IndiGlobal Bureau
The 2nd IndiGlobal Healthcare Summit concluded in Hyderabad on Friday. The summit brought together healthcare professionals, policy makers, industry leaders and stakeholders from different parts of the country to discuss and deliberate on critical health challenges.
During the day-long summit, various topics were covered; including the changing face of public health, role of analytics in healthcare system, digitization, value based healthcare, challenges in human resources in hospitals and evolving landscape of healthcare in Telangana.
One of the major highlights of the summit was the role of analytics in healthcare system. Speaking about the success story of Kerala which is the number one state in the country for healthcare delivery, Dr Rathan Kelkar, IAS, Secretary, Medical Education & Executive Director, State Health Authority, Government of Kerala said that the department meticulously looks at data and interprets for positive outcomes and proper implementation. Kerala is a completely e-governed state and this has been made possible by bringing in all the service providers and stake holders on a single platform.” He further added, “We get data from various health schemes but monitoring and evaluation are key for proper outcomes.”
Dr Bijoy E, Joint Director (Operations), State Health Agency, Govt of Kerala shared an important detail on the path taken by Kerala Government that resulted in the state achieving the status of a frontrunner: It embarked on Karunya Benevolent Fund, an assurance scheme of the State Government which provides financial aid for poor people suffering from serious ailments, by raising funds through Kerala lottery. The scheme is managed by the State Lotteries Department (Taxes). Karunya Benevolent Fund is provides financial assistance to under-privileged people suffering from acute ailments like Cancer, Hemophilia, Kidney and Heart diseases and for Palliative Care. The amount for the health scheme is raised through lottery.” “After the success, it was easy to convince the State Government for integrating other health schemes,” he added.
Sharing the Punjab experience, Dr Karthik Adapa, IAS, Special Secretary, Public Health & Family Welfare Department, Punjab said, “Doctors need to equip themselves with engineering skills as well in this day and age. AI tools would augment the speedy delivery and make it convenient to treat patients but it will not eliminate doctors. While AI and ML assistant can help in a big way as is the case in Aam Aadmi clinics in Punjab. AI plays a major role in cataract screening and diabetic retinopathy.”
When policy makers are briefed properly and outcomes are there for all to see, the use of harnessing technology to accrue benefits for the society is heartening opined Prof Dr Gangadhar Taduri, OSD to CM (Health) Technical Advisor Department of Health, Medical & family Welfare, Government of Telangana. He said, “Data emerges from scientific basis and the awareness needs to be given to policy makers. Citing the example of providing dialysis to people he said, “Based on a through analysis on who needs dialysis and where helped set up 119 dialysis centres. People do not have to travel more than 30 km to get dialysis done.”
The roll out of Government schemes such as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in Jammu & Kashmir is a success and the state has 97% institutional delivery said Dr Shafqat Khan, Additional Mission Director, AB-Digital Health Mission, Jammu & Kashmir. ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) is a game changer and one can keep it in a Digi Locker or cloud.
Dr Shafqat said that data will be future gold and we need to keep it in safe hands. Embracing digitization is the need of the hour. Anything which is not digital is sub- optimal.
The IndiGlobal Healthcare Summit brought in leaders from as far as Assam and J&K. Ms Indrani Laskar, Joint Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Assam said that the state is taking baby steps as far as digitization is concerned and would take a leaf out of Kerala to implement schemes. She added, “1.38 crore ABHA cards were generated and 4422 wellness clinics established.
Dr Subhodh Kandamuthan, Professor & director, Centre for Healthcare Management, Director, ASCI PGDM (Hospital Management) Hyderabad said, “Everyone says they possess a lot of data but how to use the data optimally is the question. A lot of predictive analysis happened during the pandemic and several IITs and IIMs came out with findings. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine too has come of age. However, proper monitoring and evaluation of data alone would help.
Prashant Rai, Senior Business Solution Manager, SAS India drew the attention towards deeper and more pertinent issues. He said, “All departments should do hypothesis testing which will clear the path and one can know where to start from. Then create a narration of the problem. There are enough mathematical methods to ensure that one can work even with limited data and produce results. There are tools to even customize.”
Dr Sudha Chandrashekar, Public Health specialist & Health economist moderated the session.
