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Sri Ramachandra University
Chief Guest for Convocation Ceremony
S.Ramadorai
(Chennai, 16th June 2016, 4:00 pm)
Shri V.R. Venkataachalam, Chancellor
Dr Partha Sarathy, Professor of Eminence and Chief Advisor
Dr. Thyagarajan, Professor of Eminence and Dean (Research)
Dr. J.S.N. Murthy, Vice- Chancellor
Thiru Natarajan, Registrar
Members of the board of Management and Academic Council and my dear
students
A very good afternoon to all of you!
Introduction:
It is a pleasure to be here, at the 23rd convocation ceremony of Sri
Ramachandra University. First and foremost, congratulations to all the
students graduating today. Convocation symbolizes a transition from
being a student of an institution to becoming a student of LIFE engaged
in the practice of a vocation. You are fortunate that your institution has
provided you with the knowledge, techniques and skills that you will
need in today’s dynamic environment.
I am also told that the Sri
Ramachandra University is ranked amongst the top 10 Medical
institutions in India and is placed amongst the top 3 medical institutes
in South India by recent education surveys. What appeals most to me –
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is the fact that Sri Ramachandra University, through its nine
constituent colleges not only addresses the needs of core medical
professionals, it also caters to the applied fields of biomedical sciences,
applied research and allied health sciences, hospital management,
which are also important in the medical ecosystem.
Technological
Innovations
disrupting
the
healthcare
ecosystem:
Having spent my entire career in the information technology industry,
it has been interesting to see the increasingly influential role played by
information technology in the medical ecosystem. Let me share a few
examples:
Virtual reality and immersive technologies are now increasingly used to
train surgeons, and even to help patients dealing with neurological
disorders.
technologies.
One of our teams in Chennai is working with VR
They also work with 3D printers.
Today, several
researchers are able to 3D print biological tissue, and sooner than
later, 3D printing of living organs is going to be a practical reality.
Another practical application of technology in medical science is
Robotic surgery. The high precision of the robot allows for minimally
invasive surgery and drastically reduces any chances of error in the
surgery. The culture of the technology world has seeped into medical
surgical robots as well, and there are very strong Open Source robots
now available, and it may be worth examining closely.
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Genetics and advances in molecular biology have given a new
dimension to the study of life science and healthcare with the world
famous human GENOME project. A whole new field of bioinformatics
has come into being, intertwining the disciplines of genetics and
computing. Genomics is also shifting the pharmaceutical industry from
the blockbuster drug model to a personalized medicine model. The
rapid progress made by CRISPR techniques
short palindromic repeats)
(clustered regularly interspaced
is heralding profound changes- from the way we
eliminate pests, cure genetic disorders, to producing pest resistant
crops or increasing energy yield of biomass.
Computational Biology
In fact, just as technology is contributing to biology, the reverse is also
true. Scientists have been using deep learning algorithms which try to
model the human brain, especially in areas of speech, image
recognition. Recently a few months ago, Google’s alpha GO, a deep
learning software won the challenge match against Lee Sedol, the
widely recognised worldwide GO champion. Using these deep learning
algorithms, we can now sequence an individual genome for as less
than $1000, compared to $10,000 , just a few years ago.
Technology as a Great Equalizer
I look at technology as a great equalizer. Technology helps improve the
accessibility and affordability of any product or service by breaking
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geographical and economic barriers. This is relevant especially in a
country like India, where there is a stark divide between urban and
rural areas and socio-economic backgrounds.
With increasing usage of tele-medicine ‘specialist doctors’ can now
connect to remote places and help save lives. It is heartening to note
that the Sri Ramachandra Hospital has also been at the forefront of
utilising Information Technology. Using a satellite link, a doctor seated
at the Sri Ramachandra Hospital in Chennai is linked remotely via a
satellite to either a doctor or a nurse actually attending to patients in
some remote locations of the country. The satellite link, enables the
doctor to provide outpatient consultations and facilitate follow-ups for
patients who have undergone operations and returned home, thus
helping them save time and money. Thanks to high-speed broadband
and the internet, tele-medicine is slowly but surely gaining traction in
rural India, especially where accessibility is a problem.
