Partnership between CARE Hospitals and Piramal Swasthya aimed to reduce the impact of oral, breast and cervical cancer burden in the state through early screening & detection.
· Key components of the model include Community outreach, education & mobilization, screening for cancer, referral and mobility for treatment at Cancer Hospital, continuous tracking and follow-up.
· Program to cover a 100 villages touching over 3,00,000 lives in rural remote villages of Telangana district, over the next 3 Years with fully equipped van design for Cancer Screening for Men and Women.
· Appropriate technology-based program ensuring end-to-end coverage with continuous tracking, referral and follow-up.
· Fully equipped Van design for Cancer Screening to Men and Women.
Care Hospitals in association with Piramal Swasthya announces the launch of community-based cancer screening program UMMEED to detect early and reduce the mortality due to cancer. It is expected to reduce the impact of cancer burden in the state of Telangana through early detection of oral, breast and cervical cancers in rural areas.
Founded on the belief that cancer screening is a right, rather than a privilege, CARE Hospitals in association with Piramal Swasthya is offering the screenings free of cost in rural Telangana. The program will help screen patients in interior villages and a special all women team manning the van will encourage & educate the rural population about the importance of detecting cancer early.
Reducing Mortality
Piramal Swasthya is the Healthcare initiative of Piramal Foundation, working towards making healthcare available, accessible and affordable to all. Considering the need of cancer screening intervention, Piramal Swasthya developed D.E.S.H. – Detect Early, Save Her/Him for oral, breast and cervical cancers. The first initiative of D.E.S.H. is being implemented in Kamrup, Assam. The program components include creating community awareness, screening for the cancer of oral cavity, breast and cervix through mobile cancer screening units, mobility for the patients detected positive to a treatment center and tracking and follow-up. With an objective of replicating the model in Telangana, Piramal Swasthya collaborated with CARE Hospitals to collaboratively contribute towards reduction on mortality due to cancers.
Dr Anil Arbandi – Haemato Oncologist CARE Hospitals said on this occasion the program “Compared to developed nations, the cases of cancer detected in India are low, but mortality rate is high. Most (68 %) patients with cancer die of their disease in India as compared to only 33% in USA. Nearly 70% of Indian population lives in rural India. However, nearly 95% of cancer care facilities are in urban India. The mortality rates in rural India are currently more than double of urban India. All this will hopefully change if preventive screenings are made available in villages. CARE Hospitals will do their part in this looming fight that rural India faces against cancer”.
Fighting against Cancer
Adding on to this Mr. Vishal Phanse, CEO – Piramal Swasthya said – “The cancer incidence rate in Telangana rose to 74 cancer patients for a lakh population compared to that of 54 in 1990. Considering the growing incidence of Cancer in India, Piramal Swasthya has realized a need for community-based cancer screening programs to prevent, screen, diagnose and treat oral, breast and cervical cancers in rural areas. Joining Hands with Care Hospitals is a momentous step towards fight against cancer. We believe that our program will have significant impact in helping to reduce cancer-related mortality in Telangana.”
Dr Krishnamani KV – Medical Oncologist CARE Hospitals said “UMMEED meaning “Hope”, is an end to end program that will not only offer free Oral, Breast, general and Cervical cancer screenings through mobile unit but also counsel those detected with cancer and provide treatment support through referral to cancer hospitals”.
Addressing the conference Dr. Srinivas Juluri Director Surgical Oncologist CARE Hospitals said – “Cancers of oral cavity & lungs (male) and cervix & breast (female) account for >50% of all cancer deaths in India. 71% of all Cancer deaths in India – occur in age group between 30-69 years. One woman dies of cervical cancer every 8 minutes in India. For every 2 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, 1 woman dies of it in India . Female mortality rate 63.2 % and male mortality rate is 72%. He said Cancer in India, needs Work at the primary level for prevention and early detection Concerted, coordinated and precise customized planning, at the tertiary level to ensure the best outcomes”.
