SYMHEALTH, an annual mega event with an academically rich legacy attracts over 1200 delegates from all verticals of healthcare such as doctors, medico-legal experts, insurance & IT professionals, NGOs, hospital administrators & clinical research professionals from all over India and abroad.

SYMHEALTH 2019 is a two days’ event organized by the Faculty of Health and Biological Sciences (FoHBS), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), SIU which is being hosted at the university campus, Lavale, Pune on 19th & 20th April 2019. It is an event that marks the significance of integrating ideas and information from across many disciplines. This is in consonance with our mission of contributing towards knowledge generation & dissemination. The conference provides a platform through which various stakeholder groups can discuss and proffer practical and workable solutions to the challenges of healthcare.

The Conference will provide an opportunity for stakeholders beyond academia and industry, to exchange insights, present emerging opportunities, make networking connections, and to share resources. The two thought-provoking days of the conference results in deciphering knowledge both in the sessions and during the many planned opportunities to build rapport and alliances, share advice, stories, case reports and socialize throughout the conference.

The highlight of this year’s conference is the incorporation of ‘Connexions’ – a unique event on the first day of the conference. Connexions presents an opportunity for students to attend grooming and skills transfer sessions which prepares them to face interviews. A placement assistance drive is conducted after Connexions which facilitates interested enrolled candidates to interact and get interviewed with prospective recruiters and employers in the healthcare sector.

Dr. Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Department of Health Research, (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) has kindly consented to be the Guest of Honor on 19th April 2019.

Dr. Sanjay Zodpey, Vice President Academics, Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi will enlighten upon the Public Health Agenda for India wherein the Indian government has adopted the National Health Policy to “attain the highest possible level of health and well-being for all at all ages through a preventive and promotive health care orientation in all developmental policies, and universal access to good quality health care services without anyone having to face financial hardship as a consequence”.

A panel discussion will be conducted on the perspective of varied stakeholders like Insurance companies, Hospitals & Govt. of Maharashtra on “Ayushyaman Bharat”.

The chairperson for this panel discussion will be Mr. Dinesh Arora, Dy. CEO National Health Agency, (NHA), representative of Insurance companies will be Mr. Bhaskar Nerurkar, Head, Health Bajaj Allianz ltd, Pune, representative of hospital will be Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Vice Chairman, Managing Director & Group CEO, Narayana Health & spokesperson from Govt. of Maharashtra will be Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra.

Dr. Simmardeep Singh Gill, Group COO CK Birla Group, Kolkata will shed the light upon the importance of leadership skills for healthcare professionals. He will explain how individual development, including communication skills, coaching, mentoring, negotiation, and motivation theory, works within a leadership role.

Mr. Sanjay Singh Nirwan, Healthcare Communication & Digital Strategist, Media Medic Communications, Mumbai will speak on the Digital Healthcare Advocacy. Digital technology has greatly contributed to improvements in patient care and monitoring, as well as patient communication with primary caregivers, general practitioners, and specialists. The digital world has revolutionized the accessibility of health information for people across the globe. Patients no longer must wait for doctors’ appointments to begin their diagnosis process.

Some of the other eminent national speakers include – Mr. Abhishek Agarwal, MD Strategy, MERCK, Mumbai. Mr. Badri Iyenger, MD, South Asia, Smith & Nephew HC Pvt Ltd. Mr. Vidhi Prasad K V, Head, Image Guided System, Wipro GE South Asia. Dr. Anirudha Malpani, Director & Founder, Malpani Ventures, Mumbai. Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, Scientist G & Director-in-Charge, National AIDS Research Institute, Pune. Mr. Lalit Mistry, Director of Healthcare, KPMG. Mr. Kumar Krishnaswamy, Group Head- HR, Medwell Ventures. Dr. Col. Ajay Gangoli, Group Medical Director, Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd. Mr. HSD Srinivas, Head Health Portfolio Tata Trust, Mumbai. Prof. (Dr). Sudhir Kumar Satpathy, Director, School of Public Health, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Deemed to be University, Bhubaneshwar. Ms. Nishi Saini, Head- North, Clove Dental Clinics, New Delhi. Dr. Avinash Phadke, President, Technical & Mentor, SRL, Diagnostics, Mumbai. Dr. Clive Fernandes, Group Clinical Director, Wockhardt Group of Hospitals, Mumbai. Dr. Sanjay Gupte, Medico-Legal Expert, Pune. The valedictory ceremony will be held on April 20, 2019. Dr. Deelip Mhaisekar, Vice-chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences will grace the occasion as Guest of Honor. The session will be presided by Dr. S. B. Mujumdar, Chancellor, Symbiosis International (Deemed University).

