12-Nov-2018: India Health Fund announces winners of its RFP 2.0
The Indian Health Fund (IHF) today announced that it had chosen four innovators, three related to TB and one related to malaria, in its goal of supporting national efforts to effectively tackle these diseases.
The winners were selected out of the proposals received for IHF’s second Request for Proposals (RFP) on 1st November 2018. The selected proposals aim to leverage technology for improving early detection and prompt treatment along with promoting robust molecular diagnostics feasible for primary health care in low resource settings for expediting diagnosis; developing platform and improving adherence to drugs.
IHF was launched in 2016 by the Tata Trusts in collaboration with The Global Fund, to drive innovations towards key infectious disease challenges in India.
The winners in the field of Tuberculosis are:
- Tuberculosis Monitoring Encouragement Adherence Drive (TMEAD):
Proposal: Treatment adherence for TB by Sense Dose technologies.
About: TMEAD provides a technology solution to address the lack of adherence to RNTCP regimes. The device is a smart IoT (Internet Of Things) based technology that reminds, dispenses and senses the adherence of a patient to the RNTCP regime.
- Valetude Primus Healthcare (VPH) Pvt. Ltd.:
Proposal: Highly sensitive novel platform technology for tuberculosis detection with last mile connectivity.
About: A technology spinoff from IIT Delhi formed in 2015, to address the healthcare challenges prevalent in developing nations using innovative technologies made in India. VPH aims to transform the diagnostic ecosystem in India through their work.
- Centre for Health Research and Innovation (CHRI):
Proposal: Creating an ecosystem of faster diagnosis and treatment initiation for TB patients through TruNat.
About: CHRI is a PATH affiliate positioned to create valuable impact in the public health space in India, focusing on system and service innovation. CHRI focuses on four program verticals which include Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (TB/HIV), Maternal Newborn Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN), Neglected Tropical Diseases and Malaria (NTDs + M) and vaccines.
The winners in the field of Malaria are:
- Hemex Health:
Proposal: Impact of new, one-minute, sensitive diagnostic with innovative malaria elimination plan.
About: A start-up that aims to create affordable, life-changing medical diagnostics for under-served people everywhere. Their diagnostic platform is designed to reach populations at risk for malaria and sickle cell disease.
India contributes to 27% of the global TB burden and 68% of all malaria cases in the Southeast Asia region. TB account for over 4.1 lakh confirmed deaths and around 28.7 lakh reported cases respectively on an annual basis in India. Given the gaps in identification and reporting of patients, the true burden of both the diseases in terms of number of patients as well as number of deaths, is estimated to be much higher.
The Government of India has set a target of eliminating TB by 2025 and malaria by 2030, thus giving a clarion call for unprecedented and synergistic efforts by government as well as non-governmental agencies.
IHF is committed to this goal, by bringing together various partners and stakeholders, pooling expertise and resource, fostering innovations and translating these from “lab to last mile”. The RFP 2.0 cycle is a step toward identifying and supporting product and process innovations that have the potential to impact the landscape of TB and malaria, from detection, diagnosis to adherence and operations.
8-Feb-2018: India Health Fund to boost research on TB, malaria.
The India Health Fund (IHF), a collaborative initiative led by the Tata Trusts, endeavours to leverage the power of collective impact to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025 and malaria by 2030 from India.
The Tata Trusts partners Indian philanthropists and international and local donor agencies to support innovations and technologies designed to combat TB and malaria. IHF supplements and augments Government of India's efforts to fight the epidemics.
IHF incorporated as Confluence for Health Action and Transformation Foundation, is a section 8 company registered under the Companies Act 2013. It is seeded by Tata Trusts with strategic support from the Global Fund.
TB and malaria, together, account for over 4.2 lakh deaths annually in India alone. With over 8.5 million TB patients, the country accounts for 27 percent of the global TB burden. In 2016, a staggering 1.9 million TB cases were reported including 0.8 million new infectious cases. The economic cost of TB to the Indian economy has been pegged at US$3 billion (over Rs13,000 crore) annually.
Malaria results in high morbidity, mortality and economic loss each year. About 95 percent of India's population resides in malaria-endemic areas. ~1.12 million malaria cases were reported in India in 2016, according to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program. The socio-economic burden due to malaria is pegged at around $1.94 billion (Rs11,640 crore) annually.
