Summary Blogpost: Heal-thy SAMVAD (Special reference to India & Nigeria)

Summary Blogpost: Heal-thy SAMVAD

(Special reference to India & Nigeria) 

Great Moments,

We recently attended the Heal-thy SAMVAD jointly organised by Heal Foundation and Healthcare Continuum, held at Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia Delhi, and were delighted to find the development and synergy growing in the healthcare ecosystem.

Heal-thy SAMVAD is an initiative aimed to have periodical interactions among healthcare experts bringing Institutional Stakeholders, Policy Advisors, Researchers, and Subject Matter Experts on one platform to deliberate and bring out implementable patient-centric public health delivery pathways.

Key pointers of Heal-Thy SAMVAD can be summarized as global collaborative initiatives in sync with healthcare priorities such as Communicable Diseases, Global South healthcare imperatives (special focus on Nigeria), One Health, and Policies & Regulations. 

Heal-Thy SAMVAD First Session

Health Advocacy Across Borders: Synergizing Global and Local Endeavours.

It was chaired by Dr. R.K. Srivastava, Ex-Chairman, MCI and Ex-Director General, DGHS, GoI, with esteemed panel members Dr. Urvashi Prasad, Director, Office of VC, Niti Aayog, Dr. Zoya Ali Rizvi, Dy. Commissioner, MoHFW, GoI and Mr. Vivek Seigell, SVP-Corporate Affairs, Apeejay Stya & Svran Group, Public Policy Expert for Business and Economic Growth.

Key deliberations pointers:

World TB Day, Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan 2025, Learning from Proactive Indian TB Elimination Approach (5 years ahead of UN SDG 2023 Target) and its implications for the early global realisation of UN SDG TB elimination goal 2030.

·  The Indian government, MoHFW, and other departments have been coordinating in tandem to achieve the goal of eradicating Tuberculosis by 2025.

·   As it is an ambitious goal, govt departments have been mobilizing, and accelerating resource optimization to realise it.

·       Some socio-medico obstacles still exist like social stigma, malnutrition etc.

·       Government, private players, and NGOs have been collaborating seamlessly.

·    Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), and Niti Aayog have been putting in their best collaborative efforts for the same.

·  Medications/ therapies and supply chain efficiency are being coordinated to ensure last mile outreach of Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan 2025.

·   The pandemic necessitated and reinforced the need for a coordinated and collaborative approach to meet and mitigate health challenges and emergencies.

·    The technological innovation and adoption must fasten the diagnosis process for speedy and quality outcomes. Telemedicine, tele-radiology, tele-diagnosis etc., have delivered a lot.

·    Global Health Diplomacy is amplifying and proving impactful in various ways. Some way forwards are:

o   Voice of Global South must be heard

o   Sharpen the focus on global public health, food & nutrition

·     The National Adolescent Health Scheme is one of its kind and visionary policy innovation in India that recommends investment in the workforce, parents and leaders of tomorrow. India is a pioneer country to take the lead in such initiatives which could be globally adopted and scaled.

·  The health of adolescents is a key determinant of India’s overall health, mortality, morbidity and population growth. Hence, such a focused scheme will yield dividends in terms of delaying marriage age, reducing incidences of teenage pregnancy, maternal mortality, STI and HIV prevalence, and ultimately it will help in realizing the maximum potential of India’s demographic dividends.

·      Healthy adolescents are vital for economic progress.

· Health Advocacy and Diplomacy are the key drivers for continuous improvement in global health delivery.

·   Indian presidency of G20 summit, 2023 witnessed innovative initiatives (like Global South, GIDH etc.) aimed at collaborative endeavours for global health policies and outcomes. 

Heal-Thy SAMVAD Second Session

Health Diplomacy: Global Healthcare Collaborative Outreach and Partnership with invited Global South Country-Nigeria

 

It was chaired by Dr. Rajiv Chhibber, VP-External Affairs, SMT, Jt. Co-ordinator, Govt & Public Affairs, AiMeD, Member-FICCI & CII, with esteemed panel members Dr. Ravi Gaur, Founder & Director, Path Labs (UNI DRG Speciality Laboratory-LLP) Group Member of FICCI Healthcare, CII Chair Health & Wellness, Member -ASSOCHAM, Mr. Jatin Mahajan, Managing Director, J. Mitra & Co. Pvt Ltd., President, IVD-AiMeD, Mr. Atantra Das Gupta, Sr. Director, South West Asia Head, Samsung HME, Co-Chair, Medical Device Committee, PHDCCI, Mr. Ishan Pandita, Additional Director, FICCI, Mr. Abubakar Musa, President, Arewa Student Association in India, and Mr. Diwesh Kumar Mishra, CMD, Donias Megalink Limited, Nigeria, Managing Partner-Pravasi Samvad, Africa.

 Key Pointers:

Nigeria and India have a lot of socio-economic-demographic similarities and Indian Healthcare experience and learning could offer good and customized solutions for Nigerian Healthcare priorities.

·       India and Nigeria have a cultural and trade history of more than 100 years.

·      Nigeria is the most populous, rapidly developing, 3^rd Largest African economy of $400 Bn GDP, and a key Global South leader.

·  Healthcare’s AAA- Accessibility, Affordability, and Availability are key elements of the shared healthcare vision of both India and Nigeria

·    Diagnostics, the first point of care delivery needs infrastructural support and accessibility, which is a core improvement area of both countries.

· The pandemic has necessitated collaboration among IT, Research, Infrastructure, Diagnostic, Medical and MedTech experts and public healthcare stakeholders.

·    Collaboration in terms of expertise delivery from India can plug the healthcare gap areas in Nigeria

·     Digital Health is the subset of Healthcare Infrastructure, Indian healthcare advancement in HealthTech, m-health, telemedicine, ABDM etc., can help Nigeria to deliver the last mile healthcare.

·   Nigeria has a well-enriched Indian diaspora of teachers, doctors, and skilled healthcare experts, which could be further strengthened by collaborative and engagement endeavours across healthcare delivery.

·      India and Nigeria have similar Tech Adoption pattern

·    Research synergy and transfer of technology are institutional requisites of Global South.

·    India offers holistic healthcare for MVT patients. Nigeria has responded well to GoI MVT endeavours- Heal in India & Heal by India for critical, advanced, and affordable medical treatment.

·   The panel also articulated and emphasized over Nigeria’s greater participation in BRICS, Global South and WTO. Further the need for harmonization of global standards at the national level in Nigeria.

·     Indian healthcare technologies are available for the Global South and could be leveraged to deliver better healthcare.

·Communicable disease prevalence, mass immunization program implementation experience and efficacious vaccines could be other areas of collaborative healthcare.

We hope this summary blogpost will create awareness for collaborative exchange and way forward aimed at better healthcare deliveries and outcomes across the Global South.

 

Summarized by,

Editor,

GlobalSouth Healthcare Journal

9VOM Publishing,

India