New Delhi: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday (April 18) highlighted India’s democratisation in digital health solutions and said that the country believes in promoting a culture of Global Public Goods.
India believes in democratised access to all digital health solutions, promoting a culture of Global Public Goods, Dr. Mandaviya said while delivering an inaugural address at a side event of the 2nd G20 Health Working Group Meeting here.
The Minister added that the side event will explore the transformative potential of digital health and innovations that can help achieve Universal Health Coverage, stated a release from the government.
The event on Citizen-centric Health Delivery Ecosystems for Universal Health Coverage Leveraging Digital Health and Innovations commenced on Tuesday.
The event was inaugurated in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar.
Giving several examples of digital interventions that were used for the benefit of our citizens, Dr Mandaviya noted how data-driven insights were leveraged to guide COVID management in the country and simultaneously enabled healthcare service delivery through digital means during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Similarly, he noted how the largest government-funded health insurance scheme in the world, PM-JAY was providing secondary and tertiary care services to 500 million Indian citizens in a paperless and cashless manner.
Dr. Mandaviya urged stakeholders to collaborate towards enhancing Digital Public Infrastructure and Digital Public Goods through Global Initiative on Digital Health, focusing on creating a comprehensive digital health ecosystem.
He expressed India’s willingness to provide technical support and bridge the digital divide, promoting the use of technology in health service delivery globally.
To break the silos of data, India is moving from an ‘Ego-system approach’ to an ‘Eco-system’ approach in digital health, thus focusing on creating a comprehensive digital health ecosystem, he added.
Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar noted India’s journey to becoming a digitally empowered nation and the need for digital health ecosystems for patient-centric healthcare services. She highlighted India’s collaboration with WHO to achieve the objectives envisioned under Global Strategy on Digital Health and its work towards promoting Digital Public Goods with a specific focus on Global South.
The core of India’s healthcare ideology lies in digital interventions that re-align conventional healthcare practices towards supporting the principle of patient-centricity at every level, she said.
The inaugural session was followed by a panel discussion on creating a harmonized global digital health ecosystem, focusing on using digital public goods to unlock the full potential of digital technology and curbing the digital divide.
CEO, National Health Authority, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare S. Gopalakrishnan set the context for the session.
The event was attended by senior officers of the Union Government, representatives from G20 member countries, invitee countries, international organizations, and development partners.
The speakers highlighted the need to shift towards a citizen-centric healthcare system, integrating holistic healthcare models, and using IT backbones to support Traditional Medicine.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
