2019: Planning for the Year Ahead

Sweden & India - Partners in Health

A commitment has now been made by both the Swedish Socialdepartementet and the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to make 2019 the Year of Health - #SwedenIndiaHealth2019. As we plan for the year ahead, we welcome your input as your engagement is crucial to this partnership. The focus will be on aligning Swedish Triple Helix life science actors in delivering a structured solution to common challenges in India. Concrete deliverables along the care continuum is the ultimate objective of this collaboration. Once this proof of concept yields results - increased efficiency, decreased costs, healthier community - the Indian government has expressed interest in scaling the concept to other parts of the country. The Indian Ministry suggests Jodhpur, and its new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), as the test bed for this collaboration.

This, of course, does not preclude collaborations in other parts of India and many of our partners and members have ongoing projects throughout the country. We foresee increased activities with AIIMS New Delhi, Apollo Hospitals, Public Health Foundation of India, MaxCure Group, India Institute of Technology in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai, to name a few. But these will all be conducted with a view to ensure that Swedish stakeholders, despite having distinct objectives, will be moving in the same direction. Partnerships between Swedish actors is encouraged so that the momentum we have generated results in concrete (measurable) outputs.

Proposed timeline for 10-year celebrations in 2019

• January - pre-feasibility study in Jodhpur to determine scope

• 24-28 February - Swedish Ministerial visit to Delhi (and Jodhpur) in conjunction with the Global Digital Health Partnership 

• April/May - heads of Indian hospitals will be invited to Sweden for a study visit and workshop

• 21-23 May - Vitalis 2019 session to focus on AI & Innovation with an incoming health tech delegation which will visit incubators and hubs in Stockholm and Gothenburg

• September - agency and private sector workshop in India

• October/November - Indian Ministerial or Health Secretary visit to Stockholm along with the 11th Joint Working Group meeting

Other dates to keep in mind

• 5 December - 2nd Private Sector Steering Committee Meeting

• 25-27 February - BioAsia 2019 in Hyderabad

• April/May - Indian elections

• 11-12 October - InnoHEALTH 2019 in New Delhi

• The Swedish India Business Council will also be organising tech delegations so please keep an eye on their website

Calls out

• Big data and Artificial Intelligence for monitoring health status and quality of life after the cancer treatment

• 9th Call - JPIAMR Call on Diagnostics and Surveillance 2019

• Affordable & Accessible Health Care through Early Screening and Efficient Management

Focus areas

• Digital Health - non-communicable diseases, elderly care, AI, Health Tech

• Anti-Microbial Resistance - infection control, knowledge transfer, nurse training, medtech

May I please request that if you have upcoming activities, you contact us so that we can provide the necessary support both in Sweden and in India? We will be coordinating closely with the Indian Embassy in Stockholm and the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi and one of the proposed ideas is to create a quarterly newsletter highlighting events within the life science sector between our two countries which could also act as a status report so do write to us!

The more, the merrier – when Swecare and Department for International Trade held Life Science Seminar

The former cinematheque at the British Embassy quickly filled up for the breakfast seminar to hear Department for International Trade’s Life Science Specialist, Ravi Chana give an overview of and interactive session on the British Life Science and healthcare ecosystem. Heavy emphasis was put on the NHS, NICE and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) with participants sharing company experiences with a nuanced but positive experience of these institutions. 

Practical recommendations on how to use support mechanisms available to Swedish companies to access the most appropriate part of the UK health care system were lifted after the B-word was elegantly and swiftly cleared off. As the discussions intensified, the (false) fire alarm went off and good discussion resumed I wonder if other Swedes secretly wished that we had a government with an industrial plan where Life Sciences was prioritized, a Life Science Strategy in print, and SME companies valued as important stakeholders in setting the goals. 

Well, not to spoil any utopian daydreaming the UK don´t have a Minister for Life Science anymore but hell it´s good to have these Anglo Nordic meetings to learn from each other and keep business ties strong when we head to an uncharted future.

Huge interrest in Swedish life science and ehealth solutions when Mexican delegation met Swecare

It was with great pleasure we welcomed the delegation headed by the secretary of economic development of Hidalgo, José Luis Romo Cruz. Previously Head of the Planning Unit of the Mexican Social Security Institute at the national level, IMSS and General Director of Planning of the National Commission of Social Protection in Health (Popular Insurance).

During the meeting Dr. Jokilaakso presented the Swedish healthcare system that shares lots of similarities with its Mexican counterpart.

Further the delegation discussed the life science sector and what Swedish companies can contribute with since the coverage of the health insurance is rapidly expanding in Mexico. Topics discussed where how e-prescription, EHR and other crucial infrastructure can be provided with high interoperability and cybersecurity and what the IOT revolution means for a country like Mexico that is a major manufacturer of medical devices.

Also, investment opportunities in Hidalgo for medtech and pharma companies was lifted as an interesting option for Swedish companies interested in selling in the Latin American and US market.


Bienvenido a Hidalgo en México con nosotros

Kulturfestivalen 2017

Indian comedian Papa CJ in front of the crowds (photo credit: Michelle Rickardsson)

I can think of few better ways of getting back into the work rhythm following Summer break than when it is interspersed with events being organized for and around the Stockholm Cultural Festival. The theme this year, as many of you may know by now, is India – and more specifically India’s 70 years of Independence. As member of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Swecare had the privilege of attending the inauguration of this week’s festivities at Gustav Adolfs Torg on Tuesday. Not only was it wonderful to see thousands of people dancing to Bollywood tunes, these types of events also offer Swecare the opportunity to network, influence, and better understand the scope of collaborations possible within the healthcare industry. We are currently actively engaged in taking the Sweden-India partnerships from being pharma-focused to care-centric. While Sweden is still home to groundbreaking medical research in the pharmaceutical sector, we also have transformative solutions in MedTech, eHealth, healthcare services. Much of the talk at the India@100 Business Day event this Thursday centered around leveraging the scaling potential and talent pool in India with the depth of knowledge and expertise residing in Sweden. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the healthcare sector – where the challenges are literally a matter of life and death. It is such a privilege to be a driver in creating these partnerships and an honor to be representing such impressive companies and institutions.

Thank you and let’s get back to work.