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Chandigarh: 2 succumb to H1N1 in 1 week
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H1N1 virus has started gripping the city as 18 cases and two deaths were reported in the past five weeks and this week, respectively. Last year, four H1N1 influenza cases were confirmed from Chandigarh.“Last year, until February, only four cases and two deaths had been reported due to the influenza. However, this year, there has been over fourfold increase,” said a senior doctor in the UT health department.
Sources in the health department said the deaths were confirmed this week after an audit and the data has been recently submitted to the government. “Both the patients who died were women. While one was 85 years old, the other was 30. The latter had tuberculosis as well,” said an official in the UT health department. The total number of patients admitted in PGI from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh are 21. This
L V Prasad Eye Institute partners with Cognitive Care to prevent avoidable blindness in children
L V Prasad eye Institute and cognitivecare has announced a partnership to jointly pursue efforts that advance the early detection of eye diseases and adverse eye conditions in infants and children. This partnership combines L V Prasad eye Institute’s expertise and research in eye health with cognitivecare’s AI platform, which incorporates granular insights and patterns that interplay with clinical and social determinants to quantify propensity for health risks at individual and population levels early. retinopathy of prematurity (rOP) is a leading cause of preventable blindness in infants and children worldwide. India is experiencing an rOP epidemic, significantly impacting rural districts. Furthermore, it is projected that the myopia epidemic will affect 50 per hike is witnessed every winter, said cent of the global population by 2050. epidemiologists. But as the strain of
The prevalence of myopia in children in India has influenza virus varies from year to quadrupled in the past twenty years. Active prevention year, symptoms, severity and even type and mitigation strategies are needed to control and of vaccination changes annually.potentially reverse both the rOP and myopia trends currently seen in India. Will this year see more cases?dr Prashant Garg, executive chair, L V Prasad Unlike dengue, the pattern is difficult eye Institute said, “We are happy to partner with to predict. “The limitation of treating cognitivecare and are confident that our combined expertise in clinical management and machine learning will help us accelerate the early diagnosis of rOP and myopia in young children and infants. We are also hopeful that this partnership will pave way to leverage AI, deep learning, and advanced computational sciences to address several other critical eye diseases.” this flu is that the strains keep on changing. Sometimes, we see the symptoms for a few days and these days, they go on for weeks,” said Dr Meeni P Singh, virologist, PGI. Changes in the virus over the years “It’s no longer a traveller’s disease.
NHA partners with NABH to expedite implementation of ABDM
As per the moU, NAbH will encourage and provide assistance in onboarding their accredited/certified facilities on Abdm’s Health Facility registry (HFr) and onboarding of the doctors, nurses etc. working in these facilities on the Healthcare Professionals registry (HPr)
National Health Authority (NHA) and National Accreditation board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NAbH) – a constituent board of Quality council of India (QcI) have signed a moU to collaborate in the areas of capacity building, dissemination of information, promotion of QcI (NAbH) accreditation & Ayushman bharat digital mission (Abdm) standards, technical support, stakeholder advocacy and for creating overall awareness for different initiatives of NAbH and NHA by leveraging the reach and presence of each other.
As per the moU, NAbH will encourage and provide assistance in onboarding their accredited/certified facilities on Abdm’s Health Facility registry (HFr) and onboarding of the doctors, nurses etc. working in these facilities on the Healthcare Professionals registry (HPr).
Speaking about the objective of this collaboration, dr r. S. Sharma, ceO, NHA said, “With the Ayushman bharat digital mission (Abdm), we have embarked on this ambitious journey to create a digital platform for bringing all stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem together. We aim to leverage the strong presence of NAbH among the health facilities and healthcare professionals from the public as well as private sector to reach out and sensitise them about the core functions, benefits and potential of Abdm and drive the adoption of Abdm on a large scale.”
Speaking on the occasion, Prof (dr) mahesh Verma, chairman, NAbH said, “NAbH is totally committed to objective of taking quality healthcare to the last man in the line. This collaboration with NHA will help and motivate even small healthcare organisations in tier 2 & tier 3 cites to get the benefit of Abdm. It will spread the mission of providing quality healthcare to the masses and help India become a global leader in healthcare domain”.
