Sharing of Health Data of Public and Pvt Hospitals critical to development of Digital Health in India and it can go a long way in forecasting and managing Pandemics: Mahendra Singh Expert Member for Digital Health, WHO Global Digital Health, WHO Geneva

AI, Mobile Technology & Medical Healthcare equipment put forth a tremendous opportunity for Health Care Services

New Delhi, 26th June 2020- PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry jointly with Economic and Trade Mission, Embassy of Israel in India hosted an interactive webinar on "Digital Health: The Future Series II- Bridging the Gap: AI's Role in Combating Inequalities in Health" with august panellists including Mr. Mahendra Singh, Expert Member for Digital Health, AI Health, Telemedicine & Innovation, WHO Global Digital Health, WHO Geneva; Dr. N. Subramanian, Chairman, Health Committee, PHDCCI and Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Mr. Rani Shifron, Founder & Digital Health Specialist, Healthier Globe, Israel, and Dr. Pankaj Gupta, HOD, Digital Health, Access Health International.

Dr. N. Subramanian, Chairman, Health Committee, PHD Chamber & Director,Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in his welcome address highlighted the importance of integrating technology with the healthcare industry. He deliberated that medical devices with the latest technology help to monitor our health and Mobile technology, AI in Medical Health career quipment gives a tremendous opportunity to health care services moving forward. He gave various examples of companies that are evolving themselves in the healthcare industry. The numerous benefits of digital healthcare are
more on reducing cost, more efficient, improving access, and increasing quality care leading to precision medicine.

Dr. Subramanian further added that the rate of Digital Health utilisation in the last 6 months was more than the last 14 years. There were more than 52% medical opinions done on web browsing, more than 72% appointments are given online nowadays. He has mentioned that the most important area of AI is in precision medicine and AI can bring down 60% of investment cost in drug development. He has also mentioned that AI is not only for the predictive health of people but also for the requirement of a health mechanism to tackle the pandemics.

He deliberated about the upcoming healthcare trends that include advances in telemedicine; the internet of things (IOT); computing in health; augmented virtual reality; artificial intelligence (AI); chat-box; data science productive analysis and blockchain. These will contribute to a growing opportunity in the healthcare industry. He has mentioned that developed economies like the US are using 15% of digital health and there is a way to go for countries like India in Digital Solutions in Healthcare

Mr. Mahendra Singh, while emphasizing the importance of Digital Health said,Sharing of Health Data of Public and Private Hospitals critical to development of Digital Health in India and it can go a long way in forecasting and managing Pandemics and added that should be done in framework of the Indian regulations and Data Protection Act. He said the goal is to have accessible and affordable health for all but on the input side we need to have a lot of standardisation and structuring of the data.He further added that for digital healthcare, the need is to have a collaborative approach of all stakeholders and Technology by itself will not be enough to reduce inequalities in healthcare delivery

Mr. Rani Shifron while deliberating on the topic, mentioned that the critical requirement is to create the technologies and quickly take them across the Globe and and the distinct advantage which Digital Health Technologies is concerned is that it does not take too long for it to share and spread. He presented the Digital Health ecosystem in Israel and shared that any such initiative has to have the Will of the Govt to make it a success which is what has happened in Israel

He discussed the need to bring medical technology into the rural area to be able to provide healthcare in remote areas.

He also shared that the best way to collaborate with Israeli companies would be through the Israel India Collaboration body while direct options are also available.

Dr Pankaj Gupta said that during this pandemic, we see the acceleration and the adoption of digital healthcare due to Covid 19 in India and Telemedicine has taken off very well. Technologies that have worked right haveled to better results and are being used clinically starting from remote doctor check-up to other solutions. He mentioned that the data quality and governance are major challenges to the growth of the Industry. He emphasized the need for creating an eco-system for digital health technology by bringing them to the market.

He emphasized the importance of Artificial Intelligence, mobile, cloud in digital health. He deliberated about the work done by Access Health International in promoting digital health.

Mr. Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary-General, PHD Chamber, delivered a formal vote of thanks to all the esteemed panelists and participants. The webinar was moderated by Mr. Vivek Seigell, Principal Director,PHD Chamber with his inputs related to Digital Health and said that this webinar will create opportunities for Indian and Israel companies to work together on this area of Digital Health.

The webinar was sponsored by Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals with Industry
Partners as Voice of Healthcare and Media partners including mHealth
Israel; Crystal Hues; Medgate Today; Drug Today; Pharmatutor and Health Mantra.

Webinar on Digital Health: The Futu Series 1: Telemedicine-Where Do We Stand Today

Industry Thanks the Govt for guidelines on Telemedicine making it Legal while pondering on the Regulatory framework for Telemedicine for International patients.

PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Health Committee organized an interactive video conference of series on "Digital Health: The Future: Telemedicine-Where do We Stand Today" on 29th May 2020.

