowers the overall cost of our products.

What opportunities do you see for Achira in medical diagnostics markets in India?

Over 90 per cent of the medical diagnostics segment in India today is largely unorganised and fragmented.

It mostly runs on the lab owners’ relationship with the doctors. We see vast opportunities in Indian small-to-medium-sized labs in both urban and rural areas. These labs are mostly forced to outsource IVD testing (e.g. any hormone testing) to larger labs since they cannot afford the testing equipment currently available in the market.

Our ACIX product line neatly fills this gap. Based on microfluidic technology, the diagnostic equipment is made much more affordable to the small labs owners who can become fully independent minilabs in their own right. We expect to garner about 30 per cent market share of the estimated Rs 800 crore small lab business that is growing at 18 per cent CAGR. Having been on this journey for that last 6 years, we now have enough proof that the entire industry in India and abroad is headed towards point-

of-care testing in a big way.

‘ACIX’ was first microfluidic chip based platform to perform lowcost medical diagnostic tests with a focus on immunoassays (protein tests). What are your future plans?

We are constantly undertaking research in the field of POC medical diagnostics technology and will expand our product portfolio in a phased manner over time. Our current ACIX platform will have more test panels added to it in the coming months. We are looking at adding panels for fertility testing, malaria and dengue among others.

Achira is linking the manufacturing of its fabric sensors with local weaving communities for simple athome testing for infections and blood glucose levels Our platform is currently available in Karnataka, and we will gradually expand our regional reach across South India in the coming months. In the following year or two, we aim to be available across India and also plan to access global markets.

What benefits do you reap having tie-ups with Grand Challenges Canada, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Indian Council of Medical Research and C-CAMP? The most important benefit is the vote of confidence in our ideas and technologies. It is gratifying and encouraging to know that you have been selected by such prestigious

organisations for a grant. In addition to the funding, the vetting and review process connects us with a lot of leading scientists across the country and worldwide who have helped us significantly with their share of informative advices. Consequently, we were invited by our grant partners to various forums, including the StartUp Konnect in California, which was presided over by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event exposed us to different potential investors across the world. We have also been able to secure funding required for commercialising our products from Catamaran, a leading venture capital firm based out of Bangalore.

Catamaran’s willingness to back us through this hard, slow process makes them far different than most others looking for a short-term return on investment (ROI).

It was certainly an achievement of Achira Labs to be among the 35 innovative Indian startups that were shortlisted to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Silicon Valley for the first India-US Start-Up Konnect in September 2015.

What is the strategy to retain your name and position?

Our strategy is to stay focused on developing high-quality diagnostic devices that will help meet the requirements of markets like India.

We are committed to leveraging the benefits of next-generation technologies, such as microfluidics, to create devices that will transform the point-of-care and at-home diagnostic testing environment. Since our inception, we have been clear about celebrating the country’s wealth of engineering and technology expertise by developing innovative products in India. We believe that we are on the right path and we hope to be at the forefront of global diagnostic medical device development in the near future.

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Corporate Interview

ZHL to Focus Upon Creating Footprint in Emergency Services We look forward to foraying into larger states using technology for efficiency, says Naresh Jain, CEO, Ziqitza Health Care Limited in an interview with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN)

Please provide the overview of the operations of Ziqitza Health Care Limited (ZHL) in brief?

ZHL has broadly two different business verticals that include private business and government business. The private business is known by the brand 108, which is the original business that we started in 2004 that we scaled up gradually with time. Currently, we have about 110 ambulances under the brand 108, wherein users call on 108. Once the call is received in the call centre in that region, the closest ambulance is identified by the global positioning system (GPS) tracking and software installed at the call centre and immediately dispatched to pick up and drop the patient the hospital of his/her choice, since the patient pays for the services delivered by the ambulance. We actually follow the pay-per-use model, wherein the user pays as and when he/she use the service. There are no subscription fees or any other charges, only the transport fee. Currently, we are in

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parts of Kerala, Mumbai and some parts of East India where we have 108 ambulance stations. The other part of our business is government business, wherein we enter into a contract with state government through a publicprivate partnership (PPP) model, wherein we provide these ambulance services to the entire state or whichever region the government calls for the tender. The government pays us on behalf of the public based on the service parameters and various other deliverables that are decided before the tender process is commenced. Currently, our 108 model is present in Odisha, Punjab and parts of Bihar; we are covering only one district in Bihar with 10 ambulances and we have also won the tender for Jharkhand state wherein we will be rolling out 329 ambulances in the next three to six months under the same 108 programme. Going forward, we expect a lot of contested footage by various state government and we would bid based on the parameters specified in the tender documents. As

and when more opportunities come, we will take it up for expansion.

Emergency services have emerged as the lifeline for the people unable to get the vehicle on time. Please comment.

This is a very high-impact project for various state governments, as the public uses these services directly and public benefits from such services, particularly in the absence of similar services during a real medical emergency. People have started realising its benefits, especially in rural India where access to good medical facilities is not available. In rural areas, people need to travel to various districts, headquarters where district hospitals are located and state capitals where adequate medical facilities are available. Therefore, the requirement of this ambulance service is all the more acute and needed in rural India, compared to the urban areas. With the growing usage of this service

Corporate Interview

amongst people, 108 ambulance services have got more popular.

With credibility built over the period of time, people now consider such services as a reliable service by the government. As it gets more popular, the usage of the ambulance services will increase across India. Because of the popularity of these services and achievement of projections in just three years in Odisha, the government has decided to add additional 25 per cent of more ambulances in its fourth year.

Will you consider Odisha as a successful case study of ZHL? I would not say just a successful case study for ZHL, but for the entire 108 model. These ambulances are available in all the other states and very few states are now not covered by this service. Moreover, the remaining few states are also now contemplating to adopt this request for proposal (RFP). I assume in next one year, all states should be covered by these services, as it becomes easy for the state governments to implement an existing model followed in different states.

What would you like to say on the emphasis by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the usage of 108 services for any medical emergency?

Since the new government took over in the centre about two years back, there has been a renewed focus on healthcare, especially e-channels, in both rural and urban areas. However, the focus has been more on rural areas. A lot of projects are now being privatised on the PPP model basis, to the extent that not only ambulance services, but even diagnosis centres are being looked at for privatisation.

There is entire renewed focus and emphasis on the PPP model, wherein service standards and delivery standards are set upfront and the government has to just do monitoring

to ensure services are delivered as per the agreed-upon parameters.

We will see more healthcare services being provided under this model.

What strategic measures have been taken by ZHL to keep itself competitive and better to gain access to more areas?

By looking at the growth of 108 services in India over last seven to eight years, one will realise that only ZHL and GVK EMRI were providing emergency services until recently.

There have been one or two entrants in this sector. When this sector opened up, we were very clear that we will only go into those states that have a tender-driven process of awarding contracts. Unfortunately, because this service is considered emergency and the state governments were in hurry to implement these services, they have signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with GVK EMRI. As a result, we were not in all the places where GVK EMRI had gone and signed the MOUs. Due to various developments and various judgments of both high court and apex court, 108 services have also started going through tender services in many states over last one-and-ahalf and two years. As and when the other states open up, where there are already existing MOUs signed up, we would look up at those opportunities based on whether the concerned tender has been structured in terms of clarity, impossibility and transparency.

From the perspective of a service provider, what basic challenges you confront and how you overcome them?

Every region has its own set of challenges. In Jharkhand, our concern would be the quality of road infrastructure, as ambulances need good road to travel and reach the hospital. It becomes a challenge to pick up a patient and drop them to

the closest hospital in rural areas.

Therefore, we see a set of challenge in Jharkhand. On the other hand in Odisha, telecom connectivity in some areas is absent, which becomes a problem as the entire 108 service is provided by a network link through telecom infrastructure to a call centre. In the absence of telecom infrastructure in certain pockets, it becomes difficult for us to monitor the movement of ambulances and provide ambulances in the shortest possible time. Additionally, it becomes a bit difficult for users to connect with us at our call centre in the absence of appropriate telecom infrastructure. In Odisha, the other issue would also be high expectation from the service by the public. If for some reason, we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach on time, people can get angry and engage in rioting and mob violence, as seen in the past. Such issues are not present in Punjab, which has has good infrastructure, road infrastructure, telecom connectivity, good awareness of the services, good healthcare infrastructure, etc. At the end, the common point is how the state governments interact with you on a day-to-day basis. If the RFP and agreements are very clear, then the entire process goes smoothly.

However, in cases where RFP and agreements are not clear, one can face challenges in terms of day-to-day coordination of work with the state governments.

ZHL has worked more with comparatively less-developed states, such as Jharkhand and Odisha. So, how ZHL plans to work in states larger in terms of area, such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, etc.?

Madhya Pradesh has come up with a tender very recently and we have been identified as the lowest bidder.

