OREANDA-NEWS. Any research in the field of medicine, whether it be in the area of medical equipments and devices, drugs or even in best practises and systems change, needs to have people at its centre. Innovation can be complete and meaningful only when it benefits the last person in the delivery chain, and those who are most vulnerable and needy.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri J P Nadda stated this while delivering the keynote address at the Vibrant Gujarat Health Summit at Gandhinagar, today.

The Health Minister stated that there needs to be balance between medical needs and commercial needs. He pointed out that technological innovations even when they do not have commercial viability need to be pursued if these benefit humanity at large. A distinction needs to be made between technology that serves commercial ends and one that benefits mankind. The Health Minister stated that India with its predominant rural population needs innovations not only in medical technology to make drugs affordable and easily accessible, but also in improved systems that provide efficient health services to the last person in the delivery chain. Citing the example of the recently launched Mission Indradhanush, the Health Minister said that such systems have been devised with the aid of technology that will ensure that the partially covered and uncovered areas for universal immunisation of children against seven vaccine preventable diseases, are fully covered. “We have identified 201 high focus districts in the country in the first phase which have nearly 50% of all unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children. These districts will be targeted by intensive efforts to improve the routine immunization coverage.” The Minister stated that of the 201 districts, 82 districts are in just four states of UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and nearly 25% of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children of India are in these 82 districts of 4 states.

The Health Minister emphasised on the need to have integrated research where all the research organisations operate in tandem and work on solutions to health problems challenging the country in unison. Moreover, it needs to be ensured that the research is people centric and benefits the needy, he pointed out.

Shri J P Nadda assured that there is complete political commitment to resolving the health problems in the country. He affirmed that he is committed to removing all bottlenecks in the road to implementation of the health schemes, if there are any.

Also present at the Health Summit were Shri Nitin Patel, Health Minister of Gujarat, Shri Lov Verma, Health Secretary, Ms. Nata Menabde, WHO Country representative and senior officials of the Government of Gujarat.