SYMHEALTH 2019 will continue to bet on increasing the presence of organizations, exhibitors and visitors from around the nation to keep on generating synergies, sharing knowledge, provoking discussion, reflection and inspiring new actions. It will encourage all the stakeholders to expand their knowledge horizon as well as to forge collaborative networks across disciplines and professions. The attendees will benefit enormously from the event.

We hope that you will join us in, what promises to be, a ‘must attend’ event!
For Registration and further queries please contact: (+91) 88888-92258
Email: symhealthregistration@siu.edu.in,
For more details visit: www.symhealth.edu.in

Dr. Rajiv Yeravdekar
Dean, Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences, SIU

Read Press Release: SYMHEALTH 2019

In most other countries, the constitution requires the government to provide some form of healthcare. The implementation, however, suffers from deficit of policy, government or resources even in the countries that consider healthcare as a part of social justice. The Author talks about how India can lead with innovations in legislation, policy, governance and finance to provide health for all.

Adequate healthcare is both, a prerequisite and a consequence, of the growth of a country. A health system can deliver public health and medical services, if its solid foundation includes skilled workforce, information systems, medical products, technology, adequate financing and governance. While technology can provide innovative tools to improve health, it is the regulatory framework whichcan provide the enabling ecosystem. It is important that Innovations not be limited to drugs and devices but also include regulations.Ultimately,it is laws that determine financing and structure of healthcare.

The nations of the world have included healthcare in their legal framework in some form.Almost all countries are signatories to one or more international human rights or health rights declarations.

One third of the countries include healthcare as a constitutional right for individual citizens. Russiaand former countries of the Soviet bloc Italy, Spain, Brazil, Philippines and South Africa have maintained health as human right in their constitution. On the other end of the spectrum are countries like the USA, which have no individual constitutional right to healthcare.

In most other countries, the constitution requires the government to provide some form of healthcare. The implementation,however, suffers from deficit of policy, governance or resources even in the countries that consider healthcare as a part of social justice.

India extrapolates health rights from other parts of the constitution.The right to health in India is outlined the Directive Principles of State Policy- Articles 42 and 47 and the fundamental right to life as stated in article 21.

Article 42 states that the State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Article 47 states that the State shall regard the raising of level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavor to bring about prohibition of the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.

Article 21,“The Fundamental Right to Life” guaranties individual life.

The Indian judiciary has interpreted the “Right to Life’ in many ways. It has held that humane working conditions, health services and medical care are an essential part of Article 21. Public interest litigation, as well as litigation arising out of claims made by individuals,has generated substantial case law showingright to health is an integral part of the Right to Life.

For technological innovations to flourish in its current stage of development, India needs more proactive regulations to progress towards universal healthcare.

Currently the Indian government spends about 1 percent of GDP on healthcare. Compare that to 3 percent in China and 8.3 percent in the USA. Private expenditure on healthcare is in addition to public expenditure; approximately 70% of health expenditure in India is from private sources.

A study done by PGI Chandigarh, suggests that universal health care services for entire 1.2 billion population, the annual cost of providing preventive and curative services will be INR 2415 billion (USD 54 billion). This would amount to increasing the allocation to health sector from current nearly 1% to 3.8% of GDP.

