NITI Aayog organises conference on Universal Access to Healthcare: Digital Solutions

Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog highlighted that transformative changes are taking place across the health sector in India

Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog inaugurated a National Conference on 'Universal Access to Healthcare: Digital Solutions.' Apurva Chandra, Union Health Secretary and Bharat Lal, Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India were present.

The day-long conference, organised by NHRC in collaboration with the Sankala Foundation and supported by the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, brings together practitioners, government officials, leading experts, innovators and policymakers in the field of healthcare and digital healthcare technology to explore the way forward for universal access to affordable and quality healthcare services, especially for people living in rural, remote and hilly areas.

Dr Paul highlighted that transformative changes are taking place across the health sector in India. Noting that “a strong primary healthcare system is a high priority for reducing the healthcare burden in later ages,” he emphasised the steps being taken to particularly strengthen this network.

Dr Paul underlined the following five key principles for digital health solutions to embrace:

1. Use of digital technologies and scaling them for saturation
2. Creating new technologies like robotics, AI etc., but in a way that does not increase the digital divide, and can be easily used by those who are not digitally literate.
3. Ensure solutions are within the ambit of rights and promote inclusivity, protection of human rights and further democratisation, with attention to protecting the beneficiaries from cyber fraud.
4. Digital solutions should promote or create an ecosystem of ease of living and not make it more complex for people.
5. Digital solutions must enhance quality of life, embrace well-being, include traditional knowledge, and accelerate our healthcare actions.

Chandra stated that one of the goals of the national digital mission is to increase the reach of healthcare services and reduce the disparity between rural and urban areas.

Lal said that healthcare is a basic human right and without good health, the full potential of a human being cannot be realised. He highlighted that the scope of NHRC has increased from economic to the domain of socio-cultural sectors and since the health sector impacts everyone, it is currently engaged in this sector as well.

The dignitaries also released a report on 'Leveraging Digital Solutions for Universal Health Coverage’ based on the research and field study carried out by the Sankala Foundation. Three technical sessions on Models of Change in Healthcare, Future Frontiers in Digital Health and Technology-enabled Universal Health Coverage were held during the day-long event.

Madhukar Kumar Bhagat, Joint Secretary (E-Health); Dr Basant Garg, Addl. CEO, National Health Authority; Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO and Managing Director, Tata MD, innovators from civil society and start-ups, domain experts from WHO, UNDP and senior officials from the Union Government and states were present at the event.

PIB