DigipharmaX and Personal Connected Health Alliance host India’s first “Connected Health Summit and Awards”

Artificial Intelligence and use of connected technology can help bring together the right doctor to the right patient at the right time

DigiPharmaX Healthcare Solutions, a fast growing digitalisation consultancy platform and Personal Connected Health Alliance (India), a US based organisation formed by HIMSS (Healthcare Information Management Systems Society) rolled out India’s first “Connected Health Summit and Awards.”

This first of its kind event in India saw the coming together of important stakeholders across hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, doctors and various digital players who were helping in the connectivity space in India.

The summit opened with an address by Prof Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman PCHAlliance India and Dr BS Ajai Kumar, Chairman and CEO HCG.

This was followed by discussions on topics ranging from the ‘Role of Emerging Technologies in Connected Health’ and ‘Connected Health for Patient Care’.

Jayesh Jindal from Samsung Healthcare showed how a modern digital hospital can enrich patient experience. Samsung’s ‘Cardio’ connected device for heart patient was showcased publicly for the first time in this summit.

Prateek Chopra from Abbott discussed how they had partnered with GoQii to create the ‘GutFit’ programme which is a pill plus dietician connected approach for GI patients.

Prof Gupta, urged “All stakeholders the need to read the National Health Policy as everyone will be impacted by it. The private sector provides almost 80 per cent of healthcare services in India and needs to enable low cost healthcare. About 30 per cent cost of hospitals is attributed to consumables which must be reduced. We are constantly looking for digital innovation to improve accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare.”

Commenting on this function, Prof Gupta further stated “We are constantly looking for digital innovation to improve accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare. This platform created by PCH Alliance and DigiPharmaX is essential to Connect Hospitals, Doctors, Pharma and technology companies to innovate and collaborate for delivering care at the point ”

Rajashree Menon, CEO – DigiPharmaX opined “The time has come to move the needle from SickCare to HealthCare. Personal Connected Health means the patient needs to be involved in their own healthcare and wellbeing which makes it possible to intervene before an issue becomes acute. We have to be more proactive and preventive rather than acute and reactive.” She also urged healthcare to collaborate with digital health solution providers to ensure continuum of patient care.

Yugal Sikri said, ‘Healthcare is an area that needs integrated approach. A summit like this is a strong need for today. This platform enables participation of HCP’s, formal and informal providers, where integrated solutions can be discussed.’

This event also saw the felicitation and awards being presented to who were doing cutting edge work by designing and building apps/platforms (Digital Health) or incorporating them into digital strategy (pharma, hospitals and doctors) and other digital products for ensuring the continuum of care for patients.

Some of them included Abbott, GSK, USV, Group Pharma and Wockhardt amongst others in pharmaceutical sector, GOQii, GoApptiv, Doxper in Digital Health, Dr Bakul Parikh, Dr AkshayKumarswamy , Anupam Karmakar – DY Patil Hospital (Mumbai) in Doctors and Hospital categories respectively.

Laxmikant Sugandhi, Digital Head – Group Pharma and Dinesh Chindarkar, MediaMedic two of the winners at this function said ‘Thank you DigiPharmaX. The Summit was well curated & organised. It was a great learning experience on Connected Health’.

‘It was indeed good learning at DigiPharmaX Connected Health India Summit understanding how to join the various dots in healthcare’.