09:30 – 11:00 CET : Scaling Innovation in the New Health Economy: Lessons learned from the Asia-Pacific region (in partnership with Future Proofing Healthcare)

October 19, 2021

Introduction

Asia-Pacific (APAC) is enjoying strong growth in telehealth, digital therapeutics, diagnostics, remote patient monitoring and analytics and personalised healthcare. The Personalised Health Index, by Future Proofing Healthcare, a platform founded by the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies and Roche, shows that personalised healthcare is gaining significant momentum in Asia.

The session discussed the role of various ecosystem partners in shaping the New Health Economy of the Asia-Pacific region. Experts shared practical experiences and insights on challenges and opportunities facing the health sector, including in responding to the current pandemic crisis. They also debated on policy reforms needed to scale innovation and bring significant system efficiencies, better patient outcomes and population health through personalised healthcare.

Session Highlights

Issues addressed:

  • What healthcare challenges does APAC face that requires innovative, scalable and sustainable approaches to health system reforms?
  • Observations on the state of readiness of health systems in APAC for advanced innovations in health?
  • What is the role of health innovators and start-ups in the current evolving healthcare ecosystem in the region?
  • How can governmental institutions and policy support the enablement of these innovations? And even rewards or recognises the value of innovation? What structural frameworks need to be in place to keep pace with innovation?
  • Given the scale and multitude of the challenges post COVID-19, how can APAC ensure a coherent life science strategy and policy approach to promote investment as an engine of growth, and ensure that the recovery is inclusive, and its benefits extend to all countries?
  • How can pharma support healthcare entrepreneurs and innovators succeed in accelerating personalised healthcare

Several issues were addressed related to health, innovation, health care systems, and how such systems could be advanced.  The upbringing point came about for technology being a strong growth factor in our healthcare system. The aim as suggested by panellists is to build a key policy investment, which was also the key objective of the session. Further, a few recommendations and policy developments were discussed. The bigger picture is to look at the solution together in global health challenges in the specific regions. Countries should use the global platforms to talk about ground realities and draw recommendations in public health. Experts shared practical experiences and insights on challenges and opportunities facing the health sector, including in responding to the current pandemic crisis. They also debated on policy reforms needed to scale innovation and bring significant system efficiencies, better patient outcomes, and population health through personalised healthcare.

The idea is to look into each market’s health, e.g. one-third of the population in Thailand is at the age of 60 or more, whilst India comprises much younger generations who are keen to learn, innovate and develop health policies. Thus, both the countries can learn from each other, but at the domestic level, the laws would be partially different.  There is a lack of a universal health care system and the available finances for such systems. The idea is to compare different market styles with that of the individual market.

One of the biggest challenges as pointed out in the session is the poor ratio of Doctors to Patients. The quality of such services is also substandard. The question all nations should answer is whether people are getting the best quality of care. The pandemic has made our focus shift on the importance of an inline healthcare system at the domestic level. Unfortunately, the disease has not disappeared, but there has been a shift from bad health practices to good healthcare practices at an individual level. There are other diseases, which have not been eradicated at a national level. These diseases however small will come back to haunt the nation, and we need ways to figure out the ways to provide care in the fastest possible manner.

There should be eyes to look for a new skill set at ground level for the health care system. This would mean shortening the disparity between healthcare providers and healthcare takers. Medical inflation is out of control. The middle class is growing, but their access to medical healthcare is decreasing. The panellists believed that the market forces should move towards healthcare. One cannot reach anywhere alone, hence, you have to bring in big organisations to strike the right balance.

The need of the hour is the basic framework, to work with the private organisations / NGOs that are trying to bring accountability to healthcare services. The countries as suggested by the panellists need to have a system to objectively measure our health care system. Look into the question to either move a new system or better the existing system. Personalisation of a patient’s experience is another important thing that the panellists discussed. Maximisation of Human Capacity is the key. Developing the broken healthcare system, Understanding the problem, listening and enabling were the few suggestions from the panellists.

Data has to the future, as suggested and disused by panellists. It can influence and change the future. A country should not be rigid in its legal policies and should move with the ever-dramatic time. Creating a dynamic healthcare ecosystem should be the objective to maximise innovation, relevant infrastructure, and transparency. Data transparency was another key highlight among the panellists. Overall, to develop the healthcare system, one should not only look into the factors directly affecting the system, but also look into other growth factors such as AI, Data, and Privacy, etc. The future is here, but it is not evenly distributed.

On the panel were:

  • Farid Bidgoli, General Manager, Roche Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos
  • Tony Estrella, Global Digital Health Expert, Author and Podcaster
  • Amit Varma, Managing Partner, Quadria Capital
  • Cole Sirucek, CEO, DocDoc
  • Ethan Koh, Asia Research Director, Global Private Capital Association

Moderator

  • Jelena Milenkovic, Director, for Geneva Health Forum.