AMCHAM’s 11th Healthcare Conference was held on October 6th at the HICC Novotel, Hyderabad under the overarching theme of harmonizing global healthcare through accessibility, affordability, availability and awareness. In the inaugural session, Mr. Jayesh Sanghvi, Vice Chairman – Hyderabad Chapter, AMCHAM and Partner, EY welcomed the gathering and shared how healthcare has been juggling itself amidst the four pillars of patient, payer, provider and policy. Technology and innovation has been making a difference in healthcare and what was probably provider centric has been shifting towards patient centric, moving from sick care to healthcare. The guest of honor, Ms. Jennifer Larson, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad gave a broad overview of what the U.S. and India have been doing in healthcare over the past several decades. She mentioned that healthcare was undergoing a rapid transformation and how AI would be playing a larger role. The Consul General shared one of the best examples of joint success was developing the Rotovac vaccine in Hyderabad, which protects children from rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea globally.

Dr. Marcus Ranney, CEO and Founder, Humanedge Enterprise spoke on longevity and that everyone has been living longer. With life expectancy extending, health would be necessary. Healthcare has been moving from a standard reactive care model to a personalized and proactive model. While consumer wearables give lots of data, he discussed how to optimize it and become the best version of oneself. He expressed concern about the younger generation’s ability to push out chronic diseases and live healthier lives. Dr. Ranney shared the five pillar approach – 1) sleep, 2) fueling the body, 3) all forms of movement (aerobic, anerobic, strength training, flexibility and balance) including flexibility and balance, 4) environment and 5) mood and emotional state. He talked about the need for data to educate and create bio-hacks. Mr. Sumeet Chandna, Partner, EY spoke on the macro healthcare scenario highlighting that major innovations in the past years have come during periods of crisis such as the tele-health role, wearables and monitoring of global health. He asked the audience to consider if medical innovation really was accessible to all. A wave of generics has brought affordability and accessibility for medicines. The traditional model of health has continually evolved rapidly over 5 dimensions: point of care from hospitals to home care; data ownership from institution to consumers; reference point from population to individual; physician role from authority to guidance and data analysis from separated to integrated.

Panel I: Re-Engineering Healthcare – a Holistic Approach was moderated by Mr. Sumeet Chandna, Partner, EY with panelists Ms. Preetha Kumar, Sr. Director, Advance Data Analytics, Providence, Mr. Ritesh Dogra, AVP Medical Tech Innovation, Indegene, Ms. Lavanya Baktavasala, Director R&D Medical Surgical Portfolio, Medtronic, Mr. Naresh Pagidimarry, CEO / Co-Founder nSure Healthy Spine and Asian Spine Hospital. The session discussed how sedentary lifestyle causes problems and the necessity of re-engineering it. Spine health was the core and connected health would help in re-engineering. With an ecosystem that is patient empowered, innovation and technology can come out with a modern day health delivery system that would proactively give insights to patients directly. They shared about the acceleration of new therapies to market through technology and close alignment with regulators. Healthcare from a macro level, data and AI help in predicting costs and preparation was discussed. Home care, community care, mental health and awareness, personalized diagnostic ability, therapeutic delivery and transitionary care between hospital and home were also discussed.

Panel II: Technology Innovation – Driving Accessibility and Affordability in Healthcare was moderated by Mr. Kaustav Banerjee, Chairman – Hyderabad Chapter, AMCHAM and VP South Asia, Zimmer Biomet with panelists Dr. Renu John, Professor Biomedical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, Mr. Ramaesh Rathinam, Engineering Director, Quality & Regulatory, Medtronic, Mr. Mahankali Srinivas Rao, CEO, T-Hub. The panelists discussed healthcare affordability and accessibility as a 360-degree problem and the constant conversation between episodic costs vs. value outcome. They discussed many innovations coming out that make healthcare accessible and inclusive and the need for innovation to be accessible. Different types of innovation – therapy innovation using AI, material innovation for affordability, process innovation, etc. were highlighted. In India there are 500 start-ups involved in healthcare with T-Hub having 93 healthcare start-ups in sensors and variables, chronic disease management, AI VR and predictive analysis. The session touched on not just building in India but building for the world. They stressed that innovations have to mature to be affordable and when measuring accessibility, examine adaptability to the masses.