As part of the Healthscape Series, the 5^th Edition of Healthscape Summit India 2017 was held on 30^th Nov- 1^st Dec, 2017, at the Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru. Healthscape Summit – India, is an initiative by IDE Consulting Services, a global real estate solutions company. The summit offers one of a kind solution-oriented platform to overcome the challenges faced by the healthcare industry.

Healthscape Summit facilitates Face-to-Face meetings, strategically modelled networking activities and information exchange amongst the most elite assemblage of Hospital Owners, Healthcare Architects, Design Consultants, industry experts and service providers making it the most sought after business summit by the healthcare fraternity of India. Owing to a collective effort in bridging the care disparity between rural and urban medical services, healthcare today has become one of India's largest revenue and employment generation sector.

Ganesh Babu, Director of IDE, said “it is encouraging to witness an increase in government expenditure and the immediate future for the medical device industry is promising. India has increasingly become a leading destination for tertiary and quaternary care services with tremendous capital investments for advanced diagnostic facilities that caters to a large portion of inbound medical travellers from across the globe”.

“Every single buyer and supplier attending the Healthscape Summit is pre-qualified to ensure that the meetings are productive. Buyers are qualified based on their upcoming or on-going projects and suppliers are qualified based on their ability and track record of catering to the Indian healthcare market”, he explained.

The session opened on 30^th November with the inaugural talk by Dr. Nandakumar Jairam, CEO, Chairman & GMD, Columbia Asia hospitals. He pointed out that the healthcare industry should be putting its focus on the patient as a person and adding more value to the services being offered.

After the inaugural session, a panel discussion followed highlighting the technological advancements taking place in the healthcare field. The panel members included Dr. Vivek Desai, Founder Director, Hosmac; Dr. Sanjeev K Singh, Medical Superintendent, AIMS; Mr. Jagannath MS, CFO & Director, Columbia Asia; Dr. Pankaj Gupta, Operating Partner, 3737 North Capital LLP; Mr. Nandkishor Dhomne, VP-IT & CIO, Manipal Hospitals.

The discussion focused on the importance, influence and challenges pertaining to technology in healthcare. It also centred upon the comprehensive process of identifying and implementing the optimal technology solution for meeting the desired end state.

The moderator for the session, Dr. Vivek Desai mentioned, “the field of healthcare is changing big time now. The future is shaping up in front of our eyes mainly through digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, 3D printing, robotics, nanotechnology etc”.

On the second day, another panel discussion was conducted on building a perfect healthcare system. It was moderated by Dr. Vijay Raghavan, Associate Director, PwC India. The panel members included Dr. Mudit Saxena, Group CEO, Care Hospitals; Mr. Rohit M A, MD, Cloudnine Hospitals; Mr. Prashant Jhaveri, Chief Business Officer, Medi Assist; Mr. Suresh Ramu, CEO, Cytecare Hospital and Dr. Shubnum Singh, Director, Max Healthcare Institute.

 “There is a huge disparity in terms of the availability of clinical facilities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ministry of health, India has seven doctors per 10,000 people. We need to achieve a modest doctor-to-population ratio in our country. As a result many more doctors and healthcare professionals are required in the years to come”, shared Mudit Saxena, Group CEO, Care Hospitals.