The Apollo Hospitals Group recently organised twin conferences at Hyderabad: The ‘3rd International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT 2012’ and the ‘2nd International Congress on Patient Safety; Best Practices for Asia’. They were held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, from 31 August-2 September 2012.
| Andhra Pradesh Chief Mimister, Kiran Kumar Reddy addressing the crowd at the twin conference conducted by Apollo in Hyderabad | Dr Pratap Reddy felicitating the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh |
The ‘3rd International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT 2012 was organised to highlight the importance of ICT in reforming healthcare and bring the entire healthcare ecosystem stakeholders on a single platform to participate, propagate and promote the various technology-driven transformational approaches and solutions for creating an equitable, sustainable and quality healthcare system.
Apart from several national speakers, international speakers from from US, Canada, UK, Middle East, Pakistan, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia and Iran shared their personal experiences on how information and communications technology (ICT) is ushering a global revolution in healthcare. The speakers also discussed topics such as e-health initiatives, globalisation of healthcare and Next-Gen telemedicine.
| Sangita Reddy chairing a panel discussion at the conference | Delegates attending the Apollo twin conferences |
The 2nd International Congress on Patient Safety, inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was an endeavour to bring together experts from across the globe for enabling transformation of healthcare with best practices for patient safety. The objective of the Congress was to discuss current developments and provide a forum for interaction between key stakeholders in connection with patient safety. The conference not only saw the presence of national and international speakers from the healthcare sector, but also from other sectors such as hospitality, aviation and banking.
Topics such as ‘Top 10 Best Practices to Prevent Patient Falls’, ‘Patient Safety 365/24/7: Tools, Role of Safety Rounds/Surveys’, ‘?Impact of Laboratory Accreditations on Patient Safety’, etc. were discussed with presentations. A panel discussion on ‘Leveraging IT capabilities to improve healthcare’ outcomes was also held.
Another interesting occurrence was the signing of the ‘Cyberabad declaration’ to transform healthcare using the experiences and expertise of all the stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum.
The twin conferences were very well received, as evidenced by packed halls at the sessions.
| Words of Wisdom |
| “The healthcare sector requires new plans and strategies in all spheres. With medical technological advancement, specialised treatment and services are being developed for healthcare across the world. The need for patient safety is being recognised everywhere, especially developing countries, as awareness about medical errors is increasing. Patient safety programmes and such conclaves involving experts provide food for thought and techniques to provide a conducive environment for healthcare.” – Dr Prathap C Reddy, Executive Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group “I am sure this conference will have lot of benefits, not only to the state but to the entire world. We will have better hospital systems after the conference.” “Some major areas that need to be addressed in the healthcare sector include correct and timely diagnosis, affordability, accessibility and awareness. But one major sphere that gets neglected is patient safety. It is essential to focus on critical issues such as how to deal with an insufficient number of appropriately-trained human resources; non-availability of right equipment and technical know how in application; hospital and community-acquired infections; drug errors and surgical errors.” “I am of the firm belief that technology has the ability to solve many of the problems we face in delivering quality healthcare for people everywhere.” |