Further, NHA and NAbH will mutually develop accreditation standards and ratings for healthcare facilities to incorporate Abdm related standards for encouraging rapid adoption and uptake of digital health information systems.
WHO and partners launch freely accessible AI health worker
The World Health Organization, with support from the Qatar ministry of Health has launched the A.I.-powered WHO digital Health Worker, Florence version 2.0, offering an innovative and interactive platform to share a myriad of health topics in seven languages at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Qatar.
Florence can share advice on mental health, give tips to destress, provide guidance on how to eat right, be more active, and quit tobacco and e-cigarettes. She can also offer information on cOVId-19 vaccines and more! Florence 2.0 is now available in english with Arabic French, Spanish, chinese, Hindi and russian to follow.
Florence has helped fight misinformation around cOVId-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The pandemic has had a significant effect on mental health. It is estimated that 1 in every 8 people in the world live with a mental disorder. Her topics like tobacco and unhealthy diet kill 16 million people every year, while physical inactivity kills an estimated 830,000. These deaths are due to diseases like cancer, heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes that can be prevented and controlled with the right support.
Andy Pattison, WHO’s Team Lead for digital channels said, “digital technology plays a critical role in helping people worldwide lead healthier lives. The A.I. health worker Florence is a shining example of the potential to harness technology to promote and protect people’s physical and mental health. At WISH, we aim to meet with visionary partners to continue to improve this cuttingedge technology. AI can help fill gaps in health information that exist in many communities around the world.”
AstraZeneca India and 4base Care to enhance access to genomic testing for cancer patients.
As a part of the collaboration, AstraZeneca and 4basecare will work with the oncologist community to support patients by providing these services locally 4basecare has announced a collaboration with AstraZeneca India. Under this collaboration, the two organisations will support advanced-stage cancer patients with targeted therapy options using affordable genomic solutions.
As a part of the collaboration, AstraZeneca and 4basecare will work with the oncologist community to support patients by providing these services locally and also at a low cost ultimately increasing the chances of identifying optimal treatment options thereby improving clinical outcomes.
According to a report by Icmr on the ‘burden of cancers in India’, seven cancers accounted for more than 40% of the total disease burden; lung and breast cancer being the highest. The number of Indians suffering from cancer is projected to increase to 29.8 million in 2025 from 26.7 million in 2021. Given the advancement of technology in current times, patients have an opportunity to benefit significantly from various new age strategies including ‘Precision Oncology’. It helps provide targeted therapy to patients by identifying which drugs would work best on which patient depending upon the unique biology of a patient’s disease. Genomics-based molecular profiling is the bedrock of targeted therapy and has proved to be a lifesaving diagnostics tool as it helps identify the best medical intervention path while treating a patient.
Metropolis Healthcare records non-COVID revenues at Rs 288 crores in Q2FY23
metropolis Healthcare has announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the second quarter of financial year 2023.
Q2FY23 key highlights
• Wellness revenue increased by 40 per cent YoY to Rs 33 crores • EBITDA margin (Before CSR & ESOP) stood at 27.6 per cent • Specialised tests contributed 40 per cent to the NonCOVID revenue Q2FY23
Key highlights for core business#
• Total revenues grew by 12.4 per cent YoY • Specialised tests revenues grew by 15 per cent YoY • Wellness tests revenues grew by 36 per cent YoY • Patient & tests volumes grew by 10 per cent YoY Q2FY23 financial highlights
• Rs 288 crores: Non-COVID revenue* • Rs 83 crores: EBITDA (Before CSR & ESOP) • Rs 41 crores: Profit after tax
IIT Jodhpur study reveals the cost of hospitalisation under public and private sector
Objective of this study was to compare the total average cost per episode of hospitalisation for public and private healthcare facilities in India
The Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur researcher gave a comparative study on how much do government and households spend on an episode of hospitalisation during their visit to public and private healthcare facilities in India. The result of the research states that the government and households put together spent substantially more per hospitalisation in private hospitals than public hospitals.
