Personalized healthcare is the need of the hour: Global Health and Innovation Conference by IIHMR University

12th January 2021: As COVID-19 has taken a toll on various sectors and areas, it definitely has created an urgency to mitigate the risks that have accompanied the pandemic. To highlight the key areas of concern, challenges and the changes that were highlighted to enhance the health sector and its allied sectors, IIHMR University concluded its 2-day Health Next 2021- Global Health and Innovation Conference on 12th January 2021. The 2-day conference witnessed the deliberation from speakers across 8 plus countries such as the USA, Germany, India, UK, Canada etc. and a participation of 40 speakers who emphasized on new solutions and strategies, where networking was curated, and key business-to-business exchanges took place. The conference was opened and addressed by the keynote speaker Mr. Naveen Jain, Ex-MD NHM & Former Secretary Skills & Entrepreneurship Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department, Govt. of Rajasthan.

The Health Next 2021- Global Health and Innovation Conference witnessed stalwart panelists from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bayer, Germany, Pharmeasy, Apollo Hospitals, MedCords, Dawaa Dost, NISHTHA/ Jhpiego, Medicover Hospitals, AstraZeneca, Biopharmaceutical R&D, Gaithersburg, MD, USA , Docquity, India, Viveo Health, Ai Highway Inc, myresqr.life, TiE Global, Amity Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Startup Oasis, Healthcare at Home India Pvt. Ltd., E4Impact Foundation, Ecoware, BOD, iKure, StanPlus/ Red Ambulances and DAYA India.

Dr. PR Sodani, President (Officiating), Dean IIHMR University, “We think the challenges in the healthcare sector have changed and mitigating these challenges and risks have become a matter of urgency post-COVID-19. As we progress, we see the industry’s magnificent efforts to innovate and keep the industry well before time. The Health Next 2021- Global Health and Innovation Conference is a great platform for not just for budding entrepreneurs but the healthcare fraternity on the whole.”

Dr. Gaurav Thukral, EVP & COO, Healthcare at Home India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Affordability, Availability and Accessibility are three A’s that have always been a challenge in the healthcare sector. Despite of Ayushman Bharat, there is hardly any percentage of healthcare that is State Funded. We see that the penetration of insurance is way lesser till date where the penetration is not more than 20% when it comes to private insurance or even the state insurance. However, the National Digital Health Mission and Universal Health Coverage have played a major role in focusing on the need of insurance to reduce the out of pocket expenses of patients. The other aspect is the standardization of delivery of care where the major problem focused is the supply. Healthcare managers need to be moved from classroom training to practical training. To make the whole system more sustainable it is important to bring in the equilibrium and overcome challenges.”

Prof. Mario Molteni, CEO at E4Impact Foundation said, “An equilibrium in public health and private health is important. In Milan we do create this equilibrium by creating a healthy competition between the public and private sector health services. We create an awareness on ease of accessibility of services as everything we do is abided by compliance. This promotes the equivalence of all services that are available in the country. We promote young enterprises to come up with business models that are exciting that allow us to overcome certain gaps with the help of these organisations.”

Rhea Mazumdar, Rhea Mazumdar Singhal, CEO at Ecoware said, “India has a dense population and we do not actually have no formal waste management or waste treatment. I think when we speak of sustainability in India or any South East Asian countries we must talk of Close looped solutions. This means what the end of the life of the product is which would help us know actually how to treat it by the end of its lifecycle. Challenges that we face is lack of innovations for closed loop solutions and measuring impact outcomes which means if you have decided to do something please measure that. This would be beneficial for the amount of health waste that is being generated each day and thus can be treated wisely.”

Santosh Marathe, COO & Unit Head at Apollo Hospitals, “Personalised healthcare is the need of the hour. We see a paradigm shift in therapies where the Organ-specific therapies through precision medicine techniques have been adopted at the moment. Use of technology and big data is beneficial to get apt patient data which has helped us offer organ-specific therapies.” Mr. Saurabh Uboweja, Founder & Managing Partner at BOD, pointed out that “Collection of high-quality data especially that of patients, can help you to design a treatment protocol for patients. The access of personalized healthcare is accessible to a limited few at the moment.”

Shreyans Mehta, Co-Founder at MedCords, “Personalised healthcare services in the last 6 years in Rajasthan have seen a big shift. Our effort has been to create a health record for every family member who collaborated with the National Digital Health Mission. Better recording of patient healthcare data can prove to be beneficial for gathering data to offer personalized patient care. Policy related challenges faced is that a lot of Government work happens in silos. There are multiple departments within the Government where streamlining these departments is important. The use of technology in health has reduced the Government’s burden where preventable measures can be taken at a good pace.”

Towards the end, a conference report was presented by Dr. P. R. Sodani. At his Valedictory address, Mr. Ambi Parameshwaran, Brand Strategist/Couch Founder Brand Building concluded the session talking about his experiences.

Dr. Sheenu Jain, CIIE, & Convener GHIC Conference, IIHMR University Jaipur, said “this was a signature conference on the hottest markets and investment growth areas in digital health, healthcare. Power packed panel took a deeper look at the most important gradients that are emerging and how they are fueling a continued surge in innovation.”