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Rockland takes initiative in Japan-India cooperation in healthcare

Our Bureau, MumbaiFriday, September 5, 2014, 16:10 Hrs  [IST]

India is already the second most preferred destination for medical travellers to Asia.  It’s capabilities in healthcare and information technologies are globally acknowledged. Indian doctors are respected around the world and the Indian nurses are in demand world-wide for their capabilities. India’s huge resources in healthcare as well as a young work force will provide Japan with excellent human resources in providing healthcare solutions to India and the rest of the world.

While speaking at two-day seminar titled FICCI-Heal-2014, Rajesh Srivastava, chairman, Rockland Hospitals, said, “India & Japan have a big opportunity of working together in the area of healthcare. Japan has achieved its goal of longevity and healthy life for all its citizens. This knowledge and technology will benefit India as well as the rest of the world.  India will give Japan a huge consuming population, excellent human resources and a low cost base for manufacturing and exporting healthcare solutions to the world.” He was speaking on the topic: Creating Healthcare Access for Cancer Treatment: Sharing Japanese Solutions, at the FICCI seminar.

Yasunori Tokiyoshi, director, Japan Research Institute (JRI), while introducing Rajesh Srivastava said “He has been leading to create a quality standard that suits Indian conditions. Rockland was judged among the 5 best hospitals in India by a government sponsored study by the India Today Magazine among the doctors. Also, he has successfully promoted multinational collaboration in recent years; several MOU’s have been signed with global leading healthcare players who are interested in the Rockland Model of setting cancer centres at Manesar and other sites.”

The panellists agreed that there is a need to identify and fill in the gaps by strengthening what is already available in terms of resources in India and then build further on it. The challenge is in providing solutions that will suit the Indian conditions and this is precisely what the Rockland Healthcare Delivery Mechanism provides. The focus is on leveraging the current available resources by supporting the doctors in the clinics & smaller facilities by forming partnerships with leading equipment manufacturers and by leveraging Rockland’s 10 years of R & D based knowledge of managing technology, costs and quality.

The Rockland model ensures that the patient gets the right information on where to go for diagnosis and then referred for treatment to the primary, secondary or tertiary care facility based on evidence based referral system. The network is being leveraged to educate the public on preventive care, insurance plans, government schemes and cost of treatment.

Rockland’s relationship with Japan goes back to 2012 when it started an interaction with Hitachi by signing an MOU for Japanese Style Health Check-up Protocols & Brain Scan for Cancer in Manesar. In 2013, a 30 strong Japanese delegation visited Rockland Manesar Hospital to explore collaboration possibilities with Rockland. The delegation included Dr. Shuzo Yamamoto, honorary chairman of Japan Hospital Association and top management representatives from well-known medical equipment companies like the Hitachi Ltd, Konica Minolta, Shimadzu Corporation, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Tanita, Olympus Medical Systems Corporation and METI.

This was followed by an invitation to the Rockland team for visiting Japan to interact with the leading healthcare providers and cancer centres in Japan. In the last two years there have been several visits by the leadership teams from Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research (JFCR), Japan Research Institute (JRI) & Hitachi for conducting feasibility studies in India. Rockland facilitated the ground level interaction with several clinical leaders which included AIIMS faculty members also. The findings have encouraged Hitachi to set up a Cancer Centre at Manesar and a Cancer Centre with training facility at Noida under a joint venture with equity participation.

Naotoshi Nishida, VP, Hitachi India said that “This (collaboration with Rockland) is unique for Hitachi. We find that simple equipment supply has lots of drawbacks… Always the purchaser will hit the head and reduce the price but if we can stand together with the hospital maybe we can have a small share in the benefits. And also more important part standing in the frontline facing the doctors and the patients we come to know of the required specifications.”

Speaking about collaborations outside of Japan Mr. Takahiro Ota executive director, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research (JFCR) said, “Our foreign relationships are with a University in Beijing and Massachusetts General Hospital and of course we include Rockland Hospitals in India”.

 
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