Institute of Clinical Research (India) has partnered with Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd which is a public sector healthcare institution-based in Singapore. The key objective of this tie-up is to enhance the hospital management processes and to expose the clinicians to the expertise available in specialty areas like liver transplant, stem transplant and renal transplants in India.

In order to take this forward, ICRI floated its healthcare arm, ICRI Health to organize various training and clinician exchange programmes which will lead to capability build-up of both Indian as well as Singapore clinicians that will ultimately translate to better patient care. While Singapore is reporting the lowest death rates in hospitals, the Indian healthcare records an increasing number of deaths due to infections and medication delivery errors.

With the Indian Medical Association (IMA) recognizing Emergency Medicine as a medical specialty, Singapore Health is looking at focusing on disaster management and emergency to increase the survival rate. "We will impart the principles of immediate medical attention which will cover need for prompt response, understanding and organizing the available medical resources and methods to speed up medical assistance during a crisis," said Prof V Anantharaman, advisor, education and international medicine, Singapore Health.

The pact will also look at patient referrals to Singapore Health. Here ICRI Health will be a single window for patients to access hospitals in Singapore to carry out treatment. It will carry out all the formalities including passage and support to them with the required information. It will also look at tie ups with hospitals for joint patient management in Singapore.

Singapore Health has three tertiary level hospitals, five national quardnory care centers having 3,000 beds with 42 clinical specialties. There are over 2,000 doctors as medical associates. As a result of this partnership there will be various training programmes organized jointly and clinician exchange programmes which will lead to capability build up for both Indian as well as Singapore clinicians that will translate to better patient care.

The cost of the treatment in Singapore is almost 50 percent cheaper than the US and 30 percent more than India. With scores of patients moving to US and UK for medical treatment options, now we are giving them a location which is much closer, proving to be far more economical and efficient in expertise, stated Vijaya Sreenidhi, senior director, Programme Development, Singapore Health.

"Our endeavour in this knowledge building partnership is to scale up the offering of quality educational resources and methodology to foster talent in India to meet the growing needs of medical tourism in India and put India on the global healthcare management map, stated S R Dugal, chairman Board of Directors ICRI.