New Zealand and India may join hands to deal with healthcare issues such as diabetes and remote medical care, informed Gavin Young, New Zealand Consul General and Trade Commissioner to Mumbai. Speaking from Apollo Hospital’s ‘Transforming Healthcare with IT’ event in Hyderabad, Young revealed that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of diabetes among developed countries, and drew attention to the causes and prevention of the disease.
India has the world’s largest diabetes population, according to the World Diabetes Foundation, with over 50.8 million people living with diabetes. “To try to address the disease, New Zealand has many companies specialising in preventing and supporting the treatment of diabetes and related complications,” says Young.
Already several Indian and New Zealand firms are working together towards enhancing healthcare and its services in the country. Orion, a New Zealand firm has worked with the public health system using decades of data on the best treatments for diabetes and has included this in an advisory programme for doctors dealing with diabetic patients. New Zealand could also assist with remote medical care. Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Centre in New Delhi has collaborated with New Zealand’s Medtech Global, a company specialising in the digitisation of patient records, to transform their information management systems and provide remote medical services. New Zealand firm SIMTICS has partnered with MedVarsity, a medical e-learning initiative by Apollo Hospital Group to train highly-skilled surgeons.
EH News Bureau