Surogacy Bill 2010

In an attempt to regulate the surrogacy and develop the assisted therapies and procedures in line with the contemporary practices, the Government of India have drafted and considering ART guidelines and the legislation, This will allow the people ( whether single , neuter gender or couples having infertility issue) to fulfill their dreams to have a child. Till now India lacked clear cut guidelines regarding surrogacy , however this gave rise to complications, It was alleged by Non government Organisations and activists about human rights in past about the surrogate mothers who lived in compromised conditions and were exploited. There has been concern amongst few members in this group who wanted to bring Egg donors from abroad in case the couples wanted Caucasoid donor. So members from Georgia and other countries who faced the red tape and delayed VISA approval , which was doing its duty only, might get an answer , why they faced the problem. With this regulation , there would be a law which will defien the scope of services and easy and smoother VISA approval. So this is a good news and reason to smile , Sirs and Madams if you are associated with Surrogacy and consider India as a business option. The ART industry is quite big in India.( 5.39 Bn US Dollars ) ~ 25000 Crore Indian Rupees. And considering these regulations coming to practice things will b much easier and these figures are certainly going to rise . Kudos to the system and one step ahead for Indian healthcare to Shine..

National Business Register and Implication for Healthcare Business

The six national census is expected to come with many interesting facts and it has been envisaged that the census will provide a National Business Register. It has been many times a complain that there is no database of the nursing homes running private business . So in this context , at least the small healthcare set ups would be listed and would give a clear picture about the un-explored sector by the consultancies. This as a first step could list the nursing homes and small clinics / procedures centres which have at least 10 employees.

The service sector in India is claimed to contribute 62.5 percent of the GDP . In this context the listing would make another step ahead for critical analysis of the following

- Total number of Small nursing homes

- Number of Healthcare workers in such hospitals

- Mapping of such small healthcare set ups across the country

- Population / area acting as a feeder center to such set ups

As a secondary analysis .. what kind of services these set ups provide, how good are the nursing homes to meet the need of people, referral pattern could be counted.

Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer

In a breakthrough , Doctor of Indian origin heading a team of British doctors has achieved a new height by successful trial of a single shot radio-therapeutic procedure to annihilate the remnant of the tumor inside the breast in just 30 minutes instead of the conventional 6-week long procedure.This process called Targeted Intra-operative Radiotherapy has been time tested for last 10 years on 2000 women from nine countries.

Procedure : During surgical removal of the tumor from the patient's breast ( patient under anesthesia) a series of gentle X rays are to be administered destroy any remaining cancer cells inside the breast, The radiation is in specific area of breast and equally effective as whole breast radiation. The radiation is subjected from inside the breast by a special equipment named Intrabeam administered radiation from inside the breast to exact site of cancer.

The process has been successful to curb the recurrence of cancerous growth in breast.

This procedure has an advantage of saving time and cost of the treatment and also a lower radiotherapy toxicity. In a country like India where radiotherapy facility has not yet reached rural areas, patients can be saved from the time consuming procedure of 6 week duration and in single time intervention.

However there are some limitations , the patient should be over 45 years of age and the size of tumor should not be bigger than 3 cm.

However , this evolution in breast cancer treatment would certainly be a new ray of hope to millions of breast cancer victims in the world in coming days.

Another milestone for Kerala

along with distinctions of the best public healthcare available and with internationally comparable health indicators , the state Kerala has added another hat to its feather by launching Dr SMS. facility on mobile network. In an initiative to take make healthcare accessible by use of mobile technology, the Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM), the state has introduced Dr SMS. This is is a free service that makes health facilities, available to people through the use of mobile. KITSM is an autonomous body actively involved in implementation of e-governance project across the state.

Requirements from the citizen is to open the text messaging application: Type --- Health ----> Pin code --->health concern and send it to predesignated number and within minutes the user gets information about health facilities and physicians,in the locality. The service is also available through web portal www.drsms.kerala.gov.in , however subjected to the internet availability to remote areas, mobile SMS facility would be of great help and use to people.

Source : the eHealth newsletter 2nd June 2010

Know your DNA spit kit and its impact

As the new start up in Sandiego announced the kit to be released to market for testing your DNA and speculating the risks of getting heart diseases , diabetes , cancer , cancer and various other drug reactions. The kit costs 20 to 30 US dollars and easy to use as claimed by the biotech company. If this works out this would be a breakthrough in early detection and would lead to the early intervention and control for limiting the predisposing factors.

