A memorandum of understanding was signed between Apollo Group and CSC under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology in Delhi. Apollo Hospitals started telemedicine 13 years back, in an effort to bring healthcare closer to patients of both urban and rural areas. Apollo Tele Health Services, a group company of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited, has signed a MoU with CSC. This collaboration is aimed at providing primary, preventive and promotive healthcare through tele consultation to rural patients from telemedicine speciality centres situated within Apollo hospitals across various locations in the country and will run virtual clinics for patients using telemedicine technology. This is the first time in the country that healthcare services are being delivered using information and communication technology at a large scale. Speaking on the occasion, Apollo Hospitals, Executive Director, Sangita Reddy said that the group planned to make healthcare available to more than 1,00,000 CSC centres using telemedicine platform under its Rural Connect programme. The Common Services Centres Scheme, being the corner stone initiative through the National e-Governance plan of India, is a milestone achievement in creating a structured change agent for socially inclusive community action, according to CSC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dinesh Kumar Tyagi. Apollo Tele Health Services, CEO, Vikram Thaploo said the rural connect programme was designed to be socially relevant, financially sustainable and a scalable model. He also added that 112 centres were made operational under this tie-up.  

A medical revolution has been launched under County Group of Hospitals of Kumasi and Apollo Group of Hospitals in India, following the launch of telemedicine in Ghana at the Abenkyiman Hospital at Anhwiankwanta in the Bekwai Municipality. Apollo Hospitals is the largest telemedicine provider in India with 71 centres. Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology in order to provide clinical health care from a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers, and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations. Early forms of telemedicine achieved with telephone and radio have been supplemented with video telephony, advanced diagnostic methods, supported by distributed client/server applications, and additionally, with telemedical devices to support in-home care. Telemedicine, by which the best healthcare is brought to everybody through the expertise of highly qualified doctors through technology, was successfully launched at the Abenkyiman Hospital on Nov 8 2013. The partnership, initiated by Dr. Kwame Antwi, Chief Executive Officer of County Hospitals, is to exploit the clinical excellence of the Indian counterparts. A group of medical experts from India are currently doing feasibility studies towards establishing a referral centre in telemedicine in the next years. Dr. K. Hari Prasad, Chief Executive of Apollo Hospitals, an expert in acute stroke treatment, who is leading a group of nine medical experts, said the team would also launch a “”medical camp””, where specialists would avail their expertise and services to clients in the treatment and management of kidney, liver and stroke, among other ailments, at Abenkyiman. The Apollo Chief Executive gave the assurance that about 85,000 medical experts involved in Apollo would support Dr. Antwi to realise his vision of making Abenkyiman a destination of excellence in telemedicine in Ghana. Dr. Kwame Antwi said services at the centre were affordable, and that it would cost between GHÇ50 and GHÇ100 to access telemedicine, through which patients would be connected to the best doctors around the globe. The Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who witnessed the launching of the technology, commended Dr. Antwi for the foresight and championing the introduction of telemedicine in Ghana, and hoped Ghanaians would take advantage of the facility, which is intended to further enhance quality healthcare delivery.  

