The state health department held a second roundtable in collaboration with C-CAMP.
Credit: State health department.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka state health department held a second roundtable in collaboration with Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) to explore innovative health technology solutions through public healthcare partnerships with other CSR and philanthropic organisations on Friday.
According to an official release by the department, the meeting also enabled organisations to align on the department's focus areas for this year, besides chalking out a roadmap for the next five years to augment public health systems with innovative and indigenous health solutions in Karnataka that are high-quality, affordable, and accessible at scale.
The first roundtable was held on November 8 last year and was a result of a strategic alliance between the department and C-CAMP signed in August 2023.
Health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao sought the support of private organisations in the development of a vaccine for Kyasanur Forest Disease and other innovations, urging them to offer more attention to the healthcare sector through their CSR funds.
"We can bring several changes in the health sector through CSR programmes. The state government and health department is willing to offer all support in this direction," he said, adding that these funds could strengthen the department's door-to-door Gruha Arogya scheme as well.
In the past year, C-CAMP has worked with the department and the National Health Mission to deploy healthcare solutions for maternal and child care and comprehensive AI-based screening and eye care programmes with ACT for Health across 11 districts in Karnataka, impacting 2.4 lakh people so far. Further initiatives include Sarige Asha Kirana, a project to support eye care for all public transport personnel through eye checkups with provision of free spectacles. This can potentially impact the public safety of nearly 1.1 crore daily commuters in the state.
In collaboration with Infosys Foundation, a four-year project Project Early Life was initiated in February 2024 for strengthening maternal and newborn health infrastructure, which involved deploying cutting-edge fetal monitoring technology in district hospitals and community health centres -- starting with Dharwad and Ballari -- and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure systems for newborns.
Representatives of several companies, including Infosys Foundation, USAID, GE Healthcare, Bosch Global Software Technologies, AstraZeneca, Biocon Foundation, HCL Foundation, Intel Corporation, and UNICEF, were present.