Another example of how use of technology can help in making
accessibility of healthcare facilities easier is the implementation of the
new OPD management process at AIIMS New Delhi. With digitization
of the AIIMS processes and the introduction of innovative processes, it
has helped in streamlining and reducing the waiting period for OPD
patients from 6 hours to less than 2 hours. This new system has
brought in more convenience and accessibility to more than 3 million
patients who visit AIIMS every year.
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A lot of importance has been given to data in delivering efficient and
effective health care. Our teams have built and deployed powerful
data analytic platforms that enable to track and improve patient
outcomes.
With the emergence of Big Data and Machine Learning
algorithms, predictive healthcare is going to become a reality. For
example, India is today the diabetes capital of the world. A recent
Times of India report mentions that as many as 50 million people suffer
from type-2 diabetes in India. What is even more alarming is that
perhaps a larger number of our fellow citizens are not even aware that
they may already be diabetic. In the near future, it may be possible
that just with simple android phones and fitness trackers, we may able
to predict diabetes, and encourage such people to get tested early so
that their health outcomes are better and cost of care is lower for the
patient.
The suite of technologies comprising of what we call as ‘Internet of
Things or IoT’ is opening new ways to track and create value from this
‘data’. Wearable devices’ like fitbit or smart watches like the iWatch
are capturing basic data related to walking and sleep patterns. Beyond
such basic data, there are devices to monitor clinical data (e.g., blood
glucose or heart rate), and adherence data (e.g., taking medications as
prescribed).
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Internet of Things
India is not far behind in the IoT journey – Biosense, an IIMAhmedabad incubation company has introduced ToucHb, a hand-held
non-invasive, battery operated device that enables screening for
anaemia and simplifies monitoring of basic parameters on a regular
basis. It is empowering health workers with appropriate technology
and enables them with actionable data. The Swasthya slate is another
example of an Indian innovation where 33 diagnostic tests are made
available on a low-cost mobile device.
The information generated by the health sensors and technology
further transforms medicine from an art to a precision science. A real
time analysis of this data can help us adjust our daily routine towards
achieving good health and reducing the need of in-person doctor visits
or hospitalizations. The value which comes out of all this data is
incredible.
Healthcare Data:
Healthcare data can be mined and insights gleaned to make hospitals a
six sigma system. We have several pioneers in our own country like
Dr. Devi Shetty who has achieved amazing results. Such a data led
approach can eventually invert the healthcare paradigm by focusing on
wellness and prevention rather than illness and treatment.
Given India’s infrastructure woes, we are now looking at innovative
means to ensure speedy transportation of human organs like the heart
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or kidney using aerial drones. There is a project being carried out in
Bengaluru to understand its feasibility.
Another example is the use of Quality improvement techniques such as
Ishikawa diagrams for root cause analysis which are now being piloted
across Healthcare. Such techniques were once restricted to the
manufacturing and the software industry but are now finding
popularity across medical disciplines too.
I am reminded of my days when there was only one family doctor for
all our healthcare needs. With increasing specialization, these days are
gone. We now find the need to share our health and family history
records with several ‘specialists’ since it influences key decisions
related to diagnosis and treatment. Information Technology can play a
powerful role by creating software records of patients that can be
shared across doctors and hospitals to bring increased transparency,
efficiency and convenience. This system is already in use in western
countries, especially countries where healthcare is the Government’s
responsibility like the NHS in the UK, and I foresee something similar
happening in India soon.
What these various examples demonstrate is that technology not only
helps to bring about advances in medicine, but also helps improve the
quality and affordability of healthcare and ultimately improve patient
outcomes.
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Opportunities in Healthcare:
As a country, I feel there are several exciting opportunities, in the near
and medium term. India may be one of the fastest growing nations in
terms of GDP growth, but unfortunately a lot of gaps exist in health
outcomes in India. While there has been an increase in the number of
doctors graduating, the overall doctor to patient ratio across India is
quite low. And rural areas are still facing an acute shortage of qualified
medical professionals.
Recently our Prime minister launched the Start-Up India scheme to
make it easier for entrepreneurs to focus on unmet needs in our
society! Telemedicine and intelligent diagnostic support systems are
two obvious opportunities for ambitious and talented young doctors to
collaborate with engineers and entrepreneurs.
