SymHealth 2017 witnesses intense deliberations on global health scenario

Pune: The international conference on healthcare in a globalizing world, ‘SymHealth 2017’, was held on May 4 to 6, 2017 at the Symbiosis International University (SIU), Pune.

The three-day mega event began on May 4, 2017 with the pre-conference symposium. An introduction to the pre-conference symposium & opening address was given by Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar, Dean, Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences. Various career opportunities in healthcare sector was discussed by stalwarts from the corporate industry.

On May 5, 217, curtains were raised on the much awaited ‘SymHealth 2017’ organized by the Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences (FoHBS), SIU. The multi-disciplinary conference succeeded in forging new dialogues amongst various stakeholders of the healthcare community, both in India and abroad, bringing in new insights and perspectives from other fields and offered a platform on which to foster intellectual fellowship amongst all stakeholders. Most importantly the conference shaped up as an instrument of global advances in healthcare.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by Chief Guest: Mr J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, GoI, while the Guests of Honour were Dr (Prof.) Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, MoHFW, GoI &  Dr. Soumya Swaminathan,  Director General, ICMR. The ceremony was presided over by Dr S B Mujumdar, Founder & President, Symbiosis & Chancellor, SIU. Dr Vidya Yeravdekar, Principal Director, Symbiosis, Dr. Rajani Gupte, Vice Chancellor, SIU , Dr Rajiv Yeravdekar, Dean, Faculty of Health & Biomedical Sciences, SIU & Deans from all faculties of Symbiosis

in his address, Mr Nadda spoke on his vision of making health as universal and affordable for all. “The previous health policy was disease-centric. Whereas the current policy is a preventive and promotive policy.  The new policy will take us from Rog to Nirog,” Mr Nadda said adding further that the current policy is comprehensive,  holistic and inter-disciplinary in nature taking into consideration geriatric,  palliative and rehabilitative. He went on to stress the point there is a need to reduce pollution both outside, at home and at work place.  The new health policy mandates that an all parties should come together. He mentioned that homeopathy works on allergies,  Ayurveda works to prevent illness, yoga helps to provide long life.  Therefore all parties most work together and respect other disciplines.

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, ICMR expressed her views on how there has been a paradigm shift from infectious diseases to non-communicable disease. She mentioned that as per statistics, 55 percent of Indian diseased population is affected by the non-communicable disease. She further spoke that suicide is the number one cause of death amongst today’s youth.

Dr Swaminathan explained that initiatives by Government such as Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum provides LPG lines to 55 percent of Indian families, thus contributing towards pollution control which is one of the commonest risk factor seen in India.

Dr S B Mujumdar mentioned that Symbiosis as a unique university as this University was born out of the concept of universal brotherhood for the welfare of international students. He further added that today we are lucky to have a health minister as a Chief Guest of healthcare conference. He added that today he wants to ask two things from the health minister.  One is to revive the old family doctor system. Second suggestion is to provide a bridge course to all nurses to become Physician

The day one of the international conference began with two parallel tracks. Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), being the chairperson for Track 1, gave an overview of various sub-themes under Track 1 ranging from Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global & national perspectives on Healthcare Financing, Government policies & interventions to the role of the Civil Society Organizations (GSOs) towards improving healthcare delivery.

The Track 1 was on Healthcare Economics & Financing. The Track 2 was on Healthcare Communications and the Track 3 on Healthcare Laws and the focus of Track 4 was on Healthcare: Engineering Design & Geospatial Applications was on recent trends in the designing of ‘Smart Hospitals’, use of technology, innovative applications & adoption of user centric ergonomically designed equipments for effective healthcare delivery.

The day two of the event opened up with two parallel sessions i.e. Track 5 and Track 6. Track 5 on Healthcare IT dealt with the positive impact of technology on the healthcare delivery. Track 6 was on Healthcare: International Relations threw interesting perspective on the linkages between global healthcare and the various dimensions of International Relations. Track 7 focused on Healthcare Innovations & Entrepreneurship and had a very interesting talk on Innovations in India.

The valedictory ceremony on May 6, 2017 was graced by Adv. Ram Jethmalani, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, guests of honour Dr. Henk Bekedam, WHO Country Representative, India, Ms. Nina Vaskunlahti, Ambassador, Embassy of Finland, New Delhi and presided over by Dr S B Mujumdar, Founder & President, Symbiosis & Chancellor, SIU.

Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Country Representative, India, expressed globalization is the key & today we are far better connected.  However, this poses challenges such as spread of infectious diseases. He further remarked that there is a need to increase investment in health which currently is only 1 percent of GDP. 60 million people got pushed below poverty line due to spending on healthcare. India is a major manufacturing centre for vaccines. Another growing concern is pollution. All this issues are addressed

Senior Supreme Court advocate, Mr Ram Jethmalani while addressing the gathering said maintaining a healthy mind and a healthy body is the need of the hour. “The conference such as this with an interdisciplinary approach helps to create awareness among the common man on the various aspects related to healthcare,” he said.

Around 1000 to 1200 healthcare professionals, from India & abroad, comprising of professionals from diverse verticals of the healthcare sector including domains of Hospital & Healthcare Management, Medico Legal Systems, Medical Insurance, Clinical Research, Healthcare IT professionals, General practitioners, Specialists & Doctors from Allied Health Sciences, Policy makers & Administrators, Representatives of the Pharma sector, Representatives of Civil Society Organisations and Representatives of private and public Healthcare sector organizations participated in this event.

Note: Read the complete coverage of the event in the upcoming May edition of BioVoice News eMagazine