The second installment of healthcare conference, organised by All India Management Association (AIMA), was held on August 7, 2012 at Bangalore. The theme this time was ‘Innovative and sustainable healthcare management: Strategies for Growth’. The conference, which was attended by over 180 delegates across the healthcare continuum, was inaugurated by Preetha Reddy, Conference Chairperson, MD, Apollo Hospitals and VP, AIMA in the presence of EV Ramana Reddy, Secretary to Government Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka. K Jairaj, Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka & Past President AIMA and Rekha Sethi, Director General, All India Management Association were also present at the inaugural session. Speaking at the inaugural session Preetha Reddy said, “With this conference we aim to ignite the minds of the healthcare providers to go beyond their traditional boundaries and the thought process in the healthcare delivery. The challenges are large and the danger of not tackling the menace of the disease burdened in the country innovatively will have a far reaching and disastrous consequences.”
| Preetha Reddy, Conference Chairperson, delivering the inaugral address at AIMA |
Following this EV Ramana Reddy talked about challenges faced by the public sector in delivering healthcare. “Healthcare in itself is very complex and to make it sustainable for 1.2 billion Indians is a huge challenge. We are fighting with the diseases of both developed countries – lifestyle diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension and underdeveloped countries like malnutrition, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. To make healthcare management sustainable, we need to have a holistic approach. We need to have convergence with the departments managing sanitation, nutrition and drinking water,” he said.
The conference began with first plenary session on ‘Innovative and Sustainable Healthcare Management –Opportunities and Challenges’. It brought together various segments across the healthcare spectrum – including providers, payers, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostics – to discuss the state of play of the sector and how they have fared in making the most of the opportunities available. The panelists included Kewal Handa, Managing Director, Pfizer India & Past President, AIMA; Dilip Jose, Zonal Director Fortis Healthcare Ltd; Rajen Padukone, CEO & MD, Manipal Health Enterprises and Shreeraj Deshpande Head – Health Insurance Future Generali India Insurance.
“India is strong in information technology but the challenge lies in how to provide this, in larger access and coverage in the healthcare sector. There is a great opportunity in healthcare segment. Infrastructure investment is required in doctors, hospitals, nurses and paramedics. Insurance sector needs to be scaled up to meet the insurance needs of the larger
population,” reiterated Handa. New ideas and innovations have been implemented across all segments of healthcare – providers, payers, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostics – driving improvements in quality, affordability, and accessibility for millions of Indians.
Jose said, “Healthcare space in India has grown rapidly in the last decade. However there is tremendous disparity in both availability and affordability. The challenge lies in how to address these issues. It is essential to have sustainable growth and innovative solutions keeping in mind the Indian context. The second session focused on learning from India’s biggest and best in class case studies in healthcare delivery and the strategies these leaders have adopted in bringing about large-scale change. The session explored the improvisation and customisation that were adopted to meet local demands and plug gaps in the Indian healthcare system.
The eminent panellists were Charu Sehgal, Senior Director & Lead – Life Sciences & Healthcare Consulting Deloitte; Sangita Reddy, Executive Director – Operations Apollo Hospitals; Ashwin Naik, Founder and CEO, Vaatsalya and Sanjay Kakkar, Chairman Jai Medica. The session focused on learning from India’s biggest and best in class case studies in healthcare delivery. It focused on the strategies that these leaders have adopted in bringing about large-scale change. The session explored the improvisation and customisation that were adopted to meet local demands and plug gaps in the Indian healthcare system. Discussions debated on the scalability and sustainability of these innovations, including techniques that worked and those that can be improved upon for the future. In his speech Kakkar, stated, “India is witnessing an epidemic of heart diseases with about three million deaths per year and with approximately 12 per cent of the population affected. Indians have a higher genetic predisposition to heart disease, affecting people at younger age with greater severity and higher mortality than the West. In India we need to improve on the current routine tests done to identify heart attack.’’
The last plenary session on “Sustainable Innovations and Leveraging Technology” witnessed various speakers discuss how innovations across a spectrum of complementary areas such as technology, payment schemes, and diagnostics have played and continue to play a pivotal role in pushing the goal of sustainable healthcare growth in India.
The panelists included in this session were Vishal Gupta, Vice President, Global Healthcare Solutions, CISCO; Sreenath AV, Vice President – Business Solutions Division, Wipro Limited; Munesh Makhija, Chief Technology Officer, GE Healthcare India and Zeena Johar, President, IKP Centre for Tech.in Public Health.