Purpose of Cancer Screening
At the conference, Dr. Shailendra Hegde, Head of Innovations at Piramal Swasthya said – “Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality and mobility in India and is growing rapidly in Telangana as well. Only some cancers affecting breast, cervical, skin, oral and colorectal show early signs and early detection of such cancers have nearly 100% chances of getting cured. The purpose of cancer screening is to detect those people with the disease who as yet are not exhibiting any overt signs or symptoms and appear healthy. Leveraging on this approach Piramal Swasthya and Care Hospitals have come together to sensitize people about the importance of importance of early diagnosis, cancer screening and treatment, and to remove the fear arising due to lack of awareness”
Dr.Raajiv Singhal Managing Director Evercare, said objective of this program is Screen Over 50,000 Patients during the year, Cover More than 100 Villages, touching over 3,00,000 lives.
On this occasion CARE Hospitals Oncology Team of Doctors, Dr Arun Kumar Lingutla – Medical Oncologist, Dr.Ranjit Kumar Consultant Pediatric Hemato Oncologist, Dr Pratap Verma – Surgical Onco, Dr Praveen Jadav – Surgical Oncology, Dr Rammohan Reddy – Radiation Oncologist, Dr.Prithvi Raj Jampana Consultant Medical & Radiation Oncologist CARE Hospitals are present and Dr. Shailedndra Hegde – Head of Innovations, Mr. Sridhar Upadhya – Senior Vice President and Mr. Madhusudhan Pundrothu – Chief Manager from Piramal Swasthya team were present.
About CARE Hospitals
Founded in 1997, CARE Hospitals is a multi-specialty healthcare provider with presence across India. Ranked amongst the top 5 hospital chains in India, it continues to be the leading tertiary care provider in South India. The CARE network spreads across 5 states, 6 cities with 14 hospitals and 2000+ beds. Offering over 30 specialties, Care Hospitals houses 750+ globally trained consultants.
State-of-the-art infrastructure is supported by latest technology in Diagnostics, Imaging & Therapeutics. In 21 years, 10 million+ patients have been treated across the network. CARE boasts of path-breaking, globally recognized medical innovations and complex surgeries in Cardiac Sciences and Pioneering work in Nephrology & Kidney Transplants, Neurology, HPB Surgery and Liver Transplants & has led the way in popularizing surgical treatment for epilepsy.
It is the only hospital that assures round-the-clock availability of super specialists, has set a benchmark in patient to nurse care ratio, an outstanding emergency response protocol and is widely recognized for its ethical practices.
About Piramal Swasthya
Piramal Swasthya endeavours to bridge the last mile gap in primary healthcare service delivery through its innovative solutions. It is one of the largest implementers of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) programmes in India, with a presence across 20 states and a 4,000+ strong workforce, comprising 580+ doctors and specialists.
The existing collaboration with various corporate and public sector organisations is increasing the reach and deepening the traction within communities, thereby impacting beneficiaries on a large scale.
Such collaborations enable Piramal Swasthya to complement and supplement the government’s healthcare delivery efforts while empowering communities.
The team believes in the highest standards of ethical conduct in dealing with partners, stakeholders and influences. The solutions provided mitigate issues of accessibility, availability and affordability in remote areas, and also serve as a platform through which IT-enabled quality healthcare services can be rendered and customized to fulfil specific needs of the society.
About Evercare Group
The mandate for Evercare Group (previously the Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund, “AGHF”) is to provide low- and middle-income patients in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia access to affordable, high-quality private healthcare. Evercare group which has been constructed through a US$ 1 billion impact fund; the Groups includes our flagship investment – CARE Hospitals in India, and 8 other investments across our core markets like Nairobi, Nigeria etc Today the Group is comprised of 26 hospitals, 18 clinics, 42 diagnostics centers, 2 brownfields and 2 greenfield assets contributing to more than 4100 beds and treating 18 Lac per year.
Our markets have a significant issue with unmet demand for affordable, high quality healthcare which is easily accessible, whilst the population suffers from an increasing burden of non-communicable disease (NCD) for example cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Our solution is to build data driven integrated healthcare systems which can enable a preventative model of healthcare delivery as opposed to the current paradigm of fee-for-service. We have identified 5 key pillars to integrated care – Hospitals, Diagnostics, Physical primary care, Digital health & Payment systems.
Khalid M Raza
