NEWS ROUNDUP TELE-HEALTH CLINICS STARTUP KARMA HEALTHCARE RAISED RS 3 CRORE IN EQUITY FUNDING
Health tech startup Karma Healthcare raised Rs. 3 crore in equity funding from early-stage investment firm 1Crowd, existing investors, and angel investors to scale operations and expand technological offering according to news reports. According to ANI news report, the Rajasthan-based firm aims to provide high-quality, affordable, equitable and reliable healthcare to India’s underserved population via a differentiated business model. The company has combined the human touch of a nurse with the scalability of shared doctor services via real-time online video consultations and delivers health care to the consumer via its eDoctor clinics. Karma Healthcare’s vision is to disrupt the healthcare landscape, by establishing a pan India network of healthcare clinics. The company thus seeks to make a definitive large-scale impact and in-turn take significant steps towards ‘healthcare for all’. “We are grateful to all our investors for reposing faith and commitment in our work. This new funding will help us scale our operations as well as enhance our technology offering to improve quality of care and provide great patient experience,” said CEO of Karma Healthcare, JagdeepGambhir. Karma has completed over 50,000 consultations and currently operates 10 e-Doctor clinics in the states of Rajasthan and Haryana which deliver a comprehensive ecosystem of clinical treatment, quality medicines and diagnostics at competitive rates. With the new funding, more than 10 lakh patients in the under-served communities of India will be able to access quality healthcare services through Karma’s network of e-Doctor clinics. The company has developed an in-house technology suite that helps it deliver standardized care, including a bespoke Clinical Decision Support System, and is extending its capabilities to deep learning driven diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.
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MICROSOFT & APOLLO HOSPITALS TO USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR EARLY DETECTION OF CARDIAC DISEASES
Microsoft announced the expansion of the Microsoft Intelligent Network for eye care (MINE), now AI Network for Healthcare, to create an AI-focused network in cardiology, in partnership with one of the largest health systems in India, Apollo Hospitals. The AI Network for healthcare is part of Microsoft Healthcare NExT aimed to accelerate healthcare innovation through artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The partnership between Microsoft and Apollo will work to develop and deploy new machine learning models to predict patient risk for heart disease and assists doctors on treatment plans. The team is already working on an AI-powered Cardio API (application program interface) platform. “AI Network for healthcare aims to democratize artificial intelligence by empowering healthcare providers with faster, intuitive and predictable solutions and reducing the disease burden. Our unique partnership with Apollo brings together our learnings in artificial intelligence and machine learning areas and Apollo’s experience and expertise in cardiology. The systems of intelligence we create can change the lives of patients and the work of medical practitioners enabling accessible healthcare to all,” said Dr. Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President, AI & Research, Microsoft. “This collaboration marks a paradigm shift for patients and the management of non-communicable diseases the world over. Cardiac disease is amongst India’s leading causes of mortality and morbidity, which is exacting a toll on the health and well-being of our citizens. Given our large clinical database and a significant pool of clinical talent, this partnership will help impact the global burden of cardiac disease. This collaboration with Microsoft’s path-breaking technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will help better predict, prevent and manage heart disease in the country. While we commence this
in India, we will validate the algorithms and work towards creating a global consortium to tackle multiple conditions in cardiovascular disease,” said Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals. Commenting on the partnership, said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited said, “Over the last two years we have been working with a dynamic partner ecosystem of local, regional and global organizations to bring the power of AI to Healthcare. We started with eyecare – and today we are expanding into cardiac care. We have been working with our customers and partners within the healthcare sector to create AI models that can help provide doctors and health care providers insights in their treatment plans. Our partnership with Apollo Hospitals will be a major step in the journey towards providing accessible healthcare to everyone.
BD INTRODUCES NEW LIQUID BASED CYTOLOGY TECHNIQUE TO ENABLE ACCURATE CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING BD Life Sciences-Diagnostic Systems, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), announced the launch of BD SurePath Direct to Slide. It is a Liquid Based Cytology (LBC) test intended to be used for screening and detection of cervical cancer, pre-cancerous lesions, atypical cells and all other cytologic categories. Offering a complete LBC solution and characterised by FDA standardised sample collection process, through ease of use, 100 per cent of the collected sample is sent to the lab. Utilising BD’s proprietary cell enrichment technique, BD SurePath Direct to Slide improved slide quality, whilst accommodating the requirements of labs with lower volume testing. BD SurePath Direct to Slide is a unique LBC technique that will offer availability of residual sample for conducting important additional follow up tests without the need for repeat sampling. Commenting that cervical cancer can be
dic specialists to capture 3D and weight-bearing images of hands, wrists, elbows, knees, feet and ankles, which provide important diagnostic information that is not available from traditional CT systems and other types of patient extremity exams. Carestream worked closely with leading orthopaedic specialists, sports medicine physicians and athletic trainers to develop this compact, affordable 3D imaging system for use in treating a variety of orthopaedic injuries and conditions.
