Noted corporate denizens such as Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, and the President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industries, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive ChairpersonBiocon Limited, and Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Chairman & CEO – IKP Knowledge Park participated in the webinar. Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE Hub, Government of Telangana's state-led incubator for women moderated the conversation.
Said Usharani Manne, Chairperson, FICCI FLO, Hyderabad chapter, Founder-Director, Polmon Instruments Pvt. Ltd. “We are delighted to have gotten the opportunity to host illustrious speakers such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sangita Reddy, and Deepanwita Chattopadhyay. It was enlightening to hear from them, the challenges and learnings from the current crisis, and how they provide a critical opportunity for us to understand the underpinnings of a large-scale transformative change in our healthcare industry. Coming to our Social Outreach efforts, the Agri-empowerment team had a fruitful meeting with about 200 women of the Farmer
Producer Organizations of Anantagiri & Ramalingeswara Millet Farmers Association at Mominpet village, Vikarabad district. The District Rural Development Officer, District Project Managers and Mandal Praja Parishad members were also present. Through our extended interaction, we understood their activities and training needs. We are already working on a blueprint to address their requirements as well as to help them become more self-sufficient in identifying and seizing new livelihood opportunities.”
Speaking about clinical trials and why we need them in India, today, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, “For India, it presents a great opportunity. But it requires meticulous attention to detail. It's a huge job creator, value driver, and leads to innovation at the end of it. Because it creates a very strong experimental environment and ecosystem in India so that you can start conducting clinical trials on new molecules, drugs, or new therapies, new regimens. This is how we can become a very innovative country. I think what we need to focus on is the clinical research part of it. People must be interested in researching new concepts, new therapies, and new drugs; then you will create an explosion of new ideas and translational research, so I hope that we can leverage this. Today, we are talking about developing new vaccines, about developing new therapies, about plasma therapy, we need to do all of that, in a very stringent research mode. It's about understanding the science and the regulatory science aspect of how we are doing clinical research. “
Talking about how important it is to integrate technology into healthcare, Sangita Reddy said, “The power of technology is that it can help us optimize our processes, enable access, collate and synthesize Knowledge so that the application of that Knowledge can be replicable. It deeply impacts the three significant tenets of healthcare, which is — accessible healthcare for everyone, quality healthcare, and affordable healthcare. If we merge and use technology in the right manner, we can make a significant difference. However, technology is not the single panacea; right now, telemedicine exists, yet there are examples where it is not accessible. There is no reason why every primary healthcare system in this country should not have a telemedicine facility. We have many successes on one side, – both private and Government healthcare is doing amazing work, we have talented Indian physicians with the right skill-set, capability, learning, and Knowledge. However, there is a need to strengthen Primary Health Care; we need to incorporate technology into it, create a standard-base across the country. Another important point that is critical for India's healthcare sector is the manpower resources and indigenous manufacturing. We need to further bring down our material costs, strengthen our pharmaceutical capabilities, and finally evolve all this into a win-win system.”
Speaking about how start-ups in healthcare are playing a key role, Deepanwita said, “Knowledge in one domain does not necessarily give a solution for complex problems. Medical start-ups need to appreciate this fact. Many a time, I see start-ups, engineers are working in domains like healthcare without any clinician on board. We need a convergence of expertise, Knowledge and we need teams that can deliver. These kinds of networks, and interconnectedness, is extremely important. Our role as science parks or incubators is to bring these elements together. This is the way start-ups can deliver. They need to learn from peers, mentors, experts in multiple domains. It's all about working together.”
