With this year’s Union Budget, healthcare seems to have gotten a shot in the arm. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has  said that the government has prepared an action plan for helping those with poor health and has made its intentions clear to  eliminate Filariasis by 2017, leprosy by 2018, measles by 2020 and tuberculosis by 2025. The budget proposal said that the 1.5 lakh health sub-centers will be transformed into health and wellness centers. In order to increase the number of doctors in secondary and tertiary care, the government is making structural reforms in medical education and practice.

One of the biggest highlights for the healthcare space is the focus on new rules regarding medical devices, aimed at attracting investment in the sector and ensuring the reduced cost of devices. The new rules for pricing medical devices should benefit the common man.

Overall, the government has introduced measures to make drugs and devices affordable, but there needs to be a stronger focus on setting up an infrastructure fund and creating an environment to ensure that startups can focus on domestic production of equipment, devices and wearables.

Still a lot remains to be done

By 2020 India will be the youngest country in the world. World is changing rapidly, so is the youth. Education, awareness and knowledge have largely been responsible for this change. Given the exposure to explosion of information but with the lack of correct knowledge; youth have a lot of unanswered queries regarding their overall health and wellbeing. We must continue our efforts to reach out and create a better awareness about health, safety, wellbeing and issues about family life education & sexuality among the youth.

Educational institutes must take a lead.

The point to ponder is – are you the part of this transformation? As envisaged by Padmbhushan Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, “today we have to follow the Mantra of Doing well by doing good” . Today, it is everyone’s responsibility to protect the people and planet and give back socially, whether you are a corporate, educational institute, medical professional, government or a common man.

WeSchool with a focus on Health and fitness may it be in its young MBA students; faculty and staff colleagues, has been celebrating Yoga, meditation, and talks by Spiritual Gurus at a specially designed space called Nirvana at its Mumbai campus. With a well set modern Gym, adventure/outbound activities and IMPACT, an inter-B schools cricket tournament,  sports  becomes an integral part of the young MBA’s  academic journey at WeSchool. With the abolition of plastic bottles and packaged water and setting up of a Bio-Gas unit at the Mumbai campus, participation in activities like the cleanliness audit of a BMC ward etc, WeSchool has time and again reinforced its intent to contribute its mite to the health and fitness of people and planet.

Active on Micro as well as Macro levels with WeSchool’s collaborative initiatives in Healthcare and Social welfare space

‘MIT Media Lab -WeSchool Design Innovation Workshop’ in partnership with WeSchool is  an important milestone of the WeSchool’s “Design and Innovation” initiatives. Here, one saw the youthful energy and passion getting channelized in the right direction for a meaningful impact  in the development of prototypes from tracks which had no specific healthcare focus as well. It was the passion of participants who wanted to address physical and physiological needs of the people that led to the final outcome of prototypes of  HealthTech Mattress (A flexible, foldable, anywhere, anytime mattress which had incorporated elements of relaxation as well as health monitoring and alert system).Hand Glove(An interesting prototype for mobility and accessibility for the differently abled persons), Shoe Sole (This sole that would record the motion and post the motion would give corrections to the movement and angle of running, to prevent foot injuries. A very useful accessory for athletes as well as people at large), Biodegradable Cast (A prototype  apt for rural & tertiary town emergency first-aid care for immobilization of the limb in case of a fracture or accident and trauma cases),Plastic Cube Toys (Prototype which would work wonders for the children with developmental issues, learning problems etc.)

During the ReDx-Redesigning Diagnostics’ by the Camera Culture Group, MIT Media Lab, USA with IIT-B, Hinduja National Hospital and WeSchool, Affordable healthcare diagnostics  which were hitherto a distant dream became reality, as Go-to-market prototypes like Stethocardiogram( A low-cost, handheld screening device for valvular heart disease), Low Cost X- Ray Machine  , iLABLEit(  For Retinal Imaging Annotation), DAAnt( An automated devise for early detection and continuous monitoring of dental health) ,Cardio24 (An integrated platform that enables automated diagnosis of cardiac health )and Sleep Apnea were showcased at the grand finale .

MED4DEV India-Israel Innovation in Affordable Healthcare was a great platform at WeSchool in collaboration with Tel Aviv University that facilitated a confluence of a diversity developers, designers, designers, social activists, healthcare specialists and MBA students working towards a common goal; to solve health related issues and build something innovative and meaningful. The innovative System for Monitoring the patients adherence to treatment thru Smart Code Remote Monitoring system (SCRMS)  , the paperless tracking system of children’s immunization using biometrics  and  crowd funding for Improving access to funding for cancer treatments   were some of the solutions  found during the Hackathon  for empowering low and lower-middle income communities in India with affordability, accessibility and quality healthcare .

The journey continues as WeSchool has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide students with the opportunity to work on live projects, during summer in an on-going effort to groom its students better to enable them become future leaders. The government is doing its bit but we need to collaborate and work towards motivating the youth to participate as they are sensitive, committed lot, they want to give back to the society and make a difference in the global community. The tools for  increasing health awareness ,offering solace to the needy and contribute to society’s well-being  are available to all of us and its about time that we stopped depending on government’s aid and become active contributors in the welfare of the planet that is  our home.

- Contributed by Prof  Dr Uday Salunkhe,Group Director,WeSchool