American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), a global body of Indian doctors based in the USA, in collaboration with Maharashtra government is soon planning to launch a unique programme aimed at improving and transforming healthcare delivery in Maharashtra.

This programme will primarily focus on the first release of rapid information transfer system to remote sites in Maharashtra, clinical workshops on site with USA certification for medical students and residents and CEO forum to provide input from healthcare industry to medical and policy making bodies along with key initiative to boost public private partnership (PPP) for the betterment of healthcare services in the state. It is understood that the association is in correspondence with the state government to a arrive at a consensus so as to identify three to four key area for collaboration based on needs. They are also in process of developing and rolling out implementation plans for accomplishing the key objectives with selected initiatives like skills training, education, screening diagnostics, and philanthropic activities with NGO.

Dr Jayesh Shah, president, AAPI, said, “Physicians of Indian origin have earned a name for themselves globally in the field of medicine and since our first summit in India, we have achieved several tangibles including the engagement of all notable sections of Indian government, and a ground breaking start of an alliance between AAPI, IMA & MCI. We are proud that through the platform of AAPI, we are able to share our expertise with medical professionals in India to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes in the country.”

The association will also focus on expanding the pilot based on lessons learned and outcomes from their previous ventures with key focus on supporting and strengthening existing 16 AAPI charitable clinics in India, expanding AAPI Sewak project on diabetes screening and testing. It is understood that they are also exploring the potential of expansion and enhancement of immunisation by collaborating with Indian Academy of Pediatrics and Industry partners (IAP).

Interestingly their Mumbai venture will see through the successful launch of the phase one of SwasthIndia web portal in collaboration with British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO, UK), Canadian Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage (CAPIH, Canada), Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (GAPIO) and Govt. Of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Apart from that the AAPI announced that they will be conducting its ninth annual conference, ‘Global Health Summit’ (AAPI GHS 2015) from January 2 to 5, 2015 in Mumbai. This summit will be in collaboration with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs & Union Ministry of Health, the Government of Maharashtra, along with several participating physician associations and the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The summit will bring together think tanks from across the world from the physicians community to share their expertise on improving healthcare of the country.

The Mumbai summit will include four plenary sessions, and six skill enhancement hands on training workshops. There will also be symposiums on public-private partnerships, a high level CEO Forum, in addition to Research activities and poster sessions, and a ceremony to recognize contributions in the basic and applied sciences.

AAPI recently held its eighth annual conference, Global Health Summit 2014 in Ahmedabad from January 2 to 5 this year which was attended by over 1100 doctors from India and abroad. The summit was addressed by Ghulam Nabi Azad, union minister for health & family welfare; Vayalar Ravi, union minister for overseas Indian affairs; Dr Abdul Kalam, former president of India and Narendra Modi, chief minister, of Gujarat.

According to Dr Ravi Jahagirdar, president-elect, AAPI, “AAPI aims to associate with healthcare organisations and institutions in Maharashtra with an aim to transform healthcare delivery, right up to rural areas. Today’s discussion has been extremely insightful and the outcome of these discussions, clubbed with our learnings and achievements from our previous summits, will help us implement the projects for Maharashtra soon and present heartening results in our 2015 summit.”