This comparative study for public and private hospitals was carried out in chhattisgarh state by dr Alok ranjan, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Arts, IIT Jodhpur, along with dr Samir Garg (First author and executive director, State Health resource centre (SHrc), chhattisgarh); Narayan Tripathi, Senior Program coordinator, SHrc; and Kirtti Kumar bebarta, Program Associate, SHrc.
The average total spending per day of hospitalisation in India was found to be rs 2833 for public hospitals and rs 6788 for private hospitals. The results of this research were published in Health economics review Journal which is an international peer reviewed journal.
The occasional paper by Vitamin Angels India (VAI) and Observer research Foundation (OrF) makes several critical recommendations given the large inter-state and inter-district variations in the status of malnutrition among children and women in the region
India’s northeast region, home to over 220 ethnic groups and large tribal populations spread sparsely across remote areas, presents a challenge in terms of healthcare delivery, finds the study titled, ‘The Uphill climb to maternal and child Nutrition in Northeast India’. The occasional paper by Vitamin Angels India (VAI) and Observer research Foundation (OrF) makes several critical recommendations given the large inter-state and inter-district variations in the status of malnutrition among children and women in the region, as well as the region’s performance compared to the national average. The paper calls for a holistic approach to malnutrition in the Northeast to fill gaps in healthcare and nutrition, while leveraging the region’s agro biodiversity and traditional knowledge of its tribal populations.
The paper, authored by Shoba Suri (Senior Fellow, OrF), Priya rampal (consultant, Oxford Policy management), and Shruti menon (National Program manager, VA), builds on data from National Family Health Surveys; the comprehensive National Nutrition Survey; India SrS Special bulletin on maternal mortality; and reports from organisations such as FAO, UNIceF, WHO, World bank, and more. The paper also explores the dietary practices of women and children, with a special focus on the region’s tribal populations.
Prioritising communicable diseases in post-pandemic world
The new era of communicable diseases demands fresh strategies and a balance of resources, policies and technology
Apart from already existing communicable diseases like Tuberculosis (Tb), AIdS and malaria, there is an increase in the frequency and scale of communicable diseases with pandemic potential. The most recent being cOVId-19. This new era of communicable diseases is defined by outbreaks of emerging, re-emerging and endemic pathogens that spread quickly, aided by global connectivity and shifted ranges owing to climate change.
Talking about the impact of infectious diseases on society, dr Gunisha Pasricha, Principal Scientist, Infectious disease expert, medGenome Labs said, “Infectious diseases present a critical threat to global health security with high morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. A key contributor to the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases is human behavior. The movement of human beings, growing population, social and health inequalities, and climate change have caused imbalances in the complex ecosystem which have caused newer communicable diseases or the re-appearance of the older ones. There is a constant need for the development of rapid and cost-effective diagnostics, prevention, therapeutic strategies and maintaining realtime epidemiological surveillance for these diseases.”
Optum Startup Studio, part of Optum and UnitedHealth Group, aims to identify innovative ideas and startups that can help accelerate value delivery by seeking solutions to some of health care’s most pressing challenges
Optum Global Solutions (India) in partnership with International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) has announced its first Optum Startup Studio India cohort. The cohort consists of five health care startups. • MedTel’s remote patient monitoring platform offers embedded real-time data analytics for providers and members, helping them improve disease and chronic condition management and overall population health management. Their health kit includes platformintegrated Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices. • Grailmaker Innovations’ Artificial Intelligence (AI)enabled Software-as-a-Service app allows pre-emptive interventions to lower the cost of care and improve health outcomes for children with cortical visual impairment (cVI). • Daffodil Health’s pediatric behavioral health platform provides accessible and affordable services at home for children with developmental delays and conditions. • Nemocare offers an IoT-enabled wearable device
that enables innovative, affordable, accessible, and highly accurate medical-grade monitoring solutions for newborn babies, helping to avoid unnecessary hospitalisations. • BWell Health has developed a contactless health monitoring/screening tool that uses smartphone camera and AI algorithms to track and monitor key vitals to help patients, providers, and payers avoid unnecessary health care utilisation and costs.