We are awaiting the formal signing of the contract, which will happen in next three to six months. Yes, the

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Corporate Interview

challenges there would be different, as Madhya Pradesh is a very large state. The state plans to have around 600 108 ambulances and about 735 102 ambulances. However, the best part was that the tender was very open, transparent, clear and enforceable to the maximum. Because the state has the experience of running this service for the last five to seven years, the administration is aware of the service and the kind of technology involved.

The administration was very clear what to expect from the operators coming in for the bid. Additionally, it did not have any unreasonable conditions which would dissuade an operator from bidding. Once we get in there, we would realise the magnitude of the real challenges. However, we have done thorough mapping of the state and have identified a couple of challenges. However, we do have experience in serving in large states, such as Rajasthan, where we operated for three years from 2010 to 2013. We have also operated in Kerala from 2010 to 2012. We look forward to getting into Madhya Pradesh in next three to six months.

The larger states, such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc., are going to come out with new tenders in next one or two years, so hopefully we would be would be able to meet challenges in larger states.

What is your take on using technology in such emergency services that cater to common man?

I would say information technology (IT) is the backbone of the ambulance services. It is the IT infrastructure that drives this entire network of such ambulance services. Though ambulance services were available even earlier in India, they were available on a standalone basis.

Then none knew how to reach and call ambulances. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only because of IT and telecom infrastructures that people are aware of these services.

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Currently, people are aware of short code digits to call ambulances and because of the IT infrastructure the call centre can identify the location of the caller and immediately dispatch ambulances. The movement of the ambulance from pickup to the hospital is monitored in the call centre to ensure no misuse of government facilities. Proper monitoring is conducted through the data captured on GPS equipment, which cannot be captured without technology. Therefore, technology has made delivery and monitoring of services much more convenient and possible in comparison to earlier times. The government by bringing in technology usage can actually monitor services in a better manner and ensure funds being deployed are used properly.

Technology has made delivery and monitoring of services much more convenient and possible in comparison to earlier times With more PPP model being implemented in government services, what is your take on PPP and what are the key responsibilities of both private and government players to ensure efficiency and success?

Actually, everything depends on how well the project has been understood by people who are framing the policies and tenders. If the understanding is not clear, then you probably run the risk of drafting an agreement or an RFP that has no relevance for the actual ground position. Therefore, the understanding of what to expect and how to monitor need to be clear.

Because expectations will be there,

if the monitoring is not possible then you actually end up paying for those expectations that are not being met at the government end. The drafting and the way the entire project is conceived and implemented are very important for the success of the PPP model. The state government should realise that it is better to work with a private operator with clear guidelines and understanding of the project, deliverables and boundaries in which both the partners should operate and not unnecessarily indulge in putting roadblocks for the delivery of services due to lack of clarity on some issue or other. If the operator is clear and is able to deliver, roadblocks should not be erected. Any tender-driven process that does not rely on L1 parameter can be easily misused.

As the market has become competitive with so many players around, those days of unviable price quoting is far and few, unless there are huge projects where we have a limited number of bidders. However, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very easy to break up such projects into a smaller size to encourage more communities to come forward and bid for competition.

We are focused upon creating a footprint in the pre-medical hospital care and emergency services. We are working very actively with various state governments to ensure these kinds of ambulance services are taken up in states in a proper manner. We do provide some kind of assistance in terms of how our projects are doing in Odisha and sharing of best practices of various states, such as Odisha and Punjab.

Madhya Pradesh has taken inputs from various states to come up with a consolidated document. We look forward to working with various state governments if they are very clear of what they want, how the document is framed and general attitude of the government in terms of how they handle PPP projects.

Corporate Interview

Technological Innovations and Business Strategy Go Hand in Hand at Dr Lal Pathlabs Healthcare infrastructure advancements are directly proportional to the IT innovations where technology comes in to provide efficiency in the system, says Munender Soperna, Chief Information Officer, Dr Lal Pathlabs Ltd, in an interaction with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) How has IT emerged as an integral part of medical infrastructure in the country over the past two decades?

Over the last few years, healthcare institutions are getting equipped with more and more sophisticated infrastructure, including equipment, analysers, patient care apparatus, etc. The entire infrastructure is being deployed with an aim to provide the customers with a better and effective service delivery. Now just like any other industry vertical, healthcare infrastructure advancements are getting directly proportional to the IT advancements, where technology comes to aid to provide efficiency in the system. Every aspect of patient care is touched by the magic wand of IT-enabled features. It encompasses the entire lifecycle starting from the first interaction with the patients to the follow-ups leading upto the diagnosis.

The most

common examples of IT as an integral part of medical infrastructure are • Online appointments • Data integration with smart medical equipment • Automated alerts & reminders over SMS & emails • Remote healthcare • Electronic medical records

How does Dr Lal Pathlabs ensure common patient experience across all branches?

The IT services are set up in such a way across the entire network that it ensures a common experience for all the patients. All the labs and internal users access the Line of Business (LOB) applications through a centrally hosted model as per which the applications are installed in a data centre and irrespective of the network, i.e. LAN or WAN, every location is witnessing the same experience. The delivery of the patient reports is also unique as the reports are again consolidated on a central portal where every lab accesses the portal through specific

IDs against each location.

What’s the IT footprint at Dr Lal Pathlabs which is helping it scale its operations?

Our institution has very clear and strong policies which rely on the IT for the provision of healthcare services to the patients. Considering the existing volumes which in itself is a huge number, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of IT. In addition to this there is a story of a substantial continual growth year on year with ever increasing demand which again can’t be handled without IT-driven systems and processes.

What drives innovation at your end, is it strategy or the availability of a specific technology?

Both business strategy and the advancements in technology go hand in hand in driving the innovations, as the requirement for a new innovation can come from a user requirement or in certain scenarios it may arise by virtue of a new technological spurt.

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Corporate Interview

Pearson Augments its Mental Healthcare Solutions Through Digital Assessment Platform, Q-global PCTA is a Pearson business in India that operates in mental healthcare and talent management spaces, through its clinical & education and talent business lines, respectively.

Philip Kurian, Country Manager & Director, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment speaks at length to Elets News Network (ENN)

Tell us about Pearson Clinical & Talent Assessment (PCTA). How is this division located within Pearson.

PCTA is part of the Clinical Assessment group of Pearson that has been at the forefront of test publishing for over 80 years. The Clinical Assessment group has a rich history, beginning with the founding of the Psychological Corporation in 1912 that sold assessments under the brand Psychcorp. Psychcorp today is one of the most respected brands in psychological assessment and offers scientific solutions that are used in clinical, educational and research settings globally, as well as throughout India and the subcontinent.

PCTA is a Pearson business in

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India that operates in the mental healthcare and talent management spaces, through its clinical & education and talent business lines, respectively.

What are the complexities involved in getting these tests operated across geographies and cultures?

Globally, the Clinical Assessment group invests huge sums of money in test development. Once a test is developed in a particular geography, in order for it to be used accurately in other geographies or cultures, it needs to be adapted for those cultures. This work is an expensive and slow process that results in tests that are accurate for a given culture.

In India, Pearson has invested its

people and monetary resources to develop tests that are more relevant for the Indian culture. This expensive process involves a global team of psychologists, psychometricians and other professionals who work on our adaptation projects across the length and breadth of the country. Through this work, we aim to equip mental health, school and allied professionals in India and the subcontinent with tests that are scientific, reliable and valid for the child and adult populations in this region.

What are the barriers to better mental healthcare services in India?

India, as a nation, has evolved economically, socially and culturally,

Corporate Interview

in the nearly two-and-a-half decades since economic liberalisation began.

Unfortunately, mental healthcare infrastructure in the country has not kept pace and requires major reforms. Consider this: According to a study conducted by the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health in 2005, nearly 5 per cent of India’s population suffered from common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.

More recently, media reports on a World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored study indicate nearly 36 per cent of Indians suffer from major depressive disorder (MDE). What’s worse, as per government data, there are only about 3,800 psychiatrists, 898 clinical psychologists, 850 psychiatric social workers and 1,500 psychiatric nurses in the country, to cater to a population of 1.2 billion Indians. As a result, mental health needs of Indians are not adequately addressed, right from childhood and into adulthood.

Besides a shortage of professionals, two other fundamental barriers to better mental health are stigma attached to mental illness and the subsequent ignorance around it, that need to be overcome in India. The Indian culture tends to hold various traditional views of mental illness that unfortunately may interfere with an open dialogue around mental illness and ways to prevent or treat it.

Can these barriers be realistically removed?

Yes, I see the media is doing its bit to help educate the masses about

• Learning Disability • ADHD • Emotional Health 3 areas of mental health solutions in school settings

Barriers to Mental Care Services in India • Shortage of professionals • Stigma attached to mental illness • Subsequent Ignorance around it mental illness. In a country where popular culture worships Bollywood stars, their admissions on their battles with mental illness and their efforts to normalise their struggles by bringing such conversation to the mainstream television and print media, will go a long way in demystifying and removing the stigma around mental illness.

