By S Venkat Saketh
I
nnoHEALTH 2018 brought a
unique experience for speakers,
delegates and exhibitors with a high-
level networking event coupled with
exchange of ideas and solutions. The
event came into being with two parallel
workshops on 3rd and 4th of October
2018, by renowned experts from Finland,
a country which has reinvented itself
in just one short century with the state-
of-the-art healthcare among the OECD
countries and UK; Finland’s healthcare
system was ranked the best in the world
overall and in the categories like quality of
care, access to care, efficiency and equity.
The third InnoHEALTH conference
on Inspiring Moonshots in Healthcare
was the latest milestone in the series of
conferences held since 2016 on quality
and cost optimization. A total of 250
delegates participated in this two-day
international conference, including
prominent speakers and member
state representatives of international
organizations. The rising concerns about
the increasing costs and availability of
health and medical facilities was given
a prime platform at the conference. The
mission was to bring the top healthcare
experts around the world, with all the
A unique journey of inspiring
moonshots in healthcare:
InnoHEALTH 2018
40
Volume 4 | Issue 1 | January-March 2019
possible stakeholders of health sector,
and deliberate on interventions, to bring
down the cost of healthcare delivery and
improve the quality of care.
The opening speech by Surgeon (R)
Admiral Dr. V K Singh gave a brief
overview of the current technology and
scenario on the healthcare innovations
and delivery. He presented his idea of 3
‘P’s i.e. pain, (of) patient, (of) provider
to deliver healthcare at an optimum
cost, as well as scaling-up the availability
of care. InnoHEALTH 2018 dedicated
this year’s theme to the ‘missile man’ the
former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul
Kalam and his vision. Mr. Srijan Pal
Singh, a special invitee to the inaugural
session, shared his experiences with Dr.
Kalam in the healthcare context. The
theme of inspiring moonshotswould
have been incomplete without an
inspiring context from India. Hence, the
organizing team innovatively captured
the inspiring moonshots in healthcare of
all the delegates.Dr. Singh in his closing
remarks dedicated the InnoHEALTH
2018 conference to the vision of Dr. APJ
Abdul Kalam towards country’s health
sector. Sweden being the country partner,
H.E. Klas Molin, Ambassador of Sweden
to India, shared his thoughts about the
Indo-Swedish partnership focusing on
innovations and the work done in the
health sector. He also mentioned the
current examples and future possibilities
for India and Sweden to cooperate and
highlighted the importance of prevention
as the secret of healthcare.
As we all know, the current times are
very difficult for the Indian health
sector. The anxiety in civil society with
the rising cost of delivery and slippages
in quality of healthcare delivery is
well-known. On the other hand, rising
epidemics like lifestyle diseases require
a focus on preventive rather than
curative approach. Hence, we need to
reassess the priorities at the level of an
individual, family and society, on how
we are looking at the topic of health in
the country. Dr. Anil Kumar Gupta, a
visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad and Founder
of Honey Bee Network, gave the keynote
address for the inaugural session and
looked at the challenges in the areas of
health, provided concrete examples and
direction to the InnoHEALTH audience
by emphasizing on the inclusiveness of
stakeholders when designing solutions.