The award is given in recognition of the exemplary effort, commitment and dedication to leveraging on healthcare ICT to transform patient care and outcome. The award was presented at the HIMSS Digital Healthcare Week in Singapore, on 21 October 2013. The award was presented by Stephen Lieber, President and CEO of HIMSS worldwide and Gerrit Bos, Managing Director APAC, Elsevier. Ms. Sangita Reddy received the awards on behalf of the group. Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Reddy said “With patient centricity at the core, Apollo Hospitals has continuously focused on initiatives that provide superior patient care and comfort. The Apollo Prism initiative resonates perfectly with our ethos and helps us in providing our patients with secure and convenient access to their medical information, irrespective of their location across the world. We do believe that Apollo Prism representing a robust medical record will encourage individuals to stay more engaged with their health and in turn enhance clinical outcomes and also reduce unnecessary costs”. Ms. Reddy further added, “Apollo Prism has been launched across all Apollo Hospitals locations and has been tightly integrated with Hospital Information System across locations, thus providing clinically validated information to patients, who come to Apollo Hospitals. Patients can also download the mobile application of Apollo Prism that lets them receive their lab test results on their phone. Apollo Prism is also an interface for diabetic patients, for managing their diabetes. Thus, beyond helping a patient to track and manage their health information, the PHR enables continuous, preventive and wellness support.” “We would like to congratulate the HIMSS-Elsevier Digital Healthcare Awards winners. We received nominations from across the Asia Pacific region such as China, Hong Kong, India, Korea and Singapore. The winners have demonstrated superior implementation and utilization of health IT systems that have directly resulted in organization-wide advancements in patient care and operational efficiencies. We hope that their projects will inspire a new wave of IT advancement in the healthcare delivery,” said Steven Yeo, Vice President & Executive Director, HIMSS Asia Pacific, General Manager, HIMSS Analytics Asia Pacific & Middle East. “It is exciting and encouraging to witness how the Asia Pacific healthcare industry is embracing the transformational role of technology to harness the power of medical information. The organizations recognized for the HIMSS-Elsevier Digital Healthcare Award have demonstrated how technology adoption can achieve efficiencies and improve quality of care. It is for this very reason that Elsevier is proud to support and celebrate this innovative spirit of the community,” said Gerrit Bos, Managing Director APAC, Elsevier. Apollo Hospitals in collaboration with Health Hiway, a cloud based Health Information Network had launched its highly secure, web-based Personal Health Record (PHR) – Apollo Prism Headquartered in Bangalore. Health Hiway is a cloud based health information network that enables seamless exchange of health information – data sharing and transactional – between hospitals, clinics, diagnostics, insurers, doctors and Patients.  

HIMSS Analytics Asia Pacific has recognized three hospitals within Apollo Group for achieving Stage 6 on the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM)SM. The hospitals are: Apollo Main Hospitals, Chennai Apollo Health City, Jubilee Hills, Apollo Hospitals Ayanambakkam, Chennai These Stage 6 hospitals were recognized at the HIMSS Digital Healthcare Week in Singapore, on 21 October 2013. The award was presented by Stephen Lieber, CAE President & CEO of HIMSS worldwide; in the presence of Dr. Amy Khor , Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Manpower, Republic of Singapore; Steven Yeo, Vice President & Executive Director HIMSS Asia Pacific and John Hoyt, Executive Vice President, HIMSS Analytics Ms. Sangita Reddy received the awards on behalf of the group. Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Reddy said ” As a pioneering organization, Apollo Hospitals has always been of the firm belief that an increased use of contemporary information technology would be pivotal to enhanced patient safety and a higher standard of healthcare delivery. The HIMSS Stage 6 awards underscore our commitment to this ethos and our mission to make quality healthcare accessible to every individual. Recognition is a great motivator and the HIMSS awards will encourage us to harness information technology and nurture an ecosystem of safer healthcare in every Apollo Hospital. It reinforces our commitment to using technology to enable and effective and efficient health system for tomorrow. Much more remains to be done in our quest for quality equitable and sustainable health systems. Information technology is at the core of our strategy.” HIMSS Analytics developed the EMR Adoption Model in 2005 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for hospitals in the HIMSS AnalyticsTM Database. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), hospitals can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced patient record environment. “HIMSS Analytics congratulates Apollo Hospitals Chennai, Apollo Health City, Jubilee Hills and Apollo Hospitals Ayanambakkam, for leading the way towards health IT adoption,”said Mr. Steven Yeo, General Manager of HIMSS Analytics Asia Pacific & Middle East. “Stage 6 represents a level of sophistication that only 2.3% of hospitals in Asia Pacific have reached to date. The awards validate Apollo Hospitals’ strong commitment towards patient safety and care quality through the use of advanced information technology”  