CABINET APPROVES MOVING OFFICIAL AMENDMENTS IN THE “SURROGACY (REGULATION) BILL, 2016” The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister ShriNarendraModi has given its approval formovingofficial amendments in the “Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016”. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 proposes to regulate surrogacy in India by establishing National Surrogacy Board at the central level and, State Surrogacy Boards and Appropriate Authorities in the States and Union Territories. The proposed legislation ensures effective regulation of surrogacy, prohibit commercial surrogacy and allow altruistic surrogacy to the needy Indian infertile couples. Once the Bill is enacted by the Parliament, the National Surrogacy Board will be constituted. The States and Union Territories shall constitute the State Surrogacy Board and State Appropriate Authorities within three months of the notification by the Central Government. Major impact: Once in effect, the Act will regulate the surrogacy services in the country and willcontrol the unethical practices in surrogacy, prevent commercialization of surrogacyand will prohibit potential exploitation of surrogate mothers and children born through surrogacy. While commercial surrogacy will be prohibited including sale and purchase of human embryo and gametes, ethical surrogacy to the needy
infertile couples will be allowed on fulfillment of certain conditions and for specific purposes. All Infertile Indian married couple who want to avail ethical surrogacy will be benefitted. Further, the rights of surrogate mother and children born out of surrogacy will be protected. The Bill shall apply to whole of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
proved health outcomes, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and World Health Organization (WHO) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), here today. Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare presided over the signing ceremony. The MoA was signed and exchanged between ShriLav Agarwal, JS (International Health) and Dr Tedros, DG WHO in the presence of Shri J. P. Nadda, Union Health Minister. Dr PoonamKhetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO, SEARO; Dr Soumya Swaminathan, DDG (Programs), WHO; Ms. Preeti Sudan, Union Health Secretary were also present.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE AND WHO SIGN AN AGREEMENT FOR ENHANCED COOPERATION FAILING TO NOTIFY A IN THE HEALTH SECTOR TB CASE MAY LEAD TO 6 Dr. TedrosAdhanomGhebreyesus, Director MONTHS IMPRISONMENT General of WHO met Shri J.P. Nadda, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, here today. They discussed perspectives on national , regional and global public health program. Dr Tedros complimented the Government of India on the courageous and bold initiatives taken to expand universal health coverage through the two pillars of Ayushman Bharat. The 1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centers will definitely take primary health care closer to the people and the path breaking National Health Protection Scheme will provide the secondary and tertiary care to 500 million people of the country providing the continuum of care to the citizens, Dr Tedros remarked. Dr. Tedros also appreciated the community engagement and feedback through digital outreach witnessed by him during field visit to the Mother and Child Facilitation Centre at NIHFW yesterday and stated that such best practices should be documented and shared with other countries in the region and beyond. The Union Minister, Shri J. P. Nadda thanked the DG, WHO for their continued technical support to the national programs. He highlighted that the Government is progressively increasing the budgetary support to the health sector and working in spirit of cooperative federalism with the states. To further strengthen collaborative work between India and WHO in achieving im-
For the first time, Union Health Ministry doctors, has issued a gazetted notification regarding jail term for failure to report of TB cases. Now, hospital authorities, doctors, chemists and druggists could face a jail term for not notifying tuberculosis (TB) cases. Early diagnosis and complete treatment of tuberculosis is the corner-stone of tuberculosis prevention and control strategy. Additionally, inappropriate diagnosis and irregular or incomplete treatment with anti-tubercular drugs may contribute to complications, disease spread and the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis. “To ensure proper tuberculosis diagnosis and its management in patients and their contacts and to reduce tuberculosis transmission and further to address the problems of emergence and spread of Drug Resistant-Tuberculosis, it is essential to collect complete information of all tuberculosis patients,” notes the recent central government notification. According to the notification, the government has asked the Healthcare Providers to notify every tuberculosis patient to local Public Health Authority, namely, District Health Officer or Chief Medical Officer of a District and Municipal Health Officer of urban local bodies in whatever way they are known; or their designated District Tuberculosis Officers in a prescribed format.
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NEWS REPORT
transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary. Portable Insurance Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country. Entitlement AB-NHPM will be an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database, The different categories in rural area include families having only one room with kucha walls and kucharoof; families having no adult member between age 16 to 59; female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59; disabled member and no able bodied adult member in the family; SC/ST households; and landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour, Also, automatically included families in rural areas having any one of the following: households without shelter, destitute, living on alms, manual
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scavenger families, primitive tribal groups, legally released bonded labour. For urban areas, 11 defined occupational categories are entitled under the scheme. Avail Public and Private Hospitals The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities. All public hospitals in the States implementing AB-NHPM, will be deemed empanelled for the Scheme. Hospitals belonging to Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) may also be empanelled based on the bed occupancy ratio parameter. As for private hospitals, they will be empanelled online based on defined criteria. Package Rate To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis. The package rates will include all the costs associated with treatment. For beneficiaries, it will be a cashless, paper less transaction. Keeping in view the State specific requirements, States/ UTs will have the flexibility to modify these rates within a limited bandwidth. One of the core principles of AB-NHPM
is to co-operative federalism and flexibility to states. There is provision to partner the States through co-alliance. This will ensure appropriate integration with the existing health insurance/ protection schemes of various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments (at their own cost), State Governments will be allowed to expand AB-NHPM both horizontally and vertically. States will be free to choose the modalities for implementation. They can implement through insurance company or directly through Trust/ Society or a mixed model. Mission Council For giving policy directions and fostering coordination between Centre and States, it is proposed to set up Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Council (AB-NHPMC) at apex level Chaired by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister. It is proposed to have an Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Governing Board (AB-NHPMGB) which will be jointly chaired by Secretary (HFW) and Member (Health), NITI Aayog with Financial Advisor, MoHFW, Additional Secretary & Mission Director, Ayushman Bharat
EVENTS
International Conference On Best Practices In Healthcare Management
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