ACCESS Health Undertakes Healthcare Transformation at Lotus Hospitals

Drawing on 15 years of experience in healthcare transformation, ACCESS Health has worked with the Lotus Hospitals Group over the last year to undertake a complete transformation in areas such as market growth, process streamlining, capacity building, quality management, employee productivity, cost optimization, and revenue/profitability goals. ACCESS Health also facilitated the Lotus Hospitals Annual General Meeting on March 25th and supported the launch of a new gynecology ward on March 31st to strengthen clinical leadership in the gynecology program and enable stable and long-term growth for all hospital units.

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ACCESS Health Support NHA in Organizing Workshop on Research Methodology

The National Health Authority (NHA) of the Government of India, in collaboration with Affordable Quality Health and ACCESS Health International, recently organized a two-day training workshop on Research Methods for the State Health Agency (SHA) staff. Held in New Delhi on February 20-21, the workshop was attended by officials from across 22 states and Union Territories. The workshop was led by the Monitoring and Research Division of the NHA. The workshop’s primary objective was to train the SHA officials on research methods and encourage them to identify research needs and develop research ideas into research proposals. The workshop had an impressive line-up of faculty members, including renowned researchers and policymakers from the field of health policy and systems research. Experts deliberated on various research methodology topics in a series of technical sessions. The policymakers present at the workshop assured the participants of continuous support for undertaking research studies at the state level. They emphasized the importance of evidence-based decision-making in the health sector and how research can be critical in informing policy and practice. The workshop also provided a platform for networking and collaboration among SHA officials from different states. Overall, the workshop is expected to significantly impact the quality and applicability of research undertaken by SHA officials across the country. It is also likely to contribute to the overall improvement of health policies and programs in India. AQH and ACCESS Health acknowledge the support and guidance from the NHA leadership (Dr Basant Garg (IAS), Sh. Ghayas Uddin Ahmed, Dr Pankaj Kumar Arora, Sh. Vikram Pagaria, Sh. Rohit Dev Jha, Dr Kameshwar Rao Punyamurtula and Dr Ruchira Agrawal), the knowledge imparted by the faculty members Prof. A. Venkat Raman, Prof Muraleedharan VR, Mr Maulik Chokshi, Dr Archisman Mohapatra, Prof Montu Bose and Mr Tushar Mokashi) and efforts put in by the organising team (Mr Prankul Goel, Mr Arun B Nair, Dr Apurva Kashyap, Ms Harpreet Kaur and the team from the M&R Division of NHA).

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Technical Workshop Paves the Way for Strengthening Cancer Care in Uttar Pradesh

With nearly 160,000 new cases diagnosed every year, Uttar Pradesh is home to over 600,000 cancer patients. Late-stage presentation of the disease, specialty gap in healthcare provisioning, and poor prognosis in cancer patients are some of the challenges that dictate the scenario in the State. To strengthen capacities for standards of cancer care in Uttar Pradesh, Access Health International, in collaboration with the State Agency for Comprehensive Health (SACHIS), King George's Medical University (KGMU), and Roche India Healthcare Institute (RIHI) organized a technical discussion on March 3, 2023, in Lucknow. The dialogue featured members of a Special Interest Group (SIG) comprising of leading oncologists, policymakers, technocrats, NGOs, and private-sector partners. They were focused on identifying solutions that can be presented to state and national leadership based on the findings of the various cancer care initiatives operating in Uttar Pradesh. The discussions delved into the overall landscape of cancer care providers in the state while also focusing on the need to enhance the Health Benefits Package (circa 2022) under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), which provides insurance cover to underprivileged beneficiaries. Some of the key areas of consideration that emerged during the discussions on the cancer care ecosystem in the state included: equipping District NCD Clinics with a basic cancer prevention unit, the need for opportunistic screening camps, training ASHAs on early signs & symptoms of cancer, collaborating with the Department of Education to organize cancer awareness programs, and decentralizing cancer care by building capacity in district hospitals and linking them to public medical colleges. In the purview of PM-JAY, recommendations pertaining to newer and cost-effective cancer drugs were made by the participants. They also stressed the dire need for an independent first line of diagnostics package offered as an OPD procedure, the role of tumor board for better patient care, developing standard diagnostic pathways to prevent misuse and creating mechanisms for additional funding for cancer care. This technical discussion was prefaced by a series of capacity-building workshops for oncologists and allied medical practitioners on standard treatment-in order to strengthen early screening and diagnosis, boost the availability of and access to cancer treatment, and increase financing for cancer care for better patient outcomes.

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GLC4HSR Holds First Annual Conclave

The Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience held their first Annual Conclave on March 10 and 11, 2023 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. With the participation of over 40 speakers and 150 health systems stakeholders attending in person and over 400 online attendees from across 20 countries, the event showcased the latest ideas and best practices for building resilient health systems globally. The GLC4HSR was launched by ACCESS Health International with support from The Rockefeller Foundation on 11th March 2022 The Conclave saw participation from governments, development agencies, academia, health systems experts, and industry leaders. Sessions discussed financial resilience, the need for good governance, preparedness of public health systems and providers, and the role of healthcare data. The sessions shared the lessons from these topics, presenting country-level assessments of health systems, initiating dialogues around the health systems assessment framework, and deliberating upon on cross-country learnings to identify practical policy solutions to build health systems resilience. Recordings of each session can be found here.