Objectives
- Mobilise and invest up to USD150 million over 5 years in scaling up high impact innovations in India.
- Engage India's creative and innovative minds to create solutions for TB and malaria.
- Advance the fight against TB and malaria through innovative solutions thereby reducing burden, costs and human suffering.
- Harness the unique energy of entrepreneurship to take innovations to scale and create impact by tapping private sector expertise and finance.
- Promote and catalyse validated cutting-edge innovations that help in effective management of TB and malaria.
Innovative and 'out of the box' products and processes are needed to eliminate the diseases in the next decade. India Health Fund (IHF) aims to anchor such validated innovations and enable them to reach scale.
IHF collaborates with donors and investors to share investment decisions regarding raising and deployment of USD150 million to support strategic projects and solutions aimed at elimination of TB and malaria. Contributions from varied sources can be pooled as corpus or for specific areas.
29-Nov-2018: Dr Jitendra Singh moots 'Heli-Clinics' for remote areas.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also a renowned Diabetologist, has mooted "Heli-Clinics"/Helicopter Clinics for remote areas, which could particularly be of great help to provide specialized medical care to people living in inaccessible hilly terrains of the States like Jammu & Kashmir and Northeast.
Speaking at "India Health Summit 2018", organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Healthcare Council, Dr Jitendra Singh observed that the Corporate Hospitals and the leading private sector medical practitioners had mostly got concentrated in Tier-1 or big cities, while the rural and sub-rural areas, more so the remote areas, had been left deprived. However, he said, the cities are almost reaching their saturation point with overwhelming number of private practitioners and therefore, from the point of view of a profitable private practice also, it will be good for the private sector doctors to turn to rural and remote areas.
There are vast stretches of land, particularly in the hill States of India, said Dr Jitendra Singh, where the Corporate Hospitals, either on their own or in a private-public participation mode, could provide helicopter-based super-specialty clinics. He said, for instance, each day of the week, one super-specialist doctor like Cardiologist or Diabetologist or Nephrologist or Gastroenterologist, etc. can, in turn, set up a Helicopter OPD along with the requisite para-medical staff and medicines. On way back, he said, the same helicopter can also carry one or two needy patients to the town or city for hospitalization.
In a heterogeneous country like India, Dr Jitendra Singh said, public sector healthcare run by government will never lose its relevance. But, nonetheless, private sector is gradually assuming a big role and could work in synergism with the public sector.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, Tele-Medicine and e-Healthcare assume a special significance in a country like India to reach the patients in inaccessible regions. Here too, the private sector can play a big role by supplementing the government efforts, he said.
Lauding the Modi Government's focus on healthcare for all, Dr Jitendra Singh referred to some path-breaking decisions in the last four years, which include opening of Dialysis Centres in every district hospital, setting up of Wellness Centres and, above all, launch of "Ayushman Bharat". He also emphasized the need to incentivize medical practitioners to go to remote rural areas and to provide adequately satisfactory facilities for the government doctors to be able to serve in the rural areas.
9-Oct-2018: External Affairs Minister launches 'India for Humanity'
'India for Humanity' was formally launched by Smt. Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister, in a ceremony in New Delhi on 9 October 2018 attended by resident Heads of Mission and other members of the diplomatic corps, media and senior officers of the Government of India.
As part of 150th Birth Anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi being held over the next one year, the Ministry of External Affairs has launched the 'India for Humanity' initiative in honour of his service to humanity. With its focus on Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of compassion, caring and service to humanity, ‘India for Humanity’ features a year-long series of artificial limb fitment camps in a number of countries spanning the globe, for which the Ministry is collaborating with the renowned charitable organization "Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti" (BMVSS). Founded in 1975 and better known by its trademark limb "Jaipur Foot”, BMVSS is among the world’s largest organisations for the fitment of artificial limbs and till date has served over 1.73 million amputees.
The limb fitment camps, which aim to provide for the physical, economic and social rehabilitation of the differently-abled around the world by helping them regain their mobility and dignity to become self-respecting and productive members of the society, will be fully sponsored by Ministry of External Affairs.