Experts explored opportunities in healthcare at Healthcare Senate 2017

The discussions revolved around tackling challenges and building a better healthcare delivery system by adopting positive attitudes, recognising talent and bringing in cost efficiencies without compromising on quality

After a fruitful first day, Healthcare Senate 2017, on its second day, continued with meaningful dialogues and discussions on issues and aspects which would shape the future of healthcare delivery in India.

The day commenced with ‘The Corporate Challenge’, a quiz to tickle the neurons of the delegates. Following which, Dr Nupur Kohli, Healthcare Adviser, Netherlands who is also a TedX speaker, delivered the keynote address. Drawing comparisons between nations, majorly Netherlands, she highlighted the current challenges in India’s healthcare delivery system and shared learnings from global experiences which can be incorporated in the current healthcare system. She also shed light on the opportunities waiting to be explored, which will bring about a positive transformation in the healthcare industry.

Next, the audience saw an insightful session on digital banking solutions for hospitals by Ashish Kohli, Regional Business Planning Manager India & South Asia; Murali Krishnan, Director, Transaction Banking and Aditi Sardesai, Standard Chartered Bank. They also emphasised on the need for hospitals to go down the digital route to become truly future ready.

Subsequetly, Sumit Marwah, CEO & Director, Dispoline Inprev addressed the audience on rethinking solutions to prevent infection and tackling AMR, a growing global concern. He expounded on various ways to devise effective strategies to tackle it.

The day also saw some thought-provoking panel discussions by esteemed industry experts. The first discussion was on ensuring cost efficiencies within capital intensive department. The panel comprised Dr Bhavin Jankharia, Partner and Consultant at Picture; Dr Vidur Mahajan, Executive Director, Mahajan Imaging; Dr Biren Chauhan, Group Centre Head, Sunshine Global Hospitals; and Dr Sandeep  Chatrath, Regional Chief Executive Officer, Andhra Pradesh & Telengana, Apollo Hospitals.

The experts informed that healthcare in general is becoming quite capital-intensive. which in turn is leading to rising costs for treatment. Thye pointed out that though technology is a means to make healthcare delivery affordable, at the moment it is adding to the cost. Further, they highlighted various ways to increase revenue through volumes to attain profitability without hampering quality.

After discussing strategies to improve cost efficiency, the next panel discussion, ‘People first’ delved into understanding various strategies and deliberated on techniques that will lead organisations to empower their workforce and make them future ready. The panel included Dr Alexander Thomas, Chairman, AHPI; Zoya Brar, CMD Founder, Core Diagnostics; Dr Abhijit Sinha Roy,  Medical Director, Westminster Healthcare; Col Binu Sharma, VP, Nursing Columbia Asia Hospital & President, INS India; Soumya Kanti Purkayastha, Chief Executive, Berkeley HealthEDU. The experts were unanimous in their view that people are the backbone of any healthy organisation and emphasised on the importance of recruiting and retaining talent along with upgrading their skills. They reiterated that trust and dialogue among are the pillar stones to success in healthcare.

Post the insightful discussions, the delegates congregated for a power-packed awards night. Best practices and innovation in healthcare delivery ere recognised through Best Hospital Pharmacy Citations, presented by Glenmark. The game changers and visionaries of private healthcare in India were honoured with Express Healthcare Excellence Awards. After the awards, the delegates and winners continued the celebrations over the gala dinner.