Cautioning that the next pandemic would not “wait for us to make global treaties”, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan called on countries to work together. “It’s the need of the hour to ensure that the next pandemic sees us adequately prepared as billions of lives and livelihoods will be at stake. Hence, we must act with a sense of urgency,” he said at the third Health Working Group of G20 India, at Hyderabad, on Monday.
Reiterating this, Michael Ryan, Executive Director, World Health Organization Health Emergency Programme, said that it’s time countries came together to ensure drugs, vaccines and diagnostics reached those who needed them the most, in an equitable manner. He added that work was underway to chart a future path, so that the world had a better response to the next pandemic. “India is a global player with strong manufacturing base for pharmaceuticals, and fantastic innovations in the digital health arena. It is in a strong position to provide healthcare services to the last mile. It’s very appropriate that in this G20 Presidency, India is focused on the issue,” Dr. Ryan said.
Speaking on the occasion, Alain Labrique, Director, Department of Digital Health and Innovation, WHO, said that digital health is about strengthening primary healthcare systems, improving universal health coverage, and timely and relevant data for decision-making and resource allocation. “Most important, we are talking about equity, so that no one gets left behind. Digital health is a proven pathway to achieve universal health goals,” Dr. Labrique said.
V. K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, stated that digital health enabled universal health coverage through the seamless exchange of health information amongst providers, systems, patients, policy-makers and so on, through multiple systems. “Let us envision a world where a comprehensive package of digital health tools and services are accessible to all, where digital health is for all by 2035,” Dr. Paul said
