India, Japan discuss ways to strengthen collaboration for healthcare for elders
A webinar on ‘India-Japan Celebration of the International Day of Older Persons’ was organised
Experts from India and Japan discussed ways in which the two countries can collaborate to strengthen healthcare for older people, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) said recently.
A webinar on ‘India-Japan Celebration of the International Day of Older Persons’ was organised to deliberate on this issue by the DST, jointly with the Embassy of India, Tokyo and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Government of Japan to celebrate the International Day of Older Persons on October 1.
AB Dey, Former Professor, and Head, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Former Dean (research) nodal officer, National Center for Ageing, AIIMS, New Delhi, suggested that expansion of initiatives like the National Program for Healthcare of the Elderly, Ayushman Bharat and implementation of WHO”s long term care protocol (ICOPE) could help in strengthening healthcare for older people.
“Ensuring people’s health also ensures national security,” said Tatsuya Kondo, Chief Executive Officer of Medical Excellence JAPAN (MEJ), Advisor on Health and Medical Strategy for the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of Japan.
He highlighted the scope of re-imagining ageing through education and re-training of the elderly and stressed on strengthening bilateral relations towards achieving universal healthcare by working together.
Sanjeev Varshney, Head, International Cooperation, DST, said dividing the entire work in two aspects, namely ”research” aspect and ”demonstration and application” aspect, should be the way forward for India and Japan to strengthen their bilateral relations for realising Medical Excellence India (ME-India).
Usha Dixit, Counsellor (Science and Technology), Embassy of India, Tokyo, said a collaborative model will provide an opportunity to explore new directions in research on population ageing as well as the need to design and develop S&T interventions for providing comprehensive health services to elderly at all levels.