Indian business association, FICCI and consultants EY, estimated in 2012 that universal health cover would require government health spending to increase to 3.7-4.5 percent of GDP.

The current government, under the National Health Assurance Mission, would provide all citizens free drugs and diagnostic treatment and insurance cover to treat serious ailments. It would cost an estimated $11.4 billion annually.

In 2010, a High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage recommended increasing public financing from 1% of the gross domestic product to at least 2.5% to provide essential health care package through tax funding and employer-provided insurance.

The Lancet published an India focused issue on health in Jan 2011. The lead authors (K SrinathReddy, Vikram Patel, Prabhat Jha, Vinod K Paul, A K Shiva Kumar, Lalit Dandona),summarized the recommendations of various working groups as ‘call to action’ as follows. They propose the following targets to be achieved by 2020 through the creation of the Integrated National Health System with three overarching goals: ensure the reach and quality of health services to all in India; reduce the financial burden of health care on individuals; and empower people to take care of their health and hold the health-care system accountable.

Service delivery

• The entire population should be covered by an entitlement package of health care with

financing from a combination of public, employer, and private sources. Full range of relevant diseases need to be included in the entitlement package of health services with cost-effective interventions that include health promotion and disease prevention.

• All health practitioners and facilities in the public and private sectors have to be registered with the Integrated National Health System.

Health Financing

• Public spending on health should be increased from 1% to 6% of the gross domestic product, and 15% of tax revenues—including new taxes on tobacco products, alcohol, and food with little nutritional value—should be earmarked for this purpose.

• Reduce the proportion of out-of-pocket spending from 80% to 20% of the total health expenditure.

• Increase spending on health research to 8% of the health budget.

Human resources for health

• Establish the Indian Health Service with guidelines developed through an autonomous National Council for Human Resources in Health.

• An updated training curriculum should be fully in place for medical and allied professions that is relevant to the situation in India.

• Establish suitable incentive structures to retain health providers in underserved areas.

Health information system

• Have in place comprehensive health information and surveillance system that covers all major diseases, health-system issues, and key social determinants, which also facilitates assessment of public health interventions.

• Establish adequate research capacity in India to investigate and report key issues that affect the health system and policy for further improvements.

• Have in place a fully functional autonomous council that compiles and synthesizes relevant information to develop guidelines for evidence-based health care and its assessment.

Drugs and technology

• Implement a national network of pharmacies for generic low-cost drugs for the entire population.

• Establish mechanisms for bulk purchase of patented drugs at low cost.

• Have in place mechanisms to check and control the use of perverse incentives by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for health-care providers.

Governance

• Have in place mechanisms to make functional the components of the National Health Bill.

• Have a system in place that requires all middle and senior functionaries in public health to have relevant training in public health.

• Ensure devolution of responsibility for health care to district management systems along with accountability mechanisms and explicit community participation (The Lancet, Jan 2011).

India, at current stage of development needs more healthcare in every form and not less. Multiple studies have confirmed the fiscal feasibility and for technological innovations to flourish we needs a progressive enabling ecosystem.

Opposition to right to health emphasizes that it could increase the fiscal deficit;it could create shortage and increase the wait time for medical services, which would lead to rationing and lower the quality. It could also cause people to overuse health care resources. While appreciating valid opposing view, human development is not possible without guaranteed healthcare. Financial burden of a single episode of disease pushes millions of Indians into poverty, which stifles the market for technological progress.

Health and longevity have improved as never before in human history. And with explosive growth in the knowledge of human biology and genetics, it is likely that the life span will increase exponentially. It may even change the very definition of health to include happiness, intelligence and aesthetics as components of a new paradigm. It is imperative that innovations in legislation, policy, governance and finance will have to stay ahead of the burgeoning technologic innovations and not fall behind to irrelevance. It is important to have innovative strategic thinkers in the leadership positions that understand biology, healthcare, governance and finance.

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