Apollo Hospitals International Health Dialogue brings over 3,000 delegates together from across the world in the City of Pearls

Experts debate and discuss solutions to global healthcare challenges

Over 2500 delegates from 120 countries attended the eight edition of the International Patient Safety Conference (IPSC) and the ninth edition of the International Transforming Healthcare with IT (THIT) conference in Hyderabad recently. The twin conferences were held under the aegis of the Apollo Hospitals Group’s International Health Dialogue, a platform that brings together international hospital leaders, medical and information technology companies, and public policy makers to debate and discuss solutions to global challenges in healthcare.

Inaugurating the conferences, Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “It has always been our vision to bring the best of world-class healthcare for the benefits of patients in India, and over the decades we have successfully been at the forefront of ensuring healthcare that is comparable to the best globally for our patients. At the same time, it is important to build a model of global collaboration with a platform where healthcare stakeholders from all over the world can come together for healthy dialogue and discussions, share best practices and exchange ideas and experiences. The International Health Dialogue is such a platform and we look forward to more such conferences in the future to ensure that we are prepared for the changing face of disease with the rising ‘tsunami’ of non-communicable diseases or NCDs. With modern technology and AI taking centre place, we need to keep abreast of the latest developments and ways to harness it for delivering the best of healthcare services to patients. At the same time, we must not lose sight of patient safety, which is an important factor affecting healthcare outcomes. I am thankful to the Government of Telangana for their support in this important mission.”

The IPSC is a not-for-profit initiative, which addresses critical issues in patient safety with global experts discussing the role of proactive practices and streamlined systems in improving patient safety. The 9th THIT organised by the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation and Apollo Hospitals Group had over 50 eminent speakers from India and abroad who participated in interactive sessions, educational programmes, and a trade exhibition showcasing the latest products, technology, services and industry information.

With sessions based on this year’s theme of ‘Imagine, Innovate, Inspire’, IPSC provided an opportunity to learn from patient safety and quality experts from across the world. The discussions at the conference ranged from debates on technology versus touch; the healthcare workforce of the future; overall patient safety aspects including infection
control, medication management, radiation safety to facility safety and accreditations.

Reportedly, THIT had over 500 decision-makers from 10 countries in the nascent healthcare and IT industry, comprising leading IT companies and leading healthcare institutions in attendance. National organisations like the Indian Medical Association, Telemedicine Society of India, Computer Society of India, Indian Association for Medical Informatics and several government organisations also participated in the event.

The occasion also saw the national launch of preview of AI CVD Risk Score developed in joint collaboration by Apollo Hospitals and Microsoft India. As part of Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare initiative, Microsoft India and Apollo Hospitals Group have set up a National Clinical Coordination Committee (NCCC) for the Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score, consisting of leading doctors from Apollo Hospitals; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.

The AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score API is an Intelligent Platform that can predict cardiovascular disease risk score in the Indian population. With over 2,00,000 people screened using the AI-driven API on Microsoft Azure across Apollo Hospitals over the last one year, the platform has been successful in allowing physicians to predict the risk score of patients 5-7 years in advance. With the national launch of the platform, doctors across the Apollo network of hospitals as well as doctors in other leading Indian hospitals will be able to access and leverage this AI-powered API to predict risk of CVD and drive preventive cardiac care in patients across the country.

One of the panel discussions in the plenary session on day 2 focussed on ‘The media effect- what patients want’. Dr K Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Hospitals moderated the discussion between the panel members consisting of Sharad Malhotra, Actor Performer, Dr Ratna Devi, Chair- International Alliance of Patient Organisations, Founder, Indian Alliance of Patient Groups, Sriram Karri, Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle Holdings and Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Healthcare. Each member shared their perspectives. While Malhotra spoke about his realisation that he was more than an actor but a role model and would strive to live up to this responsibility, Karri spoke about balancing priorities in a mainline publication when it came to health news. Roychowdhury said the media is a reflection of society and therefore would need to be a watch dog and report on industry practices as well as a bridge to build trust between the various stakeholders. Dr Devi emphasised that the patient’s needs should be central to such discussions.