Honourable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu Selvi J Jayalalithaa today recognised Apollo Hospitals’ 12th multispecialty hospital in Vanagaram, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Over the last year, the local communities of Anna Nagar, Poonammale, Porur and other surrounding areas have benefited immensely from the Hopsital’s expertise in Tertiary Care and Emergency services. India has a long way to go in ensuring complete health for all citizens and we are glad to be contributing towards this journey of healing a nation. Today, while India is globally recognised for its unparalleled clinical outcomes, there are many in the underserved geographies who are yet to experience affordable quality healthcare. As the first Private Healthcare provider in the Country, Apollo has always worked towards raising the benchmark for administering healthcare of global standards by continuously investing in our talent, technology and patient care.”In addition to 24*7 Emergency and Trauma Care, at Apollo Vanagaram one can avail of services across 30 specialties including that of cardiology, neurology & neurosurgery, obstetrics & gynaecology, nephrology, ophthalmology, endocrinology, paediatrics, and orthopaedics & spine surgery among others. Ms. Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, said “Thirty years ago, we began our journey of healing in Chennai with a mission to bring healthcare of international standards within the reach of every individual. The same vision steers our efforts even today as we are spreading our footprint across tier II and III locations to serve more people and enable positive clinical outcomes. Recently the Vanagaram facility was recognised with the HIMSS Analytics Asia Pacific for its significant advancement in IT capabilities addressing challenges faced as a healthcare provider, including one like reduction of medication errors. All of this testifies our continuous contribution towards delivering world class healthcare in India.” Over the years, Apollo has earned global recognition for its highly skilled medical talent and world class infrastructure that enable it to deliver clinical outcomes that compare with the best institutions in the world, at an affordable cost. Trusted across the world with patients from over 120 countries availing of its services and encouraged by the recent recognition as the World’s No. 1 Solid Organ Transplant Facility, the Group is committed to strengthening its prowess as a global healthcare destination. Facilities & Amenities at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram include: 24*7 Emergency State of the art ICU/CCU units Facility for virtual ICU visits Cutting-edge imaging and diagnostic facilities Cath lab World class Operation suites 24*7 Pharmacy 5 to 9 Evening Clinic Insurance Facilitation Home Collection services for diagnostic test samples  

Can cell phones save lives? Marking a significant shift, Indian healthcare providers are now looking at extending medical services through mobile telephony. This means a cancer patient in a Tamil Nadu district hospital can have the option of consulting a specialist in Kolkata or a heart patient in Meerut can receive treatment from a cardiologist in Bangalore. Apollo Hospitals – which is already running a telemedicine project – is planning to ramp up its plans of providing medical services through technology like blue tooth enabled glucometers or stethoscopes to send ECG results or sugar test to its panel of doctors. Last week saw the launch of a 46-member strong conglomeration of hospitals, health insurers, and medical service providers under the aegis of NatHealth or the Health Federation of India which among other things plans to provide access to standardized healthcare at reasonable cost. Notwithstanding challenges like low bandwidth and internet penetration, health professionals feel that there is a huge market (900 million Indian cell phone owners) waiting to be tapped. A recent study conducted by Apollo Hospitals and Georgia State University, Atlanta, gives credence to this belief. The survey found that nearly 28% people in rural areas and 46% in urban areas owned smartphones. Conducted across a sample of 1,866 people spread in five states – Chhattisgarh Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu – it also found that one-third of those interviewed had not undergone a health check-up in five years with 55% saying they were open to accessing medical services through mobile phones. Dr Ganapathy, Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation president, said, “People should take an increasing role in managing their own health condition.” The pilot project will be launched in Aragonda village in Andhra Pradesh and will be followed by a rollout across the country. NatHealth secretary general Anjan Bose said plans were afoot to change the way medical care was given. “If the doctor will not go to rural areas, we plan to take the patient to the doctor.” This has become relatively easy with new technology. Bose said under the aegis of Nat Health, medical professionals will be talking to the Centre and state governments to provide health infrastructure, use technology to provide quicker and accurate diagnosis, link primary healthcare centres with super specialty hospitals among other plans.  

