The third InnoHEALTH conference on inspiring moonshots in healthcare was the latest milestone in a series of conferences held since 2016 on quality and cost optimization. A total of 250 people participated in this 2-day national level conference, including prominent speakers and member state representatives of international organizations. The rising concerns about the increasing costs and availability of health and medical facilities were given a platform at InnoHEALTH 2018, hosted on October 5th and 6th in Gurugram (NCR). The mission was to bring the top healthcare experts around the world with all the possible stakeholders of the health sector and discuss and deliberate on interventions, which bring down the cost of healthcare delivery and improve the quality of care. This years’ theme of InnoHEALTH is, ‘Inspiring Moonshots in Healthcare’.
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The opening speech by Surgeon R Admiral Dr. V K Singh gave a brief overview of the current technology and scenario on healthcare innovations and delivery. He presented his idea of understanding the 3 ‘P’s i.e. pain, (of) patient, (of) provider to deliver healthcare at an optimum cost and as well as scaling up the availability of care. Mr. Srijan Pal Singh as a special invitee to the inaugural session formally acknowledged the dedication of the InnoHEALTH 2018 conference to the vision of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He briefed and shared his experiences with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in the context of health topic. Also, the theme of moonshot was incomplete without an inspiring context from India. Hence, Dr. Singh completed his speech by dedicating the InnoHEALTH 2018 conference to the vision of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for the country in the health sector. H.E. Klas Molin shared the Indo-Swedish partnership focusing on innovations and the work done in the health sector. He also covered the existing examples and future possibilities for India and Sweden to cooperate. He mentioned the importance of prevention as the secret of healthcare.
As we all know that the current times are very difficult for the Indian health sector. The anxiety in civil society with the rising cost of delivery and slippages in quality of healthcare delivery is well known. On the other hand, rising epidemics like lifestyle diseases require a focus on preventive rather than curative approach. Hence, we need to reassess the priorities at the level of an individual, family, and society, on how we are looking at the topic of health in the country. Dr. Anil Kumar Gupta, Visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Founder of Honey Bee Network, gave the keynote address for the inaugural session and looked at the challenges in the areas of health, provided concrete examples and direction to the InnoHEALTH audience by emphasizing on the inclusiveness of stakeholders when designing solutions. Also, how to stay scientific and evidence-based in our approach and communication, as in a large country like India, it is often difficult to control the distortion of communication, especially when it is aided by tools like mobile apps etc. He further shared his views on other important areas to focus to improve the healthcare delivery in the country.
The Sessions then were structured as panel discussion were various stakeholders and expertise in various fields of health sector facilitated the discussions.
The second session was on the topic of innovations for hospitals in which the panelists reflected on different aspects of innovations, the next session was on Make in India opportunites which emphasised on the major issue of manufacturing medical devices in India, discussed various possibilities and hurdles of make in India opportunities. The session then was on partner state session which stressed on universal health coverage and insurance led innovations . Recent policy aiming at Universal Health Coverage, launch of Ayushman Bharat by the Ministry of Ayush were some of the key discussions in the session.
InnoHEALTH was back with the third segment of “Young innovators award 2018”, to celebrate and encourage innovation particularly in the healthcare sector, we sent out an invitation call to healthcare organisations and young healthcare innovators for nominations and observed more then 200 nominations out of which only 5 were shortlisted to present their innovation in front of jury which had investors, policy makers, academia and medical expertise.
The Ultimate Solution for all Non communicable Diseases, A session which was equally important in InnoHealth was given a platform which showcased the 3-dimensional approach to healthcare.
Another area of interest throughout the InnoHEALTH 2018 conference was the Advances in Diagnostics. As one hand it brings the top industry leaders sharing their vision, where the sector is moving, on the other hand, the most promising startups and technologies. The panel represents various industry working in cutting-edge research in radiology and diagnostics areas from India and Sweden.
The panel of the session on India EU collaboration in Health sector, startup opportunities, and challenges provided insights on market development in India, including examples of reverse innovations from India to Europe and back along with legal and IPR challenges.
In the following session on Digital Health: Giving birth to new delivery models through Mobile, IoT, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, panelists discussed the topic of digital in three contexts, as we have representation from policymakers, IT experts, Hospitals to an insurance marketplace.
The main concept behind the session of innovation pitches of the company was to enable innovative companies with the right advise and linkages. Some of the top experts from Indian health sector listened to the company presentations and shared with them their feedback on how the companies should work on their goto market plan.
The conference ended on a note of the paradigm shift of healthcare – from technological advances like electronic health records. This tendency will change the historic doctor/patient relationship, marking the onset of an era of patient empowerment in which the patient shall become more responsible for maintaining good health.
