India Well Positioned to Give Exemplary Digital Health Solutions

Immediately following the 4th Summit of Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India along with WHO and George Institute for Global Health, organized the International Digital Health Symposium and Exhibition in New Delhi yesterday. Anup Wadhawan, Secretary- Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GoI, brought together about 35 experts from across the country representing leading hospital groups, diagnostic labs, medical technology companies, healthcare IT companies and health insurers. The participants discussed in detail important aspects of mainstreaming PPPs in Digital Health to address the challenges of our health system. The Industry Roundtable on ‘Enabling Environment for PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) in Digital Health’ was organized by FICCI.

With the underlying note that PPPs should aim to harness the strengths and equitably distribute risks of the partners, Anup Wadhawan stated that India is very well positioned to give the world exemplary digital health solutions through PPPs, especially when India has launched the world’s largest healthcare program- Ayushman Bharat. But it is possible only with accountable and outcome-oriented models of engagement.” He further added that Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in digital health have already started addressing many key challenges, therefore, a platform must be established to continue and strengthen dialogues and engagement between the government and the private sector, keeping patients at the center of such discussions. The government has acknowledged health information as one of the key dimensions of the health systems and has launched several initiatives in the field of Digital Health, including notification of EHR standards (in 2013; revised in 2016), National eHealth Authority (NeHA), Integrated Health Information Program (IHIP)and more recently National Health Stack (NHS). – Business Standard