More mental health awareness programmes need to be organised across the country, in schools, colleges and hospitals, to foster conversations and debates on what needs to be done in this area.

Does policymaking have any impact on how mental health services are delivered in India?

Yes, it does. The WHO publication, Mental Health Atlas of 2011, states that India spends less than 1 per cent of its total health budget on mental health. This spend may not be adequate to address pressing mental health concerns in the country. A Mental Health Care Bill was proposed in 2013 that made access to mental healthcare a right of all persons. The Union Health Ministry launched the country’s first National Mental Health Policy in 2014 to give universal access to mental healthcare, with a focus on those living in poverty. These policy decisions, when implemented, have the potential to ensure more funds are channelised towards building the required infrastructure to offer better mental health services and

mental health services reaching the far corners of the country.

Another way policy impacts mental health services is in terms of education policy that has a bearing on the number of professionals available in India to deliver such services, as highlighted previously.

Psychology as an academic subject needs to be introduced across the country in secondary and especially senior secondary education where students choose subjects linked to their college education and career aspirations.

At the higher education level, colleges and universities offering education in psychology ought to be mandated to introduce practical training in the use of scientifically

PAI Services • Psychological assessment • Intervention/ remediation • Career counselling • Training & Certification workshops for psychologists, special educators, paediatricians & other professionals

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Corporate Interview

created psychological assessments.

This is because scientific and objective psychological assessment through the use of tests is often the first step in providing quality mental healthcare. If advanced students of psychology, such as those in Masters, MPhil or PhD programmes, are not adequately trained in the use of assessments, they may not be able to integrate assessments in their clinical practice, thus depriving end beneficiaries of the benefits that such tests provide in terms of objective and rich clinical information about their psychological state.

Tell us about Q-global India version.

Q-global is our online assessment platform to administer, score and interpret test results for Pearson assessments. In the West, due to its digital and online nature, this platform has been embraced by mental health professionals, as it gives them portability, besides security of test data stored and convenience of automatically generated reports leading to valuable time savings for the professional.

Q-global is in line with Pearson’s global focus on digital solutions.

With this global digital focus in mind, PCTA has launched this solution to India as we believe the mental healthcare market is ready to embrace digital solutions.

Q-global Features • Online assessment platform • Administers, scores & interprets test results • Portability • Security of test data stored • Automatically generated reports • Time saving • Affordibility

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Q-global helps the professional manage multiple tests and clients without having to deal with physical test kits that can be cumbersome and expensive to acquire. This is because traditionally psychological assessment is conducted using what are called ‘paper and pencil’ tests.

Q-global will house some of the best Pearson assessments that were hitherto available as paper and pencil tests only and give a digital option to those who prefer to adopt this medium for testing. Gradually, most of our assessments will become digital only.

Finally, pricing of the digital assessments on Q-global will be another attractive factor as the professional can pay on a need basis, for each test report generated, instead of buying the entire kit.

Our first digital only assessment on Q-global is Beck Youth Inventories, Second Edition, India (BYI-IIINDIA) that help identify emotional difficulties, disruptive behavior and social impairment in children and adolescents. BYI-IIINDIA will change the way schools in India address such issues, due to its online nature, ease of administration and convenience of scoring and reporting.

What distinguishes your product & services mix in the domain?

Pearson believes in helping each individual learn better and live better. Our psychological assessment solutions have helped millions of children and adults around the world by identifying difficulties at the intellectual or emotional level, that interfere with academic achievement, professional success and daily living.

Many of our titles are global gold standards in assessment, used by mental health professionals, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, in clinical settings and school professionals, such as special educators and school counsellors, in

Beck Youth Inventories, (BYI-IIINDIA) Helps identify in children and adolescents • Emotional difficulties • Disruptive behaviour • Social impairment educational settings.

Through our own survey, we discovered three areas of priority where professionals are looking for mental health solutions in school settings: Learning Disability, ADHD and Emotional Health. This is because, often these psychological conditions manifest themselves early on, during a child’s school years.

Hence, schools need to be aware and empowered to identify such conditions and offer timely remedial support so that each student can learn optimally, despite learning barriers posed by these conditions.

Are there extension services beyond the assessment platform?

Here, Pearson Academy India (PAI), our services arm, works closely with schools and other institutions to create awareness and resources to address these conditions. PAI offers a host of services, such as psychological assessment, intervention/remediation and career counselling, for students that are referred to a PAI by schools. PAI also offers training and certification workshops for professionals ranging from psychologists, special educators to paediatricians, to help them learn new skills and upgrade current skills and knowledge around assessment and mental healthcare. We are actively looking for suitable institutions and individuals associated with psychology, education and training who can partner with us as PAIs in their respective cities.

Product Launch

Q-global: Taking Mental Healthcare to the Next Level in India

P

earson, a global learning company, has launched Q-global, India’s first comprehensive and end-to-end online assessment platform for administration, scoring and reporting of psychological tests from Pearson.

Q-global houses gold-standard psychological assessment tools that are used globally by mental health and school professionals, for psychological well-being of their clients/ patients. After a successful launch in the United States (US) and other regions, Pearson Clinical & Talent Assessment, a mental healthcare and talent management business of Pearson, brought this digital solution to India, to empower professionals in India offer high-quality psychological testing services.

Beck Youth Inventories, Second Edition, India (BYI-IIINDIA) is one of the initial Pearson assessments available on Q-global. BYI-IIINDIA helps in identifying emotional difficulties, disruptive behaviour and social impairment in children and adolescents. The list of assessments available on Q-global for India will grow in the coming months.

Who can use Q-global?

• Mental health professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers • School professionals, such as special educators and school coun-

sellors (school teachers, for some assessments) • Medical professionals, such as physicians and specialists, who deal with psychological conditions

What are the features and benefits of Q-global?

• Portable: Multiple assessments on a single online platform let one conduct assessments anytime, anywhere without having to carry around bulky physical test kits.

• Secure: Examinee data on Q-global is protected through physical security, administrative safeguards and encryption, ensuring one can optimally protect client/patient’s confidential information.

• Convenient: Q-global lets a professional quickly and efficiently organise examinee information, generate scores in real-time and produce accurate, comprehensive reports.

• Time saving: Due to its online nature, ease of managing multiple assessments and automatic scoring and reporting, using Q-global for psychological assessment results in saving valuable professional time.

• Affordable: The professional pays per test report and not for the platform. Hence, this is cost-effective compared to paying for a physical test kit where the cost of purchase is recovered over a period of time.

Where can Q-global be used?

• Schools: As a school-wide solution to address mental health needs of students • Hospitals: As a digital solution for OPD and in-patient services in psychiatry and psychology departments that is easy to administer, score and report.

• Individual practice: As an affordable digital assessment platform that can be integrated easily in one’s practice in clinical psychology, education and allied fields.

• Government: As an assessment delivery platform for government programs in mental health and education.

How is it priced?

• Pay per report: The basic model for Q-global pricing is a simple per-use fee that will vary based on the service provided and the content delivered.

• Subscription: For a limited number of products, a subscription is available for generating scores and reports for individual users.

For those who are new to digital assessment platforms, free online recorded training modules are available.

For more information, visit www. pearsonclinical.in and email info@ pearsonclinical.in

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State Scan

Rajendra Singh Rathore Minister of Health Government of Rajasthan

Health Minister of Rajasthan Calls for Healthy Lifestyle to Beat Diabetes 42

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State Scan

R

ajendra Singh Rathore, Minister of Health, Government of Rajasthan, expressed worry on the increasing problems of diabetes, heart ailments and blood pressure.

He says that adoption of daily healthy lifestyle could be the best way to curtail diabetes and diseases related to lifestyle. He calls for more awareness, especially among the youth of the state, as well as the nation to fight against the spreading of these diseases.

Rathore was speaking as the chief guest on the occasion of the World Health Day celebration, which was being organised by the Department of Medical, Health & Family

Welfare, Government of Rajasthan.

The department recognised the people doing exemplary healthcare activities across the state during this function that took place on 7th April 2016 in Jaipur. The minister also inaugurated the new ‘Kayakalp’ web portal for ensuring quality care in the healthcare institutions of Rajasthan.

Mukesh Sharma, Principal Secretary - Health, presided over the function and stated that more than 500 private hospitals have been listed under Bhamashah Swasthya Bima Yojana (BSBY) as on date and more than one lakh patients have been given the treatment package while more than Rs 51 lakhs of claim has been booked under BSBY till the date.

Naveen Jain, Mission Director, National Health Mission and Special Secretary Health, informed the audience about the new initiatives and innovations undertaken by the medical and health department in the last financial year.

Dr B R Meena, Director – Public Health, Dr V K Mathur, Director – Reproductive and Child Health, Govind Pareek, Deputy Director – Information Education Communication, P C Saini, Deputy General Manager, Bank of Baroda, O P Tripathi, Branch Manager, Udhyog Bhawan Branch, Bank of Baroda and other officials related to healthcare ecosystem of the state were present in the function.

