NRN bats for innovation in healthcare Infosys Executive Chairman and IT czar N R Narayana Murthy said barriers to affordable and quality healthcare can be overcome with political and social will and innovations in the field of medicine. Delivering an address during the St John’s Medical College golden jubilee celebrations on Friday, Murthy cited statistics from the 60th National Sample Survey to emphasise the problem of affordability. “In Bangalore, more than 20 per cent of ailments go untreated because of the lack of financial ability to pay doctors. Nationally, 28 per cent of all ailments go untreated due to this factor,” said Murthy, who also chairs the governing body of the Public Health Foundation of India. On the access front, Murthy said there was an “enormous divide” between rural and urban healthcare. “People in rural areas have to travel over 100 km to get treatment and over 65 per cent of our population reside in rural areas. On the other hand, more than 65 per cent of physicians are in urban areas,” he said, adding that there are 0.7 physicians and one nurse for every 1,000 people in the country. Advocating the use of innovation in healthcare, Murthy cited the example of eHealth Point in Punjab, an initiative he said had provided 17,000 diagnoses and 31,000 telemedicine consultations to rural families. He also spoke about the Embrace Baby Warmer, which he said was a cost-effective alternative to incubators for premature babies. He mentioned how GPS-enabled ambulances in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, were able to save more than 6,000 newborn babies from preventable diseases. “We need many more innovations such as these and should leverage off technological advances being made in this field to remove lack of access and affordability. Ways to do this include increasing public spending on healthcare, enforcing standards in medical care and education and reaffirming people’s faith in our healthcare system,” he said. Apostolic Nuncio to India (representative of the Vatican) Salvatore Pennacchio, Bangalore Archdiocese Archbishop Bernard Moras, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India vice-president Cardinal Cleemis and others were present.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 05:34:30 +0000
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