The three-day Global Healthcare Summit 2013 concluded here on Thursday with the Central Government and the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) putting in place a permanent mechanism to channelise the expertise of Indian medical Diaspora for the benefit of the Indian citizens.
Union Ministry of Health and American Association of Physicians of Indian Originjointly launched a website which will link millions of Indian healthcare professionals, including over three lakh doctors working abroad, and channelise their services for the people of India.
The government will post all requests for collaboration, including training, transfer of expertise and opportunities or even specific requests for clinical service, on the website, and the NRI medical professionals can volunteer for the same during their vacations and trips to India.
“This has been a long-standing request as we wanted to give something back to our homeland and we are happy about this. We will be able to provide our expertise to the needy through this initiative.
“We will also be looking at other options, including setting up offices in India to extend continuous support to the Indian authorities,” AAPI president and the chair of the summit Dr Narendra Kumar said.
The three-day mega event was attended by over 380 foreign delegates and 1,000 national delegates. The conference, which was the largest gathering of the Indian medical Diaspora, was organised jointly by AAPI, Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (GAPIO) and Indian Medical Association (IMA), in collaboration with the Union Ministries of Overseas Indian Affairs and Health.
“The next such summit will be held at Ahmedabad from January 3-5, 2014,” Dr Kumar said.
Earlier in the day, the top brass of the healthcare industry came together for a ‘CEO forum’ and discussed options for collaborations. Chairing the event, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Jayant Kumar Banthia welcomed the overseas Indians to associate with the state government in all possible ways.
Participating in the forum, Dr Abraham Mulamootil (Pushpagiri Hospital, Tiruvalla) also asked the medical community abroad to
help the medical colleges in India by sharing expertise and training to groom the future generation of practitioners.
Apart from plenary sessions, interactive round-table conferences, clinical practice workshops and meet-the-expert sessions, the first-ever scientific poster session was also held as part of the meet.