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43

Institutional Focus

Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences Plans to Extend Entire Medical Education Unit We plan to install many modern facilities for both learning and hands-on experience, says Dr Ram Chandra Goyal, Dean â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Rural Medical College, Loni, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences to Priyanka Singh of Elets News Network (ENN)

In the light of the current debate around medical education in India, what measures has Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences undertaken to ensure hands-on experience in students?

In our institute, we have done two things that are very important for hands-on clinical experience right from the beginning. Apart from the clinical experience and learning that students gain directly under the senior medical practitioners in hospitals, we have a physical lab equipped with various kinds of medicals related to advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS), basic cardiac life support (BCLS) or may be related to the delivery for learning. Another thing done by us is that we have taken

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May / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

some simulation models, may be from HBL, cubical learning module and simulation learning module.

There are two learning modules.

We are now going for upgrading our simulation labs, as well as extending the entire medical education unit, wherein we are planning to install many modern facilities for both learning and hands-on experience. In short, we are already on the path of enhancing hands-on experience.

What all digital solutions are you currently subscribing to enable access to cost-effective learning tools by both faculty and students? How effective have these tools been in imparting skills among them?

We have a lot many e-learning

e-learning tools currently with us and being developed in medical education will go a long way in enhancing medical practice skills resources available in our library.

We subscribe to Elsevierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s e-learning resources - Clinical Learning and Animal Simulator. Clinical Learning gives us access to clinical and practical skills modules in clinical sciences, as well as basic sciences.

Animal Simulator is a computer-

Institutional Focus

assisted learning tool for animal experimentation in physiology and pharmacology. These tools are very useful for both the faculty as well as students.

Additionally, we have access to the Maharashtra University of Health Scienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital library, which has around 2,074 books and other manuals. We also have access to Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS), PubMed Central, BioMed Central, HighWire, Medknow Publications and WHO Publications. We are also associated with OpenDOAR. We also have open access to various journals, such as J-Gate, and Free Medical journals, Free Dental Journals and Free Biotechnology Journals.

Apart from that, we do have a small communication lab that we plan to extend into a phonetic lab and a linguistic lab. Telemedicine as a learning module is being practiced for a long period in Loni. Various e-databases are also available. We do have a clinical skill lab that we plan to develop more.

With a string of start-ups now emerging with medical technology innovations, do you see foray of cost-effective medical technology devices in Indian medical education/ infrastructure in near future?

The e-learning tools currently with us and being developed in medical education as a technology will go a long way in enhancing medical practice skills. This will ensure perfection of various processes being conducted on patients post successful use for hands-on experience. These tools will also be cost-effective due to the reason for being conducted on simulation models where there is no risk involved unlike the reallife experience where the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life is at risk.

Students are tech savvy, but they need to be educated on the use of e-learning tool, and for this, the teaching faculty needs to be trained completely on modern mediums of learning What challenges do you witness in terms of adoption of e-learning tools due to the traditional approach of the faculty and digital approach of next-generation students, who are comparatively more comfortable with electronic devices as a medium of learning?

The older teaching faculty members are not well versed with the current stream of study; hence, it becomes difficult to convince them to use any kind of e-learning tools because they lack knowledge of operating such electronic tools due to lack of training and insufficient staff to train them.

These are the reasons why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very difficult for the senior faculty to adopt such non-traditional tools of learning.

Although students are tech savvy, they need to be educated on how and when to use such e-learning tool, and for this, the teaching faculty needs to be trained completely on modern mediums of learning. Therefore, we need to devise tools specifically for the faculty and conduct regular workshops.

What are the challenges Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences witnesses as a medical institute located in a non-metro city in terms of infrastructure, funding and other facilities?

There are certainly some challenges for us. We have multiple players in metro cities to provide medical and Internet services, whereas in nonmetro cities no one wants to come in to provide services There are only very few providers available in non-metro areas. Sometimes it becomes difficult for us to connect due to insufficient number of service providers.

However, in our medical college, we do have infrastructure and Wi-Fi, but we need extra funding from the government of India to improve the total learning structure for both the faculty and students. We also need extra funding to introduce computerbased treatment plans for patients to improve the treatment scenario.

A deeper meandering into the wider spectrum of Medical case studies is something which prepares a medical graduate to take on complex cases at once. What kind of medical case content you provide to your students? How is its usage monitored and put to maximum throughput?

We do expose our students in the first year itself to the challenges of medical practice when they are absolutely raw and do not know about medical diseases. They get handson experience by visiting villages to understand socio-cultural, financial and nutritional problems. They develop a holistic understanding of an individual and society as a whole.

We have been conducting such a learning process for a long time. We want to develop the understanding of how other sectors can be involved in the healthcare sector, particularly in the field of research, patient care and educational programmes. We do have expertise in community-based learning, problem-based learning, text-based learning or family-based learning. Moreover, both private and public sectors cannot work alone.

They need to work as a team.

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Diverse Opinion

Reforms in Medical Education

M

edical education has been besieged with inadequacies due to a massive mismatch between the demand and supply. Due to the sensitive nature of Medical education, it’s due expansion has

been strictly controlled.

In the wake of recent developments whereby the government has set up a high-level committee to restructure the Medical Council of India (MCI), which has again been emboldened by strictures from the Supreme Court.

eHEALTH spoke to some of the leading voices from across on a set of questions pertaining to the future of Medical Education in the country.

Here are the excerpts of some of them.

Dr FS Mehta Member, MCI (representing Geetanjali Medical College Hospital, Rajasthan) What in your opinion is the progress pertaining to setting in reforms in the space of medical education at the national level?

Generally, the quality of medical graduates has been deteriorating over the years. The regulatory bodies and institutions aiming excellence in medical education have recognised this problem and have started working on this issue.

• Medical education units are now set up in all the medical colleges for the development of the faculty and innovations in teaching and learning methodologies.

• Basic life support and early clinical exposure are proposed to be introduced from the first year itself to increase the clinical acumen of students.

• A formal curriculum on attitudes and communication (ATCOM) is being introduced from the coming year by the MCI to train MBBS students to develop effective communication skills.

All these reforms aim at improving the quality of an indian medical graduate.

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May / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

What are the key elements and experiments that have differentiated your state from the rest?

The following are the efforts of my institution towards medical education: • Regular faculty development programmes • Well-structured mentor-mentee programme for grooming budding medical professionals • Roped in the parents of the students by sending them the monthly attendance of their wards to improve regular attendance of students • Promotion of research in medical education, where the faculty conducts innovations for academic excellence and quality assurance in medical education • Promotion of scientific research among medical students. Every year our students are selected by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for short-term studentship (STS) projects • Workshops are conducted for interns for developing communication skills and better

understanding of good doctorpatient relationship. Focus is on bringing out competent and quality medical graduates

In what all ways can the morale of the medical fraternity bolstered to be able to provide an inclusive medicare ecosystem?

The morale of medical fraternity can be boosted by enunciating the following steps: • Objective assessment of faculty in terms of feedback from students, colleagues and heads of department (HODs). All these inputs should be taken into consideration for improving teaching standards and enhancing monitoring benefits.

• Faculty members involved in research and publications should be allowed sponsored registration for conferences.

• Faculty should be encouraged to present papers in international conferences by allowing sponsored travel once in five years.

• Special grants be given by authorities for research projects.

Diverse Opinion

Dr Chikkananjappa Ex-President, Karnataka Medical Council What in your opinion is the progress pertaining to setting in reforms in the space of medical education at the national level?

Medical education has become totally commercial. The offshoot of this is that even medical profession has become commercial and corrupt.

Medical education urgently requires major surgery. One good thing is the introduction of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and we must congratulate the apex court.

In what all ways can the morale of the medical fraternity bolstered to be able to provide an inclusive

medicare ecosystem?

• MCI over years has emerged as a weak body, resulting in poor quality of medical education.

“Ghost Teachers and Ghost Patients” do the trick during inspections. The old MCI Act and Rules should be rewritten and Inspector Raj should be put to an end. Every district headquarters should be granted a medical college, preferably government college with an intake of 100 and not more than 150.

• 50 per cent of the seats should be made available for postgraduate degree and 25 per cent for super speciality. This way deficiencies of medical teachers will be solved

and the quality of medical profession will improve.

• Conduct joint inspection by the government representatives, MCI, state government, state council and health university and tick a pro-forma while granting a medical college and increasing intake, new courses, etc., to root out red tapism and corruption.

In brief, we want more doctors and medical teachers, but we need doctors and teachers with ethics and competence. A strong legislation to put an end to commercialisation is the answer for the malady. At the same time, eradication of quackery that has become a pandemic is the urgent need of the hour.

Dr Raj Bahadur Member, MCI (representing Baba Farid University of Health Science Faridkot, Punjab)

In what all ways can the morale of the medical fraternity bolstered to be able to provide an inclusive medicare ecosystem?

