1^st 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.

The post Sweden India health talks – Hon’ble Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan  to attend the inaugural session appeared first on Health Vision.

New Delhi, September 28, 2020: Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Government of India launched the vaccine portal for COVID-19 and National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 today developed by ICMR. Dr. Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR and other dignitaries from ICMR were present at the inauguration ceremony.

Releasing these 2 web portals, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India said “ICMR has always been in the forefront of health research in the country and is now leading the country in tackling the unprecedented pandemic through scientific rigour and innovation. To disseminate the vaccine related information the exclusive portal will be helpful in creating awareness among the masses. I hope all query of common people on vaccine development process would be addressed through this portal and I am confident it will become most visited portal in times to come.”

Hon’ble Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also launched the National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 developed by ICMR. This registry will collect systematic data on clinical signs & symptoms, laboratory investigations, management protocols, clinical course of COVID-19 disease, disease spectrum and outcomes of patients. The data will serve as an invaluable tool for formulating appropriate patient management strategies, predicting disease severity, patient outcomes etc.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India added that, “The portal on National Clinical Registry for COVID-19 developed by ICMR will be immensely useful. The registry will aim at collecting good quality real time clinical data to inform evidence-based clinical practice, research, formulating guidelines and policy making.”

The vaccine portal consists of all the information regarding the Indian efforts towards vaccine development against various diseases including the most recent COVID-19. Interested people can visit the website on https://vaccine.icmr.org.in to get latest information on vaccine development.

The post Dedicated Vaccine Portal and National Clinical Registry of COVID-19 launched appeared first on Health Vision.

New Delhi July 15 2020: Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has refused to give a deadline for the development and production of a vaccine for corona virus as the worldwide pandemic rages on. However, he has maintained that community transmission of the infection is yet to begin in India.

“The rising number of cases is a matter of concern but it is not alarming. Judge it by any parameter, we have done far better than the rest of the world,” he told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “There is no data to prove that community transmission has started in India yet. I can say with confidence that community transmission hasn’t begun,” he said, adding that he cannot give a specific timeline or deadline for a vaccine.

“I can assure the country that our scientists, drug companies and the ICMR are working sincerely towards a vaccine, it is very difficult to give a timeline as of now,” he said. “In terms of treatment, we have looked at all possible options and we are doing the best we can. All the drugs that are available to the world are also available in our country.”

Vardhan said that if more testing is conducted, more and more patients will be picked up at an earliest possible stage and isolated, which will “drop the mortality rate and the risk of spread of the infection”. The minister had said that early detection of Covid-19 cases through widespread testing, surveillance and clinical management has resulted in India having one of the lowest fatality rate at 2.66%.

The post Health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan assures no community spread in India Yet appeared first on Health Vision.