THE LATEST FROM SWASTH
ALL HANDS CALLS
Every month, Swasth hosts All Hands Calls as a platform for exchanging ideas, showcasing innovations in the healthcare field, and for inter-sectoral knowledge-sharing. Our previous call featured Dr Shankar Prinja, Executive Director, National Health Authority. In a highly interactive session moderated by Dr Chintan Maru, Dr Prinja discussed his Consultation Paper — ‘From Volume-Based Care to Value-Based Care: Ensuring Better Health Outcomes and Quality Healthcare under AB-PMJAY’.
You can access the recording of this and other All Hands Calls on our Youtube channel.
Our upcoming All Hands Call for August is an exciting one: we have Anurag Kumar (World Bank) discussing the paper he co-authored while at NITI Aayog: ‘Health Insurance for India’s Missing Middle’. The theme is of special significance as we approach 4 years of the launch of AB-PMJAY, with over 40 crore Indians — ‘the missing middle’ — still lacking financial protection. Anurag’s presentation will be followed by a fireside chat with Malti Jaswal (World Bank) and Birendra Mohanty (ICICI Lombard).
Join the call via Zoom on Monday, 22nd August at 7PM IST (Passcode: 781229).
HEALTH CLAIMS EXCHANGE UPDATE
Our major focus in the last few months has been on expanding the Health Claims Exchange — a digital public good which will transform the way health insurance claims are processed in India. A set of common e-claims exchange specifications and a digital platform to enable this exchange, HCX holds the beginnings of an immensely impactful inter-operable, health benefits network. It aims to ease the flow of information between payers and providers for faster and seamless insurance claims processing. We are currently in the pilot phase with over 10 insurers and multiple hospitals, and working on signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Health Authority. We are also drafting policy guidelines for how transactions between participants on HCX will work. All this has been guided by the tireless work of 80+ volunteers from different facets of the healthcare ecosystem.
HCX is a community-led effort informed by our working groups. We are looking to grow this community as we shape this switch.
You can join the HCX community on Discord and Github. To learn more about how to best get involved with HCX, drop us a note at hcx@swasthapp.org for an invite.
NEWS FROM OUR NETWORK
MUKTI BOSCO BECOMES FIRST INDIAN TO BAG ROUX PRIZE
Mukti Bosco, Founder and CEO of Healing Fields Foundation, has etched her status as a trailblazer by becoming the first social entrepreneur and first Indian to receive the 2022 Roux Prize, the world’s largest award for evidence-based public health achievement, awarded annually by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
Mukti’s Community Health Entrepreneurship Program has empowered 5,000 women leaders to generate income while educating their populations on preventive healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, and non-communicable diseases and providing access to care through facilitated tele-health. Her endeavour has benefitted over 6 million families in the remote areas of UP, Bihar, Telangana and Jharkhand.
Today, CHEs are in a position to evaluate and intervene in the unique health challenges of their respective communities and extend the required help. Through strategic data collection, which includes tracking health trends through community studies and surveys conducted by mobile phones, they can quickly identify evidence-based solutions to improve access and health outcomes.
Mukti will receive the Roux Prize in October in London, which will include a $100,000 award to support Healing Fields’ ongoing work.
DR ALEXANDER THOMAS WINS INAUGURAL WATERFALLS GLOBAL AWARD
Dr Alexander Thomas, President of the Association of Healthcare Providers India, has been awarded the inaugural Waterfalls Global Award (Healthcare Sector) for his distinguished contribution to the fight against COVID-19. The award is a part of UAE’s contributions to global efforts in recognising the work of health workers.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Dr. Thomas worked closely with the Central, State governments and NGOs to set up dedicated COVID hospitals and facilitated vaccine distribution. He organised COVID-specific training and helped supply crucial oxygen concentrators and generation plants. He also rapidly set up expert committees to develop health-based recommendations to enable the safe reopening and rebuilding of India’s economy. These recommendations were translated into white papers on COVID-19 safety protocols, the safe resumption of air travel as well as the reopening of schools.
iKURE RECEIVES THE 2022 BENGAL’S PRIDE AWARD
The Bengal’s Pride Award was awarded to iKure, which was selected as the ‘Global SME of the Year’ for its ‘significant contribution in affordable and accessible primary healthcare using technology in India’s last mile community’. Sujay Santra, Founder & CEO, received the award at the House of Commons in the British Parliament, in a ceremony chaired by British MP Anna Firth on 20th July. The award celebrates the achievements of the Bengali Ethnic Community from India and Bangladesh.
iKure has worked to shift the public healthcare paradigm from an individualised, curative model to a community-based preventive healthcare system to ensure the holistic well-being of communities. The population health management company meets primary health care and prevention needs through a unique combination of health outreach initiatives, skill development and technology intervention. Over 3 million people across 6400 villages have benefitted by gaining access to treatment facilitated by iKure.