There is tremendous scope to improve the medical education at the national level and sincere efforts must be undertaken to rescue the fast dwindling standard of medical education in the country.

Unfortunately, the corporate sector has brought in a substantial gap in medical education.

University, being the statutory body, is putting its all efforts to bring back lost glory in various steps:

• Surprise inspections are being conducted. Information gathered is now shared with the national statutory bodies in medical, dental and nursing councils of India.

• Theory exams at a neutral place are being conducted.

• Cases of unfair means in the examination are seriously dealt without leniency.

• Theory papers are now seriously evaluated, particularly in postgraduate courses.

• Confidentiality of the external examiners is maintained.

Additionally, the university reinforces upon them to conduct

absolutely fair examinations.

• To mitigate biasness by the examiners during evaluation, answer sheets are bar coded and scanned, and the process of e-evaluation is being started from the ensuing examination of the May-June session.

• E-transfer of the question paper is conducted from the university to the examination hall where it is decrypted only half an hour before the examination.

• During the selection process, no compromise be made in identifying a good teacher, particularly on aptitude, ethics, etc.

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O

f late, there has been a significant focus on the entire spectrum of Healthcare Industry, which is coming out with innovative technology-driven products & services. The hallowed precincts of medical profession is thereby witnessing a complete overhaul with the introduction of newer modes of healthcare delivery systems leveraging the power of the information technology.

Standardisation of operating processes in terms of patient registrations, healthcare profiling, consultations, admission, treatment and billing; real-time synchronisation with specialised medical services like diagnostics, including management innovations as in outsourcing; consolidation of clinical protocols and creation of specialised communities of superspecialists who can collaborate and comment upon the direction of treatment etc are some of the salient ones.

All these innovations have a direct bearing on the learning & training requirements of medical graduates, which is still governed under a set of regulations and protocols of the classical age. The lack of an agile regulatory framework has imposed a severe limitation of medical training facilities which undoubtedly are critical installations that need constant oversight. Excellence & Quality is thereby signalled by legacy parameters, with little scope and incentive for innovation. The field of Medical Education is facing the classic case of a closely held ecosystem following a downward spiral as demand surpasses supply and market-led technological innovations are easing the criticality of high-end skill sets. Doctors are transforming into Medical Professionals, with more and more technological aides to their easy disposal.

This metamorphosis is being acknowledged by the Medical

Education Fraternity, but not at the pace desired by the policy makers, regulators and industry alike. eHEALTH, which has been watching the entire progression of the enterprise of healthcare, thought of evaluating the entire spectrum of Medical Education from the lens of progressiveness as signalled by basic parameters available in the public domain.

The attempt to reach out to the Medical Education Fraternity and make a deep dive into their innate functioning & futuristic action plans didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t evoke much positive response, primarily due to the tilt of market forces in their favour.

We thereby thought of a way out Parameter

to initiate this quest by retorting to an analytics-driven methodology whereby the entire spectrum was evaluated on a set of unquestionable public parameters.

We made informed guesses and assumptions backed by sound reasoning to find out Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Most Progressive Medical Colleges for the year 2016. Ready availability of authenticated data created a significant challenge, as none of the regulatory agencies has embarked upon a datadriven governance framework.

The following are the parameters, as well as the evaluation criteria and weightages, which have been accorded to come up with the eventual results.

1

Establishment Year In the conventional sense of Medical Education and underlying governance & excellence standards, the older the institution the better and stabilised are the systems and processes.

Weightage 10% Score Base Year (2016) - Establishment Year Normalization Criteria Score above 100 will have maximum score, i.e. 10

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49

Parameter

2

5

Institutional Website

Parameter

Websites are the preliminary entry ports to an Institutional digital identity.

The quality and performance of an institutional website has found a high degree of correlation with some of the conventional evaluation of progressiveness. To cite an example, the recently released India Rankings for Engineering Institutions across the country based on National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) found a whopping Correlation to the tune of 75% with MOZ Score - a web analytics score - implying that both datasets matched 75% of the times. We have thereby deployed MOZ Score on the institutional websites of the Medical Colleges that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines.

Number of Faculty

MOZ Score is based on Domain Authority Score (a 100-point scale) developed by Moz. To determine Domain Authority, Moz employs machine learning against Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s algorithm to best model how search engine results are generated.

Over 40 signals are included in this calculation.

Weightage 25% Score As delivered by MOZ API at www.moz.com Normalization Criteria Since itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a linear score on a 100-point scale, no need of normalisation Normalization Criteria Score above 100 will have maximum score, i.e. 10

Parameter

Faculty constitutes the knowledge community at a Medical Institution. It has a direct correlation with the quality and progressiveness of the Institution concerned. Though it was difficult to find out this metric from all regulatory and institutional documents, a significant set of institutions do declare the same as a differentiating element of their educational ecosystem.

Weightage 10% Score (Number of Declared Faculty Members/Minimum Value of Faculty Members in a Medical Institution) Normalization Criteria Minimum Value of Faculty Members in a Medical Institution has been assumed as 50

3

Number of MBBS Seats In a regime whereby medical seats are strictly regulated and are enhanced based on a conventional set of heuristics interspersing performance, capacity and quality, the number of medical seats at the undergraduate level can be taken up as a metric of progressiveness.

Weightage 20% Score (Number of Approved Medical Seats/50) Normalization Criteria Considering Minimum Seats of 50 as base factor

Parameter

4

Number of Postgraduate Programmes The real advancement of a Medical Institution is its capability to offer the diverse range of Postgraduate Programmes in different streams of Medicine. The more complex the branches, the more progressive the Medical Institution. As a starter, we have simply considered the number of Postgraduate Programmes as a mark of Institutional Progressiveness.

Weightage 25% Score (Number of Approved Postgraduate Programmes) Normalization Criteria As the number of programmes follow a linear pattern, there is no need of normalization of values as base factor

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Parameter

6

Facebook Likes Nothing adds-on to the digital identity and social engagement of an organisation than the simple parameter of Facebook Likes.

The avenues of multilateral communication which it opens up is certainly a metric of progressiveness of a particular institution. In the context of an academic institution, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an invocation of transparency and openness with the risk of being questioned by the members of the general public.

Weightage 10% Score (Actual Facebook Likes on the Official Page)/(Avg Fb Likes) Normalization Criteria Average Facebook Likes varies with states

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON e-GOVERNANCE

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON THE ENTERpRISE OF HEALTHCARE

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EduCATION

A quALITY MAGAZINE ON BANkING ANd FINANCE

arunachal pradesh Sikkim assam

Nagaland

meghalaya manipur Tripura

mizoram

west bengal

odisha

S.No.

EAST

A mere 26 medical colleges cater to a population base of 180 million. Out of the eight sisters of the North East, the states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland still await for a medical college. West Bengal is yet to allow private medical education and is thriving on 13 odd medical colleges due to its legacy value. Tripura on the other hand has been able to open up private medical education sector of the state. The state of Sikkim has set up its only medical college in the private domain.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

West Bengal Government WB01G Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Kolkata WB02G Malda Medical College & Hospital, Malda WB03G Medical College, Kolkata WB04G Midnapore Medical College, Midnapore WB05G Murshidabad Medical College & Hospitals, Berhampore WB06G Nilratan Sircar Medical College, Kolkata WB07G North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling WB08G RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata WB09G Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura WB10G Burdwan Medical College, Burdwan WB11G Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata WB12G College of Medicine and JNM Hospital, Kalyani, Nadia WB13G College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, Kolkata Private WB01P ICARE Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Haldia, Purba Medinipur WB02P IQ-City Medical College, Burdwan WB03P KPC Medical College, Jadavpur, Kolkata

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8

3

7

13 1 11 9 3 6 2 5 7 4 10 12

9 5 10 12 2 7 6 8 11 1 4 13

13 2 10 6 8 4 1 3 5 9 12 11

2

3

2

1 3

2 1

1 3

S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

odisha Government OR01G MKCG Medical College, Berhampur Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar OR02G OR03G SCB Medical College, Cuttack OR04G VSS Medical College, Burla Private OR01P Institute of Medical Sciences & SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar OR02P Hi-Tech Medical College & Hospital, Bhubaneswar

3 4 2 1

1 -2 3

2 3 4 1

1 2

1 2

2 1

1 3 2

1 3 2

3 1 2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

assam Government AS01G Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati AS02G Jorhat Medical College & Hospital, Jorhat AS03G Silchar Medical College & Hospital, Silchar Private AS01P Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh

Sikkim Private SK01P

Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences (SMIMS), Gangtok

Tripura Government TP01G Agartala Government Medical College, Agartala Private TP01P Tripura Medical College & Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Teaching Hospital, Agartala

