Industry introspects at Healthcare & Pharma Expansion Summit 2014

The 2nd Healthcare & Pharma Expansion Summit 2014, Mumbai took a new look at public private partnerships (PPPs) as well as the role of IT systems in meeting some of the growth challenges of hospitals.

In her keynote address in the morning session, Uma Nambiar, Special Advisor to Minister of Health, Dijbouti, Africa spoke about the future of ICT in healthcare. She made the point that digital technology has to be used as an enabler to leapfrog into an era of smarter healthcare models. “Smart healthcare is the new healthcare market with smarter devices (for example within diagnostics kits, she mentioned point of care testing, PoC imaging devices, smart sensors). She suggested hospitals should take healthcare to the patient rather than the patient coming to the hospital, via medical kiosks in rural areas.

Technology solutions providers like Canon India and Cisco underscored the message. While Surendra Pal Singh, Marketing Manager – Managed Print Services, Canon India spoke on converting existing data into a manageable databases, Pravin Srinivasan, Sales Business Development Manager, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems India spoke demonstrated how an all pervasive computing system could be leveraged for better healthcare outcomes.

PPPs may be a much discussed topic but the panel members managed to throw new light. Moderated by Dr Ravindra Karanjekar, CEO and Executive Director, Global Hospitals th panel discussed the missing gaps in healthcare PPPs in India. Dr Parag Rindani, Head- Wockhardt Hospitals South Mumbai reminded the audience that we do have examples of successful PPPs like those between radiology departments in government hospitals in Gujarat.

Dr Tarang Gyan Chandani, CEO, Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre, compared the reality in India with her experience in Singapore where PPPs are a “raging success due to full commitment.” She spoke of the “vacuum” between public and private partners and the need for an alignment between the two sides.

Dr Vishal Beri, CEO, Hinduja Healthcare Surgical, opined that the government cannot be both payer and provider, and needs to retain only the former role. He strongly felt that the government needed to move away from making it an election issue. PPPs should be continued irrespective of the government in power and therefore the framework has to be strong.

EH News Bureau