India
The Primary Care Innovator's Handbook is an attempt to share knowledge between innovators in an open and informal way, and to encourage more conversations of this style among the community of innovators working to improve primary care.
Database at a Glances present cross-sections of the CHMI database to underscore trends our programs database is uncovering in countries where the private sector delivers the majority of health care. This Database at a Glance analyses trends in India.
Low cost healthcare delivery (LCHD) has progressed considerably in India. National Rural Health
Mission’s (NRHM) reforms have led to improvements in key health indicators such as institutional
deliveries, out-patient cases, complete immunization, availability of diagnostic and family welfare services
and disease control programmes. However, the country’s healthcare market continues to face challenges
of affordability, availability, and quality. Also, pertinent questions still persist:
In India, many private sector organisations are experimenting and innovating to ensure low-cost maternal and child healthcare services of high quality. there is a growing interest, around the world, in the new practices being developed by these organisations. In this compendium, ACCESS Health International has identified and documented some of these organisations and their successful interventions.
It is evident that innovative steps have been taken to shape the future health status of the population in Andhra Pradesh. The State Government has the last couple of years taken several new approaches to improve the access to quality health care. International organizations like the World Bank, European Commission and the Department for International Development (DFID) have a history of supporting reform initiatives within the health sector in Andhra Pradesh.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has a long- standing reputation for excellence and innovation within the global pharmaceutical industry. Not only has GSK been a leader in traditional pharmaceutical markets, but CEO Sir Andrew Witty clearly acknowledges that the future growth of the firm and the industry lies more with increasing emerging market customer bases and sales rather than continued reliance on “blockbuster” drugs.
When the Institute for Rural Health Studies (IRHS) started its work, “Health for All in the Year 2000” was a very popular slogan but how it translated into action was ill‐understood. Rural health needs were not well understood and yet at that time more than 80 percent of the population lived in rural areas. Little interdisciplinary research existed. IRHS was established to do research on the agricultural and socio-‐economic determinants of health and nutrition with the view of helping improve rural health.
HCG Enterprises is the Largest Cancer Care Network in South Asia with 15 centers across India and Sri Lanka. It treats 28,000 new patients every year. It is a successful physician-led initiative with over 350 doctors being empaneled as partners.
The Christian Mission hospital or “Masiha Aspatal” situated in Chamba (6000 square feet above sea-‐level) is the only private hospital with surgical facilities and full time surgeon for Tehri Garhwal district and also for the neighbouring district (Uttarakashi) and parts of other neighbouring district.
The Christian Medical College, Vellore (CMC) began as one of the several mission hospitals located all over the country in the beginning of 20th century offering primary healthcare. Today with over 2,500 beds and many achievements, it is the beacon of medical education, research and patient care in India.
Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya is situated in Chitrakoot, a remote area bordering Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh characterized by a lack of health care providers. Despite this, Sadguru Netra Chikitsalava performs the highest number of eye surgeries in the country. The unique aspect of this hospital model is that even though 50 percent of its services are provided at free or subsidized rates, the hospital is viable and able to sustain its growth.
Dr.Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre (DMDSC) is one of India’s leading diabetes care providers offering comprehensive diabetic services. The unique selling point of DMDSC is “Total diabetes care under one roof” which treats all the problems related to diabetes that result in blindness, kidney disease, heart attacks and amputations. DMDSC was started with the purpose of providing state of the art, efficient and comprehensive care at affordable costs. DMDSC is now treating around 100,000 patients a year in seven facilities in Southern India.
Founded in 1993 as a shelter and transit home for homeless mentally ill women, ‘The Banyan’ is an organization that cares for mentally ill women who have wandered from their homes across the country and ended up in the streets of Chennai, India. It germinated out of the conviction that even the homeless mentally ill have a right to timely treatment and a chance to a better future. It provides these women with a safe shelter, care, medical attention, and a supportive environment to enable them to recover and to take responsibility for their lives again.
CARE Hospitals (CARE), was founded in 1997 by a group of physicians, chaired by Dr. Soma Raju, who worked at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), a public medical school in Hyderabad (India) for approximately ten years.
In 1999 Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation (ATNF) was established by Apollo group as a registered not-for-profit organization. The foundation specializes in giving remote consultation and second opinion to both patients and doctors, for whom due to distance and spiralling costs, access to quality health care is difficult. Tele-camps enable a specialist to see several patients one after another.
The Vivus group has partnered with Klenzaids and GE OEC Medical Systems to start the mobile cath lab, a first of its kind in Asia. The concept is practiced in developing nations which has proved to be successful in provision of cardiac care to the door steps of the rural communities. Vivus group officially launched the Mobile Cath Lab services in August 2005 in Kolar District (67 kms from Bangalore) and extended them to other nearby districts in a phased manner. According to Dr. S.
The Remote Medical Diagnostics (ReMeDi) Medical Data Acquisition Unit (MDAU) offered by Neurosynaptic Communications is an indigenous technology, developed jointly with the TeNeT group of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai which facilitates remote diagnosis by allowing transmission of various vital parameters about the patient to a doctor that are needed to make a decision on the preliminary diagnosis.