Mere 26 medical colleges cater to a population base of 180 million in east

Total 57 medical colleges in west, 30 in government and 27 in private

Punjab makes highest push for private medical education

Jharkhand served by its lone government college

Delhi served by only governmentfunded medical colleges

162 colleges serve a population base of 252 million in south, with 80 per cent in private sector May / 2016 ehealth.eletsonline.com

53

west

57 medical colleges dot the Western Frontiers of India, of which 30 are in government sector and 27 are in the private domain. The state of Rajasthan, which tops the concentration of private universities, is still to catch up on the private medical education frontier. There is almost one medical college per four million of population in the western states.

rajasthan

gujarat

maharashtra

S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Rajasthan Government RJ01G SMS Medical College, Jaipur RJ02G Jhalawar Hospital & Medical College, Jhalawar RJ03G National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur RJ04G Dr SN Medical College, Jodhpur RJ05G Government Medical College, Kota RJ06G Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Ajmer RJ07G R N T Medical College, Udaipur RJ08G RUHS College of Medical Sciences, Jaipur RJ09G Sardar Patel Medical College, Bikaner Private RJ01P Geetanjali Medical College & Hospital, Udaipur RJ02P National Institute of Medical Science & Research, Jaipur RJ03P Singhania University, Jhunjhunu RJ04P Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur RJ05P Pacific Medical College & Hospital, Bhilo Ka Bedla, Udaipur RJ06P Pacific Institute of Medical Sciences, Umarda, Udaipur

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1 8 4 3 6 5 7 9 2

9 2 3 4 8 6 7 1 5

4 5 1 2 9 6 8 7 3

2 1 6 3

1 2 3 4

2 1 -3

4

5

4

5

6

5

S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

gujarat

Government GJ01G B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad GJ02G C.U. Shah Medical College & Hospital, Surendranagar GJ03G K.J. Mehta General Hospital & College of Medical Sciences, Amargadh GJ04G M.P. Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar GJ05G Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College, Rajkot GJ06G Smt. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad GJ07G Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education & Research, Surat GJ08G The Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara Private GJ01P Keshar SAL Medical College & Research Institute, Ahmedabad Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University, Bhuj GJ02P GJ03P PramukhSwami Medical College, Anand GJ04P Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bharuch GJ05P GCS medical college, Ahmedabad

2 7 8

3 7 8

2 4 --

4 6 3 5

5 6 4 2

5 7 3 6

1

1

1

4

3

--

3 2 5

1 2 --

3 2 4

1

--

1

5 4 2 9

6 4 3 11

7 6 3 --

6 10 7

5 12 8

-8 5

3 8 1 11

1 7 2 9

2 4 1 --

12

10

--

8 5 4 14

1 8 5 10

-4 3 10

2 1 9 13 10

7 3 2 14 13

2 1 11 6 9

11 7

9 11

-5

12 6 3

12 6 4

8 -7

Maharashtra

Government MH01G B.J. Medical College & Sassoon Hospital, Pune MH02G Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha MH03G Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur MH04G Swami Ramanand Teerth Rural Medical College, Ambajogai MH05G Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College, Pune MH06G Ayurved Seva Sangh's Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Nashik MH07G Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital, Nagpur MH08G Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Wardha MH09G Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai MH10G Armed Forces Medical College, Pune MH11G Shri Bhausaheb Hire Government Medical College & Hospital, Dhule MH12G Shri Vasantrao Naik Government Medical College and Hospital, Yavatmal Private MH01P Medical College, Pune MH02P Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Science, Wardha MH03P Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth (DPU), Pune MH04P Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, Amravati MH05P Grant Medical College, Mumbai MH06P K.J Somaiya Medical College, Mumbai MH07P Rural Medical College , PIMS, Ahmednagar MH08P MGM's Medical College, Navi Mumbai MH09P MVP Samaj's Dr. Vasantrao Pawar Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Nashik MH10P N K P Salve Institute of Medical Sciences, Digdoh MH11P Padmashree Dr. Vithalrao Vikhe Patil Foundations Medical College, Ahmednagar MH12P Terna Medical College, Navi Mumbai MH13P TN Medical College, Mumbai MH14P King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, Mumbai

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North

jammu & kashmir

50 colleges serving a population base of 296.86 million with an equal spread of private & government colleges alike. Punjab has made the highest push for private medical education. Delhi is served by only government-funded medical colleges which gives its the best population to medical college ratio. Himachal Pradesh has the second best ratio of medical education vis-a-vis its population with one medical college per 2.29 million people. Punjab by dint of its spread of private medical education has been able to achieve a similar such ratio of 2.59.

Himachal Pradesh punjab

haryana

Uttarakhand Delhi

Uttar Pradesh

S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Jammu & Kashmir

Government JK01G Government Medical College, Jammu JK02G Government Medical College, Srinagar JK03G Sher-I-Kashmir Instt. of Medical Sciences, Srinagar

3 2 1

3 2 1

3 2 1

2 4 6 3 1 5

2 4 7 3 1 6

2 3 7 5 1 4

7

5

6

1 2 7 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 6 7

6 3 7 4 5 2

3

5

1

Uttar Pradesh

Government UP01G B.R.D Medical College, Gorakhpur UP02G Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical college Hospital, Jhansi UP03G Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad UP04G Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar UP05G Rohilkhand Medical College, Bareilly UP06G Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly UP07G Vaidya Yagya Dutt Sharma Ayurved Mahavidyalaya, Khurja Private UP01P Era's Lucknow Medical College & Hospital, Lucknow UP02P G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur UP03P Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow UP04P LLRM Medical College, Meerut UP05P S N Medical College, Agra UP06P Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow UP07P Saraswathi Institute of Medical Sciences, Anwarpur

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S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Haryana

Government HR01G BPS Government Medical College for Women, Sonepat HR02G Employees State Insurance Corporation Medical College, Faridabad HR03G Pt. B D Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak (Haryana) HR04G Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Government Medical College, Nalhar Private HR01P Gold Field Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Ballabgarh, Faridabad HR02P Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha HR03P Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Mullana, Ambala HR04P Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary Medical College, Gurgaon

4 2

4 1

3 --

1

2

1

3

3

2

4

--

--

3 2

3 1

3 2

1

2

1

2 1

1 2

2 1

7 4

6 3

5 3

5 6 2 3 1

2 7 1 4 5

--2 4 1

2 5 4 1 6 7 3

5 3 2 4 6 7 1

2 5 4 1 6 7 3

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2 1

1 2

2 1

1

1

1

Punjab

Government PJ01G Government Medical College, Chandigarh PJ02G Government Medical College, Patiala Private PJ01P Chintpurni Medical College, Gurdaspur Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, PJ02P Bhatinda PJ03P Gian Sagar Medical College & Hospital, Patiala PJ04P Sri Guru Ramdas Institute of Medical Sciences, Amritsar PJ05P Christian Medical College, Ludhiana PJ06P Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana PJ07P Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot

Delhi

Government DL01G All India Institute of Medical Sciences DL02G Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences & Research DL03G Lady Hardinge Medical College DL04G Maulana Azad Medical College DL05G University College of Medical Sciences DL06G Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute Delhi DL07G Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & Safdarjung Hospital

Uttarakhand

Government UK01G Government Medical College (previously Uttarakhand Forest Hospital Trust Medical College), Haldwani Private UK01P Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Dehradun UK02P Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical & Health Sciences, Dehradun

Himachal Pradesh

Government HP01G Dr. Rajendra Prasad Govt. Medical College, Kangra HP02G Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla Private HP01P Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Solan

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SOUth

telangana

andhra pradesh

karnataka

Pondicherry tamil nadu kerala

S.No.

162 medical colleges serve a population base of 252 million. 80 per cent of this medical education base is whoppingly in the private sector, with the state of Karnataka leading the pack. The erstwhile French Colony and Union Territory of Puducherry is dotted with only private medical education institutions. It has the best nationwide ratio of medical colleges per million of population. As a result of its bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh has benefited the most by retaining the eight out of the ten government medical colleges.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Andhra Pradesh

Government AP01G Andhra Medical College (AMC), Visakhapatnam AP02G Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool AP03G Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Ongole AP04G Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada Private AP01P Alluri Sitaramaraju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru AP02P Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences & Hospital, Kadapa AP03P Great Eastern Medical School & Hospital, Ragolupeta AP04P GSL Medical College & General Hospital, Rajahmundry AP05P Guntur Medical College, Guntur AP06P Katuri Medical College and Hospital, Guntur AP07P Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Foundation, Amalapuram AP08P Maharajah's Institute of Medical Sciences, Vizianagaram AP09P Narayana Medical College & Hospital, Nellore AP10P NRI Medical College, Guntur AP11P P.S.I. Medical College, Vijayawada AP12P PES Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (PES), Kuppam AP13P Santhiram Medical College & General Hospital, Kurnool AP14P Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS), Tirupati AP15P Dr. VRK Womens Medical College, Vijayawada

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1 3 2 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 4 3