Public Health is changing with each passing day and while it is getting better, the challenges too are many. Dr Ashutosh Biswas, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha said digitization of healthcare is important and the Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme is providing the much needed fillip. There is a need for a registry and a single platform so that all the information can be sought to provide clinical treatment. Dr Anuradha Medoju, Senior Regional Director, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, MoHFW, Govt of India said that e-sanjeevini for instance is an example to show that we are moving towards digital health. Dr K V Ramana Reddy, Dean, Malla Reddy Dental college for Women, Hyderabad said that tertiary hospitals have their own limitations and Indian population is huge and the problems are unique. We need to find solutions and not base our problems on western solutions.
Shri Sarath Anand Jupalli, Managing director, Shivam Medisoft Services, Hyderabad said that digital health concern is each patient can be treated via tele- consultation like tele-ICU, tele-radiologists which will reduce the time taken to get treatment. He further added, “If the digital data is available in the system policy makers can predict that outbreak going to happen. In next to 4-5 years if the entire health records will come into central repository and we will be having all the healthcare data also reports and all the hospitals are going to be centralized.”
Dr Anuradha said that doctors communicate well with patients but not with policy makers. Today, there is also a need for technical skills.
The panel discussion on value based healthcare, service excellence through digitization and challenges in human resources in hospitals was interesting as leaders of the industry shared the present day scenario and how the challenges could be tackled. On the issue of standardization, Dr B Kishore Reddy, Managing Director & Ortho Oncologist. Amor Hospitals, Hyderabad said, “It is not easy to have standardization in big hospitals. The patients too are changing; no longer does one come across patients who say that doctors are Gods. They come with information sourced from Google and also suggest what treatment could be given.” He added that one should work towards standardization anyway. Shri Saurabh Gupta, Regional Chief Operating Officer, KIMS Sunshine Hospitals, Telangana drew the attention towards process and procedure of payments and how it can pave the way for value based healthcare. A pertinent point he raised was on the aspect of feedback forms. How many feedback forms are digitized? He questioned. 30 per cent of payments are driven by insurance, he informed. “It is important to know who is taking the feedback and at what time. Many hopsitals take feedback two days the patient goes home.
Retaining staff in hospitals is a huge task. Ms Uma Aysola, Director, Communications Relations & Partnerships ACCESS Health International, New Delhi said, “People quit managers and not organisations. She went on add, “The middle rung in hospitals is the ones who bear the brunt. They are the spine of the organization but receive most of the flak. How to motivate them to stay in the organization is to be taken seriously.
AI will transform and see unbundling of services
Choice of technology has compelled managers of all sectors including healthcare to adopt it. During and after the pandemic it has taken root strongly and AI tools are going to transform the industry. During the pandemic- predictability, repeatability and convenience data was sourced successfully pertaining to diseases.
Clinical decision systems come into place. Today, a radiologist need not look at all the x- rays. However, enough use cases are not pouring in healthcare sector and once that trigger changes in the healthcare sector will happen faster.
Post pandemic, there has been a major shift in the way patients view healthcare and they are not visiting hospitals as before. Tele-medicine has gained traction after the pandemic. The session was moderated by Shri Prabin Bardhan, CEO & Vice Chairman, CureTech Solutions & Kare4U healthcare Solutions, Telangana & Odisha.
The panelists on the topic ‘Evolving Landscape of Healthcare in Telangana’ explained the progress made by the state in the last nine years. Dr B Nagender, Superintendent, 
Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Hyderabad said that Telangana ranks third after Kerala and Tamil Nadu in healthcare delivery. Before Telangana State was formed there were 4 medical colleges, today there are thrice the number.
Dr Nagender added, “There are 134 diagnostic centres for blood tests making it convenient for people. The KCR Kit comprising 16 items for pregnant women has come a s a boon and resulted in reducing infant mortality rate.”
Dr G Swarnalatha, In-charge, Jeevandan said that though Telangana is leading in organ donation there is a lot to improve with more awareness on organ donation. There is a need for counselling for family members. Dr SS Yadav, Chairman, ILA’s Hospital Board of India, Telangana State said that patient care has definitely improved but smaller hospitals are facing hurdles with so many regulations. Citing the example of setting up sewerage treatment plants and acquiring 21 licenses from different departments is taking a toll on the people. Dr Ramesh Martha, Liaison Officer, NIMS said, “The State government sanctioned Rs 33 crore worth equipment for NIMS apart from sanctioning Rs 153 crore for the development of the hospital. He was of the view that Osmania General Hospital, Gandhi Hospital and NIMS are perfect examples of maintaining standards on par with corporate hospitals.
The event called it curtains with the awards ceremony. Sudheer Goutham, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, IndiGlobal Media Network said, “The IndiGlobal awards are a testimony to the hard and tireless work that individuals and institutions led by leaders do.”