During the discussions with experts from hospitals, MCI, Industry, academia and the radiology and health insurance experts thanked the Govt for guidelines on Telemedicine making it legal for the doctors in India while demanding the Regulatory framework for Telemedicine for International patients as well. They also opined that with AI under supervision of the Clinicians, Telemedicine can extend health support to the rural patients and we could see 20-25% of healthcare being provided through Telemedicine

The eminent panellists of the webinar wereDr. N. Subramanian, Chairman, Health Committee, PHDCCI & Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Mr. Aditya Berlia, Co-Founder & Pro Chancellor, Apeejay Satya University, Dr. Hans Raj Baweja, Chairman, Ethics Committee, Medical Council of India, Dr. Harsh Mahajan, Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging, Dr. Puneet Girdhar, Sr. Director & Spine Surgeon, BLK Super speciality Hospital, Mr. S K Mehra, Managing Director& CEO, Health Insurance TPA of India.

Dr. N. Subramanian, Chairman, Health Committee, PHDCCI & Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals welcomed all the panellist and said that telemedicine plays a very important role in our lives to reach out to everyone and it is expanding & getting better every year. The risk of NCDs are so high for the treating doctors that the awareness and prevention is the only way to avoid complications where telemedicine and AI play a major role to make the data available and stratifying the risks. It can also manage the algorithms in treating patients with high risk demographics where the Government has the access to real time data and the changing patterns of the disease. Dr. Subramanian advised young practitioners who are keen to adopt the telemedicine technology that it is very important to have certain amount of discipline and they should establish a relationship and trust with the patients esp. for incase of Telemedicine.

Dr Harsh Mahajan, Founder & Managing Director, Mahajan Imagingwhile briefing about the tele-radiology said that the computing and internet availability improves exponentially the effectiveness of Telemedicine as also reduces the cost drastically of healthcare delivery. He said we will be able to serve the underprivileged sections of the society and remote areas through Telemedicine. He further said that with the advent of Corona, telemedicine has become the necessity where technology helped us a lot to fight this crisis. He also told that telemedicine and AImake work easierand it will become indispensable in coming years but it has to be under supervision of a clinician. Answering to one of the questions from audience, Dr. Mahajan said that telemedicine is here to grow exponentially and serve the multiple purpose like diagnosis, training, education and serve the agenda of preventive measurement. He further added that apart from teleradiology, telemedicine can be used in digital pathology, dermatology, ophthalmology and many other segments.

Mr. AdityaBerlia, Co-Founder & Pro Chancellor, Apeejay Satya University said that the doctor to patient ration in urban area is around 1:10,000 and in rural area it is worst at 1:30,00,00 and this is a worldwide scenario. The Covid-19 has changed the patient & doctor psychology at large and 20-25% medical system will move to telemedicine in coming years. He also said that Covid 19 had given a massive boost to telemedicine and there is an urgent intervention needed from the regulatory part as there is a problem with the data collection part. He further added that in next one year there will be a tremendous use of telemedicine for quick follow-up consultations, consultations by patients who panic and 2^nd opinion consultations for referral patients and if we are able to do this then it is a phenomenal achievement.

Dr. Hans Raj Baweja, Chairman, Ethics Committee, Medical Council of India said that there were lot of legal limitations we faced before Covid era as telemedicine is existing and practiced in other countries but never recognised in India. Its only due to this Corona pandemic on 25^th March 2020 the telemedicine guidelines were finalised which says that every doctor in India can go on telemedicine platform in India. Explaining the key points of telemedicine guidelines, like mandatory patient consent, mandatory patient identity as it is difficult to identify the patient in audio consultations, taking of history & entering all the details in the prescription, Dr. Baweja said that it is mandatory for doctors also to introduce themselves at the time of consultation and only generic medicines should be prescribed.

Dr. Puneet Girdhar, Sr. Director & Spine Surgeon, BLK Super speciality Hospitalsaid that in the past everyone knew about telemedicine but due to legal limitations, patient psychology and other complications very few were using it and now with the Corona Virus hitting changed even hospitals have come up with their individual telemedicine apps.

Mr. S.K. Mehra, Managing Director & CEO Health Insurance TPA of India said that there’s huge demand of Telemedicine among doctors in coming years. He said this is the right time to start and set some protocols & regulations, which will also help in the expansion of the Telemedicine. He said this concept will certainly help the senior citizens, where they require general consultation or normal follow up for the medicine. Mr. Mehra also explained about the existing insurance policies and the important aspects of telemedicine consultation coverage in the insurance.

While moderating the sessionDr. Deep Goel, Senior Director, Dr. B L Kapur Memorial Hospital said that the mother earth is under repair and the social distancing will be the new normal in coming times.

Mr Vivek Seigell, Principal Director Health, PHD Chamber who moderated the session with Dr Deep Goel said that the recommendations and details of the discussions held will be sent to NITI AAYOG as policy inputs on various aspects of Telemedicine esp. for the consulting for International Patients.

Dr. Subramanian, Chairman, Health Committee, PHDCCI gave the Vote of Thanks and the webinar was attended by more than 100 delegates.