3 15 12 4 9 6 7

5 12 13 3 4 7 8

6 15 13 5 10 11 4

11 5 8 14 1

14 6 9 15 1

7 3 9 12 2

13 2

11 2

8 1

10

10

14

S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Telangana

Government TL01G Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Secunderabad TL02G Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad TL03G Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad Private TL01P MNR Medical College & Hospital, Sangareddy TL02P Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagunur TL03P Shadan Educational Society, Hyderabad TL04P Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad TL05P Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad TL06P SVS Medical College, Mahbubnagar Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Hyderabad TL07P TL08P Bhaskar Medical College, Hyderabad TL09P Chalmeda Anand Rao Insttitute of Medical Scienceshttp, Karimnagar TL10P Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences & Research Center, Hyderabad TL11P Kamineni Institute of Medical Sciences, Narketpally TL12P Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad TL13P Mamata Medical College, Khammam

2 3 1

2 1 3

2 3 1

5 6 4 10 1 7 8 9 13

2 3 4 10 6 5 8 7 11

10 5 4 13 1 8 9 7 6

11

12

12

2 12 3

1 13 9

2 11 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

19 12 1

13 1 2

23 15 1

3 15 4 10 6

3 4 5 6 7

2 20 9 10 8

23 14

8 9

21 14

17

10

18

16 22 11 18 9 13 8 20

11 12 14 15 16 18 19 20

13 22 5 19 11 12 6 17

21 7 5 2

21 22 23 17

16 4 3 7

Kerala

Government KL01G Amrita School of Medicine, Coimbatore KL02G Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam KL03G KMCT Medical College, Kozhikode Private KL01P Cochin Medical College, Cochin KL02P M E S Medical College, Malappuram KL03P Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Thiruvalla KL04P Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur KL05P MOSC Medical College Hospital, Kochi KL06P Pariyaram Medical College, Kannur KL07P Academy of Medical Sceiences, Pariyaram KL08P Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute, Thrissur KL09P Nile College, Badiyadka KL10P Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Hospital & Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram KL11P Sree Gokulam Medical College and Research Foundation, Thiruvananthapuram KL12P Karuna Medical College, Vilayodi KL13P Azeezia Institute of Medical Science, Kollam KL14P P K Das Institute of Medical Sciences, Palakkad KL15P Thrissur Medical College Alumni Association, Thangaloor KL16P DM WIMS Medical College & Hospital, Kalpetta KL17P Kannur Medical College, Kannur KL18P Sree Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, Ernakulam KL19P Al-Azhar Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital, Kumaramangalam KL20P Malabar Medical College, Kozhikode KL21P Travancore Medical College, Kollam KL22P Mount Zion Medical College, Enadimangalam KL23P T.D. Medical College, Alappuzha

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S.No.

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Karnataka

Government KN01G Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru KN02G BEA’s J.J.M. Medical College, Davanagere KN03G Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences, Belagavi KN04G Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences,Hubli KN05G Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore KN06G Mysore Medical College, Mysuru KN07G Shimoga Institute of Medical Sciences, Shivamogga KN08G Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, Ballari Private KN01P Al-Ameen Medical College, Bihapurkar KN02P Basaveshwara Medical College & Hospital (BMCH), Chitradurga KN03P BGS Global Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru KN04P Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, Bidar KN05P BLDE University, Vijayapura KN06P Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Medical College, Bengaluru KN07P Father Muller Medical College, Mangaluru KN08P J.S.S. Medical College and Hospital, Mysore KN09P K. L. E. Society’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Belgaum KN10P K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore KN11P K V G Medical College, Sullia KN12P Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore KN13P Kasturba Medical College, Manipal KN14P Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru KN15P Khaja Banda Nawaz Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalaburagi KN16P KLE Society’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum KN17P M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru KN18P Mahadevappa Rampure (MR) Medical College, Kalaburagi KN19P Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal KN20P Navodaya Medical College, Raichur KN21P PES University, Bengaluru KN22P Raja Rajeswari Medical College & Hospital, Bengaluru KN23P S S Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Davangere KN24P S. Nijalingappa Medical College & HSK Hospital & Research Centre, Bagalkot KN25P Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Bengaluru KN26P SDM College of Medical Sciences, Dharwad KN27P Shri B M Patil Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Vijayapur KN28P Shridevi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Hospital, Tumakuru KN29P Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar KN30P Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur KN31P Srinivas Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Sasihithlu KN32P St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru KN33P Subbaiah Institute of Medical Sciences, Shivamogga KN34P The Oxford Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Bengaluru KN35P Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bengaluru KN36P Yenepoya Medical College-Yenepoya University, Mangaluru

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5

1

2

3 7 1 6 2 8 4

2 7 4 5 3 6 8

4 6 1 8 5 7 3

18 23

7 31

22 34

31 29 24 21 7 14 5

29 27 17 23 6 11 9

23 19 25 26 7 12 5

11 32 2 3 15

3 32 1 14

11 27 3 2 13

35

35

32

10

8

14

12 25 4 26 1 6 20

10 34 25 20 2 15 21

16 28 4 30 1 6 21

34

26

35

33

28

29

28 22

22 18

24

27

30

20

16 17 9

19 13 16

15 18 9

13 30 36

5 24 33

10 31 17

8

12

8

19

4

33

S.No. Private PD01P PD02P PD03P PD04P PD05P PD06P

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Pondicherry (Puducherry) Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute, Pillaiyarkuppam Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Pondicherry Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, Kudapakkam Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College & Hospital, Puducherry Sri Venkateswaraa Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre, Ariyur Vinayaka Missions Medical College, Karaikal

1

4

1

4 6

1 3

---

2 3

2 5

4 2

5

6

3

12 2 4 10 9 6 8 5 3 13 11 14 1 7

8 7 4 14 6 5 13 10 3 12 9 11 1 2

4 9 12 10 5 6 13 3 7 8 11 14 1 2

22 13

19 9

24 19

14 3 12

11 2 8

21 8 14

20

21

22

17

14

20

6 15

15 18

5 17

23 4 7 5 19

16 12 3 7 22

11 4 15 3 16

18 16 9 2 10

17 13 20 5 1

9 18 6 2 13

1

4

1

24 25 11

25 24 6

10 25 23

21

23

12

8

10

7

Tamil Nadu

Government TN01G Kanyakumari Government Medical College, Nagercoil TN02G Stanley Medical College, Chennai TN03G Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur TN04G Theni Government Medical College, Kanavillaku TN05G Thoothukudi Medical College, Thoothukudi TN06G Tirunelveli Medical College, Palamkottai TN07G Chengalpattu Medical College, Kanjipuram TN08G Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore TN09G Government Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, Chennai TN10G Government Mohan Kumaramanagalam Medical College, Salem TN11G IRT Perundurai Medical College, Erode TN12G K.A.P. Viswanathan Government Medical College, Tiruchupalli TN13G Madras Medical College, Chennai TN14G Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry Private TN01P Annapoorna Medical College & Hospital, Salem TN02P Chennai Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Chennai TN03P Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kanchipuram TN04P Christian Medical College, Vellore TN05P Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute University, Chennai TN06P Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital, Perambalur TN07P Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kanchipuram TN08P Meenakshi Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai TN09P Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kanchipuram TN10P Madha Medical College and Hospital, Thandalam TN11P PSG Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Coimbatore TN12P Rajah Muthiah Medical College, Chidambaram TN13P Saveetha Medical College, Chennai TN14P Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Nellikuppam TN15P Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences, Chennai TN16P ACS Medical College and Hospital, Chennai TN17P Sri Muthukumaran Medical College, Chennai TN18P Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai TN19P SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Kanchipuram TN20P Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute, Chennai TN21P Tagore Medical College and Hospital, Rathinamangalam TN22P Texcity Medical College, Coimbatore TN23P Vinayaka Missions Kirupananda Variyar Medical College & Hospitals, Salem TN24P Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Madurai TN25P Sree Balaji Medical College & Hospital, Chennai

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Central

bihar

madhya pradesh

Chhattisgarh

S.No.