The start up kits is meant to collect sputum and then send that to the laboratory where it is tested for the DNA. The kit contains kit to collect saliva and a prepaid system of courier service to send the collected sample. The user can activate an account on company's website online and the report generated by the lab can be accessed by the user online . To be noted , these kind of facility for test of pregnancy , paternity test cholesterol and blood sugar existed earlier, but the genomic test will open up a new arena altogether, opening up a new sphere of control and management of the non communicable diseases which pose a big threat to the society in coming years. The validation by regulatory authorities are a concern.

Related issues :

Knowing predisposing conditions might lead to moral concerns about marriages, childbirth,effect on mental health , inheritance and several other social , financial and business decisions. It is highly complicated process and can trigger a social stigma without proper counselling.

Infant mortality due to malnutrition

We have passed cross twenty first century and vouch " health for all" but unfortunately statistics reveal, 50 % of death in children accounted to malnutrition in India. This is a sad state of affair. The ministry for WCD ( women and child development has proposed a surveillance system for backward districts and identification of clusters and cases of death due to Malnutrition.

NRHM, JnNURM , ICDS , Rajiv Gandhi national drinking water mission and national food security mission are already working on this and imparting their contributions, but is not enough,

A diligent approach is needed for identification of bottlenecks and immediate action needs to be taken.

Another Step

A medical technology park in the outskirts of Chennai city , exemption on customs duty on medical equipments and now tax rebate for hospitals coming up in urban areas and metros with a minimum bed size of 100, certainly positive indications of growth and will boost morale of the entrepreneurs who want to invest in infrastructure development in healthcare.

The long standing hesitation to invest in healthcare due to diversity in the business , dependence on various factors for success , longer break even period , costlier equipments , change of technology, and several other factors has seen motivating elements like above. This is just a start. The government has not only increased the health care budget to 22,300 crores ( 22.3 Trillion ) Indian rupees, but also taken initiatives to renovate the public healthcare in tertiary healthcare facilities, and continuing developments in primary healthcare.

Though this sounds to be impressive, we still have a long way to go. There is need of subsidies to small players like 20 to 50 bedded nursing homes which have good penetration and serve to a bigger crowd both below poverty line and middle economic class population.There are need of regulations which would not be stringent but would serve the purpose, There is need of a national commission to standardise the pay structure of all health care workers and diminish the disparities lying .

Hope we are moving to wards a real feel good, than telling ourselves "All Iz WELL"

New Hospital projects commissioned in 2010

Indian Healthcare - The most diverse and serving

Indian healthcare delivery is a mix of all possible forms of delivery , Here you will find

1. Public healthcare delivery
2. Private ( Corporate Chain healthcare establishments)
3. Private ( Single player )
4. Private - Trust owned
5. Small nursing homes ranging from 20 to 50 beds
6. Public limited owned hospitals ( NALCO , SAIL etc, port hospitals,
7. Army command hospitals. BSF hospitals. CRPF hospitals, CSIF hospitals
8. ESIC hospitals
9. Railways hospitals
10. Trust owned hospitals (e.g. CSI group of hospitals ) and the list goes on

The care delivery is so intensive and competitive that , it keeps the healthcare cost comparatively lower than the world scenario. On a gross scale, if we take an average , Indian doctors charge very nominal fee as compared to anywhere in the world, without compromising the healthcare quality. yes there lies a disparity in terms of rural urban technology reach and dense clustering of super specialists around tier one and tier two cities of India.but the way infrastructure development is progressing and there is a paradigm shift occurring in terms of NRHM initiatives , there will be a reverse brain drain to the villages and disparities will start o minimise.

Jan Ausadhi Yojana

In a unique initiative to make healthcare affordable Government of India has planned to start chain of pharmacies which will be open 24 X 7 and will provide popular medicines at much lower cost than the market price. This is an initiative of department of pharmaceuticals under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers. Currently the Jan Ausadhi stores are available in following states ( Orissa , Madhya Pradesh , Punjab , Andhra Pradesh and are expected to start in other states, This is a welcome action but implementation and quality compliance to provide this service to the people from the segment of society who can not afford basic medicines should be sustained for coming times.