Giving a developed level to health sector, India and Sweden sign MoU for India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre

New Delhi, December 4: Giving a newly developed level to the health sector, India and Sweden sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre. “Our collaboration with Sweden has been exemplary and defining. The MoU between India and Sweden is one of the most active and successful bilateral MoUs signed by India in the health sector”, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Health & Family Welfare as he presided over the signing of the MoU.

 

Vardhan said that the India-Sweden partnership has been the most active as the Joint Working Group (JWG) has met ten times since 2009 which has led to substantial progress. The unique point of the MOU is that it has focused on creating new partnerships within the public, private and academic sectors, he added. He further stated that with 22 new AIIMS soon to become fully operational, and 157 new Medical Colleges in the development stage, the scope for further meaningful collaboration in the academic and research areas is immense.

The India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre in collaboration between the Swedish Trade Commissioner’s Office, AIIMS Delhi and AIIMS Jodhpur aims to develop an ecosystem of open innovation that start-ups and the healthcare delivery stakeholders can use to collaborate and address current and future challenges in the healthcare sector.

 

The key components of this Centre to drive innovation are innovation challenges, incubation, and mentorship, live Centre of excellence, skilling, global reach, conferences, digital showroom, white papers and support to access capital sources. This initiative will be in alignment with the Government of India’s Skill India and Start-up India, as well as the priorities agreed between India and Sweden for bilateral cooperation. The Innovation Centre’s objectives and strategic direction will be owned and driven by a pre-defined governance structure manned by representatives from all three collaborators. The Centre will run for an initial period of three years. Its impact will be assessed periodically to enable potential expansion at the end of the initial period of 3 years.

India and Sweden signed an MoU in February 2009 for collaboration in the field of healthcare and public health. The priority areas of cooperation under the MoU are:

(a) Non Communicable Disease, including controlling the associated risk factors of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods (b) Communicable diseases and Anti- Microbial Resistance (AMR) (c) Public Health Policy (d) Maternal and Child Health (e) Health Resource Development, especially strengthening of midwifery and nursing skills (f) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (g) Strengthening Health Systems, including e-Health and governance (h) Indigenous Systems of Medicine (i) Health and Medical Research (j) Medical Equipment and Pharmaceutical Products and (k) Health, Environment and Climate Change. Bilateral collaborations are on-going in respect of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, Infectious Disease Control & AMR, Public Health Research and Medical and Pharmaceutical Products; and collaborations in the new thematic areas of ‘Elderly Care’ and ‘Mental Health’ have been contemplated.