The smaller state of Chhattisgarh lies way ahead in the population to medical college ratio. It has four medical colleges per million of population. Bihar has a better index on the frontier of medical education. Seems like during the bifurcation of the state, Madhya Pradesh lost its medical college base to Chhattisgarh being served only by private medical colleges. Jharkhand is being served by its lone government college and has the worst population to medical college ratio across the country. jharkhand

Progressiveness Rank

Institution Name

Online Presence

Social Footprints

Bihar

Government BH01G Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Bhagalpur BH02G Darbanga Medical College, Darbhanga BH03G Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College & Hospital, Gaya BH04G Shri Krishna Medical College (SKMC), Muzaffarpur BH05G Katihar Medical College, Katihar BH06G Mata Gujri Memorial Medical College, Kishanganj BH07G Patliputra Medical College, Patna Private BH01P Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga BH02P Nalanda Medical College, Patna

5 4 1

2 5 1

2 6 5

6 2 7 3

6 3 7 4

4 1 7 3

1 2

1 2

1 2

2 3 4

2 4 3

1 3 --

5

--

--

1

1

2

1

--

1

2 5 3

5 4 1

2 1 5

4 1

3 2

3 4

1

1

1

Chhattisgarh

Government CH01G Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bilaspur CH02G Government Medical College, Rajnandgaon CH03G Late Shri Baliram Kashyap Memorial NDMC Govt. Medical College, Jagdalpur CH04G Late Shri Lakhi Ram Agrawal Memorial Govt. Medical College, Raigarh CH05G Pt. J N M Medical College, Raipur Private CH01P Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College, Durg Private MP01P MP02P MP03P MP04P MP05P

Madhya Pradesh Chirayu Medical College and Hospital, Bhopal Index Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Indore Peoples College of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Bhopal Ruxmaniben Deepchand Gardi Medical College, Ujjain Shri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences, Indore

Government JK01G M G M Medical College, Jamshedpur

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Jharkhand

Start-Up

HealthKhoj Focuses on Ailments with Longer Care Cycles Requiring High Involvement Ratnesh Pandey, Co-founder, HealthKhoj speaks at length to Elets News Network (ENN) on what constitutes this Condition Discovery and Management Platform driving medicare accountability What’s HealthKhoj all about?

HealthKhoj is a condition discovery and management platform. There is a big gap that exists when it comes to condition discovery. As many as seven out of ten patients go to the wrong type of healthcare provider in their first visit.

The healthcare system in India is under severe pressure. Availability of only 0.6 doctors per 100 people and 0.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people depict the ground reality. Due to misplaced understanding of health condition, 70 per cent of the time patient go to the wrong healthcare provider, thus elongating the care cycle, misdiagnosis, increased out-of-pocket expenditure, anxiety to the family and loss of productive time.

We aim to help both the sides of the system by providing a more relevant matching of condition to the care provider. This brings down the cost of care and time taken for care on one hand, and benefits hospitals by freeing up their capacity to treat more relevant patients, thereby easing the overall burden of diseases in India.

Our focus is on the health conditions that have longer care cycles and require high involvement from the caregivers, patients as well the as the healthcare provider. These conditions include

cancer care, diabetes care, respiratory illnesses care, mental healthcare, cardiac care and kidney care.

In short, HealthKhoj provides a guided journey to the users to understand their health and make more informed healthcare choices.

What trends help you visualise the emergence of a technology enabled medical accountability?

There are a lot of interesting things happening in healthcare market.

• There is a thrust on patient education.

• Tracking of patients post discharge, constant monitoring of the patient through wearables.

• An integrated view of the patient through medical records, nutrition, lifestyle modifications and medication.

• Connected healthcare driven primarily through mobile applications and devices communicating to each other over Internet, anytime, anywhere access to the personal medical data.

All these trends are influencing medical decisions which services like HealthKhoj are tapping to ensure that

patients will not be flying blind.

How far HealthKhoj has been able to penetrate in tier II and tier III cities?

We are already live in Indore and Bhopal. To address the tier II and tier III markets better, we will be launching our HealthKhoj in Hindi by mid May. The way healthcare services are consumed in tier II and tier III cities is very different from tier I. We understand this difference and are working on localising the content, tools and interaction.

We will also help the users in these cities to connect with hospitals in large cities so that can have a transparent view of the cost of care.

What are your future plans of expansion?

• Localise HealthKhoj from English only to different vernacular languages, starting from Hindi.

• Bringing more healthcare partners on board to provide a more transparent view to the patients to enable them to make more informed choices.

• Increase presence in more cities to bring quality care closer to the patients.

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Start-Up

CareOnGo - Disrupting Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Enabling Procurement, Management & Sale On Mobile CareOnGo is solving the problem of authenticity and availability of medicines from the entire supply chain, by aggregating the players together. Ritu Singh, Co-founder, Aditya Kandoi, Co-founder & Yogesh Agarwal, Co-founder, CareOnGo talk more about their venture to Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN)

What’s the core consumer need which CareOnGo intends to address?

The central idea behind CareOnGo has been to solve the problem of drug authenticity (currently the pharmaceutical distribution market has more than 30 per cent counterfeits & spurious medicines), and unavailability (more than 40 per cent of the orders are either partly fulfilled or not fulfilled at all) of medicines.

What gap/opportunity instigated you to start this venture?

Pharmaceutical industry in India is highly unorganised and lacks transparency and trust of the customers. They don’t understand the technicalities associated with the medicines, even though they might have been consuming them

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for over a decade. The entire supply chain uses minimal technology to get their work done which induces various inefficiencies in the supply chain. CareOnGo thereby spotted the opportunity of bringing manufacturers, stockists, retailers and consumers closer by bringing transparency, standardisation and trust of a branded supply chain completely working on the technological backbone.

What defines your platform?

CareOnGo is India’s first mobile chain of co-branded pharmacy stores enabling local pharmacies to Procure, Manage & Sell through technology – disrupting the Entire Supply Chain.

It connects the entire pharmaceutical supply chain ensuring efficiency and ease of availability of medicines and in the process assists the local

pharmacies to grow by increasing their reach and business. By enabling 24x7 operations, and predictive inventory management analysis, CareOnGo sets itself completely apart from the traditional online pharmacy, which deals with only consumer end dynamics. The platform thereby ends up solving the problem of authenticity and availability from the entire supply chain, by aggregating the players

Status Check • 30 per cent counterfeits & spurious medicines • 40 per cent of the orders are either partly fulfilled or not fulfilled at all

Start-Up

together. CareOnGo eventually aims to use its technology to become the first e-distributor in this space.

What policy regulations come in way of your design & delivery?

Unbelievably, drug acts primarily consist of Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940, Drugs and Cosmetic Rules 1945, Pharmacy Act 1948 and Indian Medical Act 1956, are all from the primitive times and thereby don’t have any focus on technology and innovation. Our platform intends to solve this problem and bring more transparency in the market through technology.

Tell us more about your journey since inception?

We started our operations in August 2015; from a small technology office based out of New Delhi with only 4 tech members. Initially, by bootstrapping with a small capital of 40 lakhs, we were able to launch our first version of the app – which crossed 10,000 downloads in just 15 days. We have currently moved to a bigger-setup in Central Delhi with a strong 14-member technology team. The head office is based out of New Delhi and we have expanded our operational base across Delhi-NCR – Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

What is the USP of the venture?

How is it different from its competitors, if any?

Being the first e-distributor for our retail partners with a complete focus on expanding their business reach, CareOnGo is a first of its kind B2B platform. We help local retailers procure products from manufacturers and stockists on the basis of predictive analytics by studying the purchase patterns and supply drivers. Unlike our competitors who are dealing in the online pharmacy space only, we are building up a technology-based ecosystem, which ensures quality and consistency with a turnaround and

Ticking Factors • Procure, Manage & Sell through a single platforms • Connects the entire pharmaceutical supply chain • Ensuring efficiency & ease of availability of medicines • Increasing reach and business of local pharmacies • Enabling 24x7 operations • Predictive inventory management analysis • Solve the problem of authenticity & availability delivery time unmatched by any other player in the market today.

What additional features you are developing to support the pharmacy retailing ecosystem?

CareOnGo has recently launched their proprietary “Pharmalytics” platform aimed towards strengthening the logistics and supply chain issues of independent micro pharmacies pan India. The “Pharmalytics” feature will enable these pharmacies to study sales insights of most-selling medicines in their areas along with keeping a track of freshness quotient.

Moreover it will give the pharmacy insightful data like how many patients in that pharmacy’s particular area are suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, hypertension, cancer etc.

This will enable the pharmacies to stock up medicines accordingly allowing them to shift from blind inventory to measured real-time inventory.

What are the various challenges that you face in the market?

What are your expectations from the market? Give a brief about your marketing strategy.

Many government regulations around medicines have not been clearly defined creating their own set of challenges in the industry. We refrain from going into any such markets in order to keep ourselves in the green zone. However, this restricts us from doing a lot more for our partner pharmacies than we actually are able

to do currently.

Since our launch, we have been getting tremendous response from our end-customers and they have been becoming more open in sharing ideas of what more can be done. Buying medicines is purely based on trust and so we have always been stressing on transparency and openness with all our partners.

In terms of marketing we believe in the quote ‘perfect service guarantees free marketing’ and that’s what has been working for us. We highly believe in word of mouth publicity.

The response has been tremendous both from the consumer and from the investor end so far. Even the investor community understands the need of technological innovation to bring standardisation in healthcare industry.

What are your future expansion plans and goals? Where do you want to see the company five years down the line?

We are currently present in 8 cities and planning to expand to 15 more cities by the year-end. We are in line to launch 18 new categories into our consumerfocused app. We plan to solve the problems of the end-consumers by connecting the dots backwards through technology. We are committed to our mission of providing a transparent, trusted, and reliable mobile chain of CareOnGo branded pharmacies. We will also be venturing into diagnostics by bringing the similar solution for local diagnostic labs.

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