Dr V K Paul stresses that collaboration between the two nations should put digital health at the forefront

India and France must work together on early detection of rare and chronic diseases, member of the NITI Aayog Dr V K Paul said in his address at the Indo-French Healthcare Symposium 2022 held in New Delhi on November 28.

French Ambassador for Global Health Anne-Claire Amprou and Member of India’s NITI Aayog (Planning Commission) Dr V K Paul and senior Government officials of France and India, spoke at the event.

The participants discussed how the two countries could strengthen the bilateral healthcare ecosystem and jointly innovate for “the hospital of the future” and better post-Covid healthcare.

“India and France can work together in a lot of verticals, chronic diseases being one of them,”Dr Paul said. “One thing that is close to my heart is to make therapies and medicinal solutions available for rare diseases.”

Dr Paul stressed that Indo-French collaboration should put digital health at the forefront.

“Digital health, I understand, is the focus of our conversation and I would like to inform our distinguished colleagues of France that India has passed ‘Ayushman Bharat – Digital Health Mission’ last year,” he said. “There are some strengths that we have but I think in the area of health records, France’s experience will be very handy.”

Dr Paul also called for cooperation in primary health, diagnostics and point of cure testing,

“The point that I am making is that technology is gravitating down to the grassroots level. Likewise, from primary healthcare, we look forward to creating diagnostics for screening illnesses beyond diabetes or hypertension,” he explained. “We look forward to having a point of cure tests for liver disease, creatinine. How else do we screen for early detection for chronic diseases.”

Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals Group talked about the challenge of India’s aging workforce.

“In India, the people older than 65 form less than 8 percent of the population whereas in France it is 21 percent. In the next 40 years, about 2.69 million people will go out of the workforce,” he said. “Looking at all other statistics, I strongly feel it is the youth who are going to serve and take care of the older population of the country.”

He informed the audience about the Indian government’s ambitious ‘Heal in India’ initiative, which aims at positioning the country as a global hub for medical and wellness tourism.

And under a parallel ‘Heal by India,’ initiative, the government aims to project India as a global source of trained and competent manpower in the health sector. The Health Ministry is developing an online repository of healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, which will also have a provision to mention which nation they wish to render their services.

“There have been some remarkable reforms in medical education, nurse education, paramedical and allied training and there is an opportunity for India to produce a million healthcare workers in the next few years,” Dr Sibal said. “They can not only serve the needs of the country but also serve the world. That’s an opportunity that the French might want to look at.”