Charting the Future of Healthcare: Apollo Hospitals’ 11th International Health Dialogue places spotlight on Health Equity, Sustainability, and AI Advancement.

Apollo Hospitals successfully concluded its prestigious two-day annual conference titled International Health Dialogue, an amalgamation of the International Patient Safety Conference (IPSC) & Transforming Healthcare with Information Technology (THIT), in Bangalore. Over the past two days, IHD saw participation from 4,000+ current and aspiring healthcare professionals, government officials and technology enthusiasts who came together to share industry best practices in building a strong technological framework to make India a leading, global healthcare destination.

Day 2 of Apollo Hospitals’ 11th International Health Dialogue emerged as a call to action to India’s healthcare ecosystem for prioritizing health equity and saw notable leaders such as Dr. Neelam Dhingra, Head of the Patient Safety Flagship Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Carsten Engel, Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), Dr. Joel Roos, Vice President of International Accreditation at Joint Commission International (JCI) share their perspectives on creating awareness around patient safety rights. Additionally, Mr. Richard Mitchell, Chief Executive, University Hospitals of Leicester, NHS Trust (UHL); Dr. Anupam Sibal, Group Director Medical Services, Apollo Hospitals; Dr. Stella Vig, National Medical Director for Secondary Care and National Clinical Director for Elective Care, NHS, England discussed future of patient safety in the AI world and shared global best practices to aid our ecosystem. While Dr. Karan Thakur, Group Lead, Sustainability & ESG, Vice President, Public Affairs, Apollo Hospitals moderated a session around the healthcare sector contributing to global NetZero Goals, Dr. Navina Evans, CBE, Chief Workforce, Training & Education Officer, NHS, England delivered a hard hitting keynote address on the tech-savvy face of the future healthcare workforce.

The sessions throughout the day focused on topics related to how public entities can shape the future of patient safety; these were led by Atul Mohan Kochhar, CEO of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, and Sri D. Randeep, IAS, Commissioner of Health & Family Welfare Services. In addition, Dr. Shweta Prabhakar, Head of Quality & Patient Safety at Fortis Hospital, Mumbai, Mr. Sravan Kumar, Deputy Director of Quality at Zulekha Healthcare Group, and Dr. Sathya R Sriram, CEO of Preventive Health at Apollo Hospitals, discussed how data is shaping the future of preventive health but needs double the protection to ensure patient safety.

A major highlight of IHD 2024 was the first edition of Solvathon 2024, a 36-hour hackathon that brought together 14 dynamic teams, spanning diverse disciplines such as medicine, engineering, data science, and entrepreneurship, to innovate solutions for real-world healthcare challenges. Organised by Apollo Research and Innovations, in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Alumni Centre Bangalore (IIT ACB) and the THIT conference, participants dedicated themselves to tackling urgent healthcare issues by developing working prototypes and competitive solutions rooted in feasibility, scalability and impact. While InfoMeds is the winner in the student’s category, Gabongo emerged as the winner in the startup category, where they received cash prizes worth 1 lakh each. The winning teams showcased their innovations to industry leaders at the THIT Conference and also now have the opportunity to collaborate with Apollo teams for commercial implementation.

Interestingly, the problem statements that the teams solved for were ‘Automated calculator of six minute walk distance and oxygen saturation using a smartwatch for patients with chronic lung disease’ and ‘Computer vision for patient status detection and risk score calculation for widespread adoption of remote care services’ in the students category and startup category respectively.

Overall, the 11th edition of International Health Dialogue 2024 saw attendance from 4000+ delegates from 30+ countries, including healthcare and medical professionals, government officials and policymakers, students and more. Since the first edition in 2013, the spectrum of participants and range of discussions have magnified. With over 100+ sessions, 200+ speakers, the sessions in 2024 amplified patient perspective, put the spotlight on the integration of artificial intelligence in building a futuristic healthcare model and emphasized on the rising importance of data privacy at every step.