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Staff Spotlight: Iman Fahim Hameed

Iman Fahim Hameed is a Consultant for ACCESS Health Southeast Asia. She brings a diverse background ranging from biomedical and life sciences to public health policy to the role. After spending over a decade of her career in the lab, investigating the properties of silkworm and spider proteins and conducting microRNA research on liver and bladder cancer, she was inspired to make a shift to public health. Iman pursued a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK) and conducted qualitative research in Sri Lanka on barriers to health access in three fishing communities. She also worked with Public Health Pathways as a public health researcher and trend reporter. A desire to work with marginalized communities and improve access to healthcare in low and middle-income countries brought Iman to ACCESS Health International. She is most recently responsible for the success of a capacity-building training program for local NGOs in South East Asia supported by Abbott, which has now been expanded to Middle-East and North Africa. Outside of ACCESS Health, Iman is a board member of the Society for Behavioural Science Singapore and an avid fiction author and editor. She co-edited an anthology of short stories called Singapore at Home: Life Across Lines that was launched at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2021.

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Dr. Krishna Reddy Designated President of ACCESS Health International Asia

After the success of collaborations such as the Fintech for Health program and the GLC4SR, we are pleased to announce that the Board of ACCESS Health International has recommended merging its operations across Asia and designating Dr. Krishna Reddy Nallamalla, the current Regional Director of South Asia, as President of ACCESS Health International, Asia. Dr. Reddy is a board-certified senior practicing cardiologist, and co-founder of the CARE Hospitals. He joined ACCESS Health International in 2018 to lead its health systems strengthening efforts. Dr. Reddy has been responsible for the steady growth of the organization's programs and reputation as a thought leader in South Asia.

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Digital Financial Services for Health Regional Conference – Asia 2023

In 2019, ACCESS Health International (AHI) Southeast Asia, with support from the MetLife Foundation, launched the Fintech for Health program with the objective to explore opportunities at the intersection of finance, technology and healthcare that enable patients to access quality healthcare more affordably and conveniently. Over the last three years, the project worked with numerous partners in the Asia region to make health services accessible and affordable for the lower and low-middle-income population. The project has undertaken knowledge creation and exchange on the application of fintech and insurance across the health ecosystem for various stakeholders including governments, providers, insurers, reinsurers, and startups. Ultimately, the Fintech for Health program supports the tenets of universal health coverage, in its vision that all people can access, affordable and quality care without suffering financial hardship, whereby public and private sector health systems are transparent and effective. ACCESS Health International hosted the Digital Financial Services for Health Regional Conference Asia on February 23, 2023 in New Delhi, India. The conference brought together approximately fifty healthcare experts, thought leaders, industry representatives, and government officials from across India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore in person and online. The program was designed to provide a platform for knowledge-sharing, exchange of ideas, and partnership-building on fintech for health. The conference was inaugurated with an opening remark by Dr. Basant Garg, Addl. CEO and Mission Director, National Health Authority. He emphasized the importance of digital health and its role in advancing the goals of universal health coverage. In 2021, the national health insurance scheme of India, Ayushman Bharat, took a revolutionary step forward to digitize and integrate the health system with the launch of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). Subsequently, NDHM launched several digital public goods such as the creation of Aadhar – India's unique biometric identification, UPI-India's payment network for inter-bank transfer, and CoWIN – India's digital COVID-19 vaccination platform. He reiterated the adoption and potential to scale in India, giving digital health an incredible opportunity to transform the health system. Ms. Sireesha Perabathina, Senior Consultant and Project Lead for the Fintech for Health program shared the journey of the Fintech for Health program, supported by MetLife Foundation. The presentation highlighted the challenges and successes of working across different countries and cultures to promote the use of digital technology in healthcare. She also emphasized on the key learning of how use of digital public goods can improve cost building of Fintech for Health solutions and collaboration with federal and province / state programs can improve uptake and popularity of Fintech for Health solutions in the region. She also talked about how ecosystem-level capacity building can help advocate for innovative products. Shri Amitabh Kant, the G20 Sherpa for India’s Presidency this year, provided the keynote address to the conference. He highlighted the importance of India’s digital public infrastructure model and the value bringing fintech, health, and digital transformation together globally. Mr. Arvind Gupta, Co-Founder and Head, Digital India Foundation (DIF), shared his expertise on inclusion and identity for millions through a presentation on "India's Digital Public Goods: Story of India Stack." He discussed various models to improve private sector engagement for digital public goods and promoted an exchange of ideas to bring the sectors together for improved penetration and learnings for inclusion. The presentation and interaction with the audience created avenues for further exploration of synergies and work collaboratively through the India Stack. Mr. Avijit Dhar, PMU Lead, National Health Authority (NHA), presented on "Affordable and accessible care through digital public goods and social insurance: Story of Ayushman Bharat." The audience had an interactive session to discuss collaboration with the government on Unified Health Interface and ways to scale the solutions using digital public goods. The discussion also touched on data ownership and privacy concerns, encouraging the uptake of digital public goods among the stakeholders. This marked an interesting exchange between the government representatives and the private sector to further improve the adoption of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission through the private sector. Mr. Mohd Faiz bin Mohd Nor, Lead of Global Alliances at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), highlighted the many digital growth opportunities in Malaysia. He discussed how Malaysia has been successful in using digital technology to improve healthcare access and delivery. As Malaysia continues on its digital healthcare journey, Mr. Nor shared specific the opportunities for fintech for health companies to work in Malaysia and attract private sector to improve the healthcare ecosystem in the country. The conference also heard from Mr. Ankur Basu, Country Manager of Milvik BIMA, on how BIMA Milvik is enabling Bangladesh's emerging middle-income segments to access primary and secondary care. His presentation was followed by an elaborate discussion on the operational nuances and feasibility of the inclusion of the digital wallet in various programs and systems to scale innovation and access to affordable care. Ms. Beth Lopez, Founder, and CEO of Docosan, shared her experience of how thousands of people in Vietnam received telemedicine and sexual and reproductive healthcare. Her presentation emphasized the importance of using digital technology to improve healthcare access through telemedicine and bundled health kits for self-testing and self-care in rural and remote areas of Vietnam. Ms. Hon Ling Kueh, Senior Vice President, Insurance, Merchantrade Asia, highlighted how financial inclusion and health insurance are instruments for social impact in Malaysia especially for the migrant populations working in Malaysia. These populations lack access to healthcare and are under heavy stress of out-of-pocket expenditure on health. Her presentation highlighted the importance of health coverage and affordable health solutions to achieve health outcomes. Addressing the conference, Pallavi Tak, Vice President of Programs at CIIE.Co, spoke about how to scale social enterprises working at the intersection of health and financial inclusion. She emphasized the importance of collaboration between different stakeholders and the role of digital technology in scaling social impact. Her talk provided valuable and practical insights on how to leverage digital financial services for health to improve healthcare access and affordability. The conference concluded with a panel discussion on paving […]

