Explore telehealth, tech solutions to take health infra to rural areas: Venkaiah Naidu

Hyderabad: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu suggested exploring telehealth and technological solutions to take health infrastructure to rural and remote areas of the country. He was speaking in a recorded inaugural message for the 15th Global Health Summit organised by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) on January 5.

Naidu expressed concern that while urban areas have technology in tertiary care that attracts international patients, it is worrisome that rural areas are lagging with limited access to even primary care. To bridge this, Naidu suggested seriously exploring the use of telehealth and other technological solutions to reach out better to rural and remote areas. "This will expand the utilisation of our limited manpower and health infrastructure to reach the last mile," he said.

In this regard, Naidu complemented AAPI for its' Adopt a Village' programme. Under the 'Adopt a village' programme and working with its motto of 'Prevention is better than cure', the association is conducting diagnostic tests in 75 villages selected from across India with the help of teleclinics to detect diabetes, BP, stroke, kidney diseases, etc to enable precautionary measures against the same. Currently, AAPI in collaboration with Telangana's Global TeleClinics has started the 'Adopt a village programme' in five states- Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu further said that the collaboration between India and US in healthcare can reap benefits for the entire world. Noting that Indian firms have collaborated with US-based organisations to produce the recently approved vaccines Corbevax and Covovax, Naidu said, "This experience clearly shows India-US collaboration in healthcare can reap great benefits not only for our countries but for the entire world.

The Vice President further praised Indian-origin medical professionals for making their mark in every corner of the world and being the personification of our nation's civilizational value of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'. "They are among the most successful ambassadors of India's value systems," he added.

Naidu also congratulated Telangana for excelling in the recently released NITI Aayog's fourth round of state health index. Telangana had come third in overall and incremental performance in NITI Aayog's Health index.

Various CMEs and discussions are scheduled as part of the AAPI-Global Health Care Summit from January 5 to 7 at Avasa Hotel in Madhapur.