Sweden India health talks – Hon’ble Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to attend the inaugural session of the series of events under Nobel Memorial Week 2020 – Celebration of Healthcare Innovation Centre, Announcement of Winners of Healthcare Innovation Challenge; Launch of Centre of Excellence of Oncology; Discussions on Infection Control, Oncology and Health Startups .
1st December, New Delhi: As part of the high-level Sweden India Nobel Memorial Programme 2020, a series of virtual events will take place under ‘Sweden India Health Talks’. Hon’ble Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan will attend the inaugural session, which celebrates the one-year anniversary of the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre.
Mr KlasMolin, Ambassador of Sweden to India, said, “Sweden and India enjoy excellent cooperation under the MoU of Health Care and Public Health. The India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre was launched in December 2019 during the State Visit of Their Majesties, the King and Queen of Sweden to India, in presence of India’s Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.”
“With today’s event, we inaugurate the series of Health Talks on important areas of collaboration between our countries. More discussions are planned during the forthcoming India-Sweden Joint Working Group meeting this month in areas like Digital Health and Elderly Care which directly relate to the current pandemic,” the Ambassador added.
The Health Talks are organized in partnership with Team Sweden – Ministry of Health & Social Welfare of Sweden, Embassy of Sweden and Consulate General of Sweden in Mumbai, Swecare, Business Sweden and Swedish Chamber of Commerce India.
Events under Health Talks:
December 2: Launch of the Centre of Excellence in Oncology
This inaugural session celebrates one year of the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre and will witness the announcement of the winners of the Health Innovation Challenge. During the program there will also be a launch of the Centre of Excellence in Oncology being developed under the Centre at AIIMS Jodhpur.
December 10: Session on Infection Control
In connection with the 10 years celebration of the MoU the area of infection prevention, antibiotic resistance and Hospital Associated Infections were again identified as one of the most important and prioritized ones. In this session we would like to dig deeper into issues related to Hospital Associated Infections. In the challenging time of the pandemic we need to share experience and strategies on how to ease the burden on the health systems and fight infections that can be prevented.
The second session of Sweden-India Health Talks is on Infection Control. The aim is to have a discussion on Hospital-acquired infections (HAI’s and how the pandemic has created challenges and opportunities). This will be done by bringing learning cases and best practices from Sweden to India and at the same time share learnings in India with the Swedish system.
December 11: session on Oncology
As per an ICMR report, currently there are 13.9 lakh cancer cases in India. These, these are likely to increase 12% in the next five years. Cancer is also one of the top five causes of adult death in India. This is primarily owing to lack of awareness about disease, poor access to timely diagnostic services, paucity of requisite manpower/skills etc.
The third session on Oncology aims at improving on existing models of care by discussing the following two areas – reinforcing screening and awareness drives at grass root levels for early diagnosis and initiatives to ease access to care and improve patient outcomes
December 15: ‘Innovation Eco-system in Healthcare’
The last session of the series is on ‘Innovation Eco-system in Healthcare’ and will take into account experiences of various healthcare start-ups at different stages of their business cycle and list a broad set of challenges faced by them. Furthermore, best business practices will also be shared on these broad set of challenges.
About India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre:
The India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre was launched in 2019 during the State Visit of Their Majesties, the King and Queen of Sweden to India, in presence of the Indian Ministers of Health and the Secretary of Health from the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs among other dignitaries. It has been formed to develop a cross-country ecosystem of open innovation that start-ups and healthcare stakeholders can use to collaborate and address current and future challenges in the healthcare sector.
This initiative takes a holistic view of innovation that includes technology, data, protocols and processes, skill development and business models to scale up outcome-based innovative solutions across healthcare delivery network.
About Sweden India MoU on Health:
Between the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in Sweden and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India there is a MoU since 2009 aiming to promote bilateral cooperation in the area of health care and public health, with a particular focus on 12 identified areas of mutual interest. Since the signing of the MoU, the Swedish and Indian health ministers and a number of high-level officials have had exchange visits between the two countries. The Joint Working Group for coordination of activities under the MoU has so far met six times to discuss prioritized areas of mutual interest and its implementation.
