Apollo Hospitals Group Executive Chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy today said it was very clear the world was facing 21st century health challenges, irrespective of whether they were rich or developing or underdeveloping world. Addressing the health experts at the ‘Third International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT 2012,’ organised by the Apollo Hospitals Group here, Dr Reddy said with India, the real challenges were the new lifestyle diseases which were picking up pace. Dr Reddy said non-communicable diseases like diabetes were rampantly on the rise and need to be tackled. The need of the hour is to ensure more care from hospitals to clinics to homes and this will only be possible with the effective use and implementation of technology using synergies of the various stakeholders, Dr Reddy added. In his keynote address, All Scripts President Lee Shapiro said ‘To light the way to a healthy world, governments must remain open to investigating new means of delivering the health services their citizens demand.
‘They must continue to invest in innovation by supporting public-private-partnerships that have helped bring about many successful case studies in the area IT and healthcare,’ he added.
He said, ‘I believe that the technology has the ability to solve many of the problems we face in delivering quality healthcare for people everywhere.’ UNI