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The Role of Strengthening AI in Health Systems Reform

ACCESS Health Southeast Asia Consultants Miguel Tan and Wen Jin Er recently authored an article for Asian Hospital and Healthcare Management about the role of AI in strengthening health systems. See an excerpt below and read the full article here.   Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pushing the frontiers of digital innovation in the current decade.  The release of ChatGPT beckons a tipping point of a tech revolution, with its humanlike ability to write codes, poems, and academic reports. AI's potential to disrupt traditional industries, once a pipedream, will be realised in healthcare soon. Private and government investments in AI are increasingly common in healthcare. Between 2022 to 2029, the global AI in healthcare market is projected to grow from US$13.82 billion to a staggering US$164.10 billion1. With boundless healthcare applications such as virtual nursing assistants, research of novel therapies, and medical diagnostics, AI promises to rebuild health systems for the future.

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ACCESS Health Southeast Asia at the International Health Insurance Forum

On February 10, ACCESS Health Southeast Asia Regional Director, Sejal Mistry spoke at the Asia inaugural event of the International Health Insurance Forum. With representatives from reinsurance, insurance, and health tech in the room, Sejal presented on the topic of “How Private Insurance can Help Strengthen UHC goals” and engaged in a spirited panel discussion of whether the models presented are feasible and replicable across different countries in Asia.

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Boosting Private Sector Participation to Achieve Equitable Healthcare in Uttar Pradesh

On January 23rd 2023, ACCESS Health International facilitated a stakeholder consultation workshop for the Government of Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with the State Agency for Comprehensive Health Insurance and Integrated Services (SACHIS)-the state agency for the implantation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)-and NATHEALTH-a federation of healthcare providers-to boost private sector participation for healthcare excellence in the state. Over 100 participants from various private sector partners in India participated in the workshop-including from industry bodies, private multi-speciality hospitals, pharma and diagnostic companies, and healthcare and social enterprises. Through the course of the day-long workshop, a plethora of key insights emerged-particularly those pertaining to pivotal investment prospects for the private sector in the Uttar Pradesh healthcare landscape. The Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare presented the Government's Proposed Private Sector Investment Policy that touched upon Viability Gap Funding, land provisions, and other crucial elements to encourage building more healthcare infrastructure in the state. The value proposition of PM-JAY in Uttar Pradesh was also discussed in detail, with the CEO of SACHIS elucidating upon the benefits for private service providers of participating in the insurance scheme and building specialities-especially in areas that have sparse healthcare facilities. The existing Public-Private Partnerships in the state and the avenues for forging new ones were also discussed. The day's proceedings offered a steady stream of insights with the participants from the private sector sharing their learnings to leverage for a fortified healthcare system in the state. From suggestions like bolstering telemedicine services and AI-backed solutions that can help beneficiaries seek treatment even in remote areas to hospitals declaring their intent to join PM-JAY and encouraging others to follow suit. Capacity building of medical personnel, effective healthcare delivery models, and strengthening primary-care facilities were some of areas of discussion that were pursued.

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