The NABH accreditation is the result of high level of dedication, commitment & hard work displayed by the employees and consultants of Apollo BGS Hospitals, Mysore. The hospital was announced as NABH Accredited on September 19th 2013 and thereby became the 7th NABH Accredited hospital in the group. The hospital is amongst those few which have completed the NABH accreditation process in short period. The key areas which were appreciated during the audit process are – Involvement and commitment of Top management and all staffs across the hospital Improvement noticed since Pre-assessment Commitment to improve PPE’s & their usage Biomedical waste management Near zero surgical site infection Mock drill demonstration Infrastructure (Renovated MICU & OT Complex) The Leadership, Consultants & Employees at Apollo BGS Hospitals, Mysore are committed to continue the quality journey to provide the highest standards of patient care to the people of Mysore and beyond. About NABH Accreditation National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organizations. The board is structured to cater to much desired needs of the consumers and to set benchmarks for progress of health industry.  

Chief Executive Officer of National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), Dr K K Kalra inaugurated Apollo Cancer Hospital, Bilaspur on 23rd October, 2013 in the presence of Dr Rupali Basu, CEO (Eastern Region), Apollo Hospitals and Brig (Dr) Anil Kumar Sharma, CEO of Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur. Apollo Cancer Hospital (ACH), Bilaspur is a new block within the premises of Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur. ACH offers the facility of every kind of diagnostic, therapeutic, palliative and support services under one roof, making it one-stop cancer care hospital. The latest state-of-the-art linear accelerator (Clinac iX) is the first of its kind of installation for Radiation Therapy in the state of Chhattisgarh. We believe that the latest technology operated by personnel with unmatched competence and years of experience is essential to deliver the best quality of care.  

The collaboration will leverage a Medtronic-developed technology platform, supported by clinical insight from Apollo. Both organizations envision an affordable and accessible health care delivery system that addresses the critical need for dialysis solutions in India. Both companies do not expect the collaboration to materially impact their earnings in the respective company’s fiscal year. Specifically, the collaboration seeks improved accessibility, outcomes, affordability, operational ease, and environmental protection while providing hemodialysis services to ESRD patients requiring RRT. Medtronic intends to develop and manufacture key components of this system in India, with an investment of more than 150 crore rupees (US$25 million). For the first time, Medtronic is establishing an India R&D team that will focus on design, development and manufacturing of key components of the system in India. The commercial launch of the product is slated for 2016. Dr. Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals said, “Our partnership with Medtronic will help in fulfilling our vision of delivering better clinical outcomes through bench-to-bedside innovation. This alliance reinforces Apollo’s commitment to research-driven healthcare. We are undertaking this landmark initiative to explore opportunities in dialysis solutions to address a critical need with the right, yet affordable treatment as part of our legacy of providing clinical excellence. This collaboration is a further symbol of Apollo’s commitment to having a share in everyone’s good health by touching lives.” “Medtronic is committed to creating technologies that can reduce barriers to treatment, enhance and extend the lives of patients around the world, and reduce healthcare costs. In the case of hemodialysis, both the cost and lack of mobility of current systems have made broader access to dialysis treatment difficult and expensive. Our goal is to build a unique, internally developed system that will be portable, will lower costs, and will be more efficient in its use of water and other critical features than existing dialysis systems. Our collaboration with Apollo allows us to further tailor our system to best meet the needs of patients and physicians in India and will leverage Apollo’s deep expertise and reach in treating ESRD patients,” said Omar Ishrak, chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic, Inc. In India, approximately 10 percent of adults (nearly 7.5 crore or 75 million people) suffer from chronic kidney disease, and it is estimated that nearly two lakh (200,000) new ESRD patients require dialysis or kidney transplant every year. In spite of multiple efforts to decrease the high mortality and improve the quality of life of ESRD patients, several important infrastructure and economic barriers have prevented broader access to dialysis treatment in India. When a patient reaches ESRD, options for survival are very limited unless they receive RRT. The best treatment option for ESRD patients is renal transplant. However, research suggests that only five percent of ESRD patients receive a needed transplant. This gap between demand and supply of organs will only widen over time, as more patients develop kidney disease and enter ESRD. The next best treatment alternative to RRT for ESRD patients is dialysis, a process that enables the removal of excess metabolic waste, toxins, and water from the blood. Dialysis is performed using two modalities – peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis. Hemodialysis is by far the most widely used treatment option globally and in India. More than 90 percent of patients who undergo dialysis in India receive hemodialysis. Today, the standard frequency of receiving hemodialysis is three sessions a week, each lasting between three to five hours per session. Patients typically receive this therapy in a hospital or stand-alone dialysis centre, with a very limited number of patients receiving therapy at home. Apollo Hospitals and Medtronic expect that a new portable system would broaden a healthcare provider’s capability to serve patients from hospital to home, saving costs to the healthcare system overall.  