Speaking of entrepreneurship, the Government has successfully
launched a Make in India campaign as well. As you are aware, most
the medical equipment in our country is imported.
There is a
tremendous opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship here.
India can be a very attractive test-bed for low cost but high-tech
medical equipment. For example, a bright young researcher from IIT
Bombay has made considerable progress in low cost MRI machines
that have the potential to disrupt the entire MRI industry.
I must also add that the Government is focussed on Health and family
welfare in a big way by launching various new schemes and a push
towards increased usage of IT for expanding the health services. Today
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there is a ‘Swastha Bharat’ Mobile app available which gives
information on living a healthy lifestyle, disease symptoms, first aid
and more importantly public health alerts based on your location. After
a gap of 13 years the National Health Policy is being rewritten with an
aim to inform, clarify, strengthen and prioritise the role of the
Government in shaping health systems. The draft version is already
available in the public domain for stakeholder consultation. There has
been enhanced awareness on health issues throughout the country by
various multi-media campaigns. The National Health Mission is also
working on improving the infrastructure and presence of healthcare
facilities in the rural areas.
Quality and Skills:
With these basic building blocks now falling in place, there is also a
need to ensure that the right quality standards are being followed and
all the workforce in the healthcare industry are adequately skilled.
With this in mind, a Healthcare Sector Skill Council has been created
with the active participation of the Government, industry associations
and leading healthcare providers. Its focus is on identifying skill gap
studies across the Healthcare domain, framing national occupation
standards, developing high quality courses and training modules,
implement quality checks and build accreditation and certification for
the training providers and the students and enable employment by
organising various employment fairs across the country. This is very
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important considering the requirement of healthcare and allied
healthcare professionals throughout the country as well as across the
world. Be it in areas like Geriatric care which is now becoming very
popular in Europe, or basic areas like specialised child care which is
often neglected in countries like India. The requirement of skilled
professionals is the need of the hour. I will also take a moment to urge
all of you to ensure that in your future ‘jobs’, please ensure you hire
‘skilled’ and ‘certified’ professionals rather than people who may have
got trained on the job without the right skills and knowledge to back
their experience. The Government also has a Recognition of Prior skills
program, which enables such people to be assessed and certified at
their skill level and accordingly take ‘supplementary courses’ to reach a
desired level.
I have always wondered about how to make medical help affordable to
the general public in India. While the government is doing its bit, how
can we as individuals contribute towards this? A few months ago, I
came across an interesting article. Originating in Naples, Italy, is a
custom called ‘Caffe Sospeso’ translating to ‘suspended coffee’. This
means a cup of coffee paid for in advance as an anonymous act of
charity. This was a custom, where people who were well-to-do paid for
two cups of coffee while consuming only one. A poor person enquiring
later whether there was a sospeso available would then be served a
coffee for free with all the dignity due to a regular customer. This was a
very moving article and I thought that this was very much applicable to
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India in the context of medical services. Can people who belong to an
economically higher strata pay for medical services of somebody else
who cannot afford the same? Is this a practice worth emulating in
India?
Another area which is now gaining limelight is the use of generic
medicines in prescription. The Government has started the ‘Jan
Aushadhi Yojana’ to help sell good quality generic medicines at a lower
price. In India where more than 21% of its population are below the
poverty line this unique and noble concept will be of much help. As
doctors I believe that you hold the key to share generic alternatives
with patients thus giving them the choice of opting for low cost but
similar quality medicines to your patients.
As you stand on the cusp of a new life, may I urge you to look beyond
narrow gains to a larger vision of your profession and your society. I
urge you to continue to work for the welfare of your patients who
always look towards a medical practitioner with hope, expectation and
more importantly with trust.
Before I conclude, let me remind you that now Learning is a life-long
process for each one of you. The dynamics of knowledge, markets,
technology and skills are so fluid in today’s world that in order to be on
‘top of one’s game’, one needs to continuously seek and continuously
learn.
Each one of you is an ambassador of this institution, so keep the flag
flying high by working with honesty and commitment.
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In closing let me recall the words of Swami Vivekananda who urged us
to adhere to ‘the highest ideals. Place them day and night before you
……and out of that will come great work’. Congratulations once again
and my best wishes for a great life ahead!
Thank you
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