BP Clinics is an initiative aimed at combating the menace of high BP in the country, with focus on reducing or delaying incidence of blood pressure and minimising the incidence of complications in those who are already hypertensive, Sangita Reddy, executive director of Apollo Hospitals Group, said in a release. “Around Rs 10 crore will be invested in setting up these clinics in the initial phase, and these will be expanded further after reviewing the outcomes,” she said, adding initially, the group would be launching these clinics at Apollo Jubilee Hills and Hyderguda here, followed by Apollo Secunderabad. These will have a structure comprising advanced BP Clinics located at Apollo’s hospitals and serve as hubs besides having a series of BP Clinics, Express BP Clinics and homecare services. These clinics will have advanced diagnostics infrastructure like periscopes, which can monitor central blood pressure and check elasticity of blood vessels, and devices for 24 hours BP monitoring. Speaking on the occasion, BP specialist, Venkata S Ram said only 50 per cent of the patients with hypertension were aware that they had high BP and among them only 50 per cent were on treatment and only 50 per cent of these had BP under control. “Around 90 million people in our country suffer from hypertension and approximately $24 billion is incurred annually to take care of high BP patients in India. It is estimated that around one in every three urbanites and one in four rural people are afflicted by hypertension in the country,” he added.  

Announcing the opening of the clinic, which comes under Apollo First Med Hospitals, Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, said on Friday the hospital chain would have a multi-pronged approach to diagnose complex fever and unknown origin. The initial investment would be around Rs 3 crore for the startup. “”We have started this at First Med Hospital and once it’s fine-tuned, we will have 10 such centers by the end of the year,”” she said, adding soon it would be rolled out in other parts of the country. Reddy said the hospital chain had invested in infrastructure and equipment for this initiative. The company has earlier said it would expand through retail healthcare, which involves moving outpatients from the main hospitals to the neighborhood areas and expand further in Tier II and III cities. Since 2012, some of the retail healthcare expansion projects of Apollo Group include dental clinics (Apollo White) with Trivitron — the chain now has over 20 clinics and plans are to have about 120 by 2014, and Apollo Dialysis.  

The Apollo Hriday Suraksha Package which will provide a one-of-its kind medical insurance to patients was launched by globally renowned cricketer Sourav Ganguly along with Dr Rupali Basu, CEO, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals and Eastern Region, Apollo Hospitals, India. Apollo Hriday Suraksha is a unique health check offer which comes with a double assurance. If all the reports for the person undergoing this check-up are normal, the hospital will provide a medical insurance coverage up to Rs. 2 lakhs valid for a period of one year from the date of the check-up. The insurance would cover the following: Heart Attack: PTCA (Angioplasty) & PPI (Permanent Pacemaker Implantation) Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery – CABG Open Heart Valve Replacement or repair For details of the package and online bookings please visit our page: https://apollogleneagles.in/Preventive Health Care.html