India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre launches ‘Innovation Challenge’

India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre, a collaboration between Swedish Trade Commissioner’s Office, AIIMS Delhi and AIIMS Jodhpur, has virtually launched its first healthcare innovation challenge and website. The website and the Innovation Challenge for the centre were launched by Chief Guest, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Special Guest Prof (Dr) Balram Bhargava, Secretary – DHR & DG-ICMR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The innovation challenge is an opportunity for start-ups to collaborate with partners on the Innovation Centre platform to help solve some of the problems in the healthcare delivery landscape of India.

The Innovation Centre is built under strategic guidance from Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Embassy of Sweden in India. It also has a strong network of ecosystem partners – Atal Innovation Mission, Invest India, AGNII, Startup India, and, knowledge partners – AstraZeneca, NASSCOM and VINNOVA. The challenge would focus on innovative Digital Tools/Platforms – Med-Tech, Tele-Medicine, Artificial Intelligence backed solutions that support new ways of working and improve the efficiencies of healthcare systems as they manage the pandemic.

The application will be open from August 11, 2020, to September 27, 2020.  All the applications will go through a rigorous evaluation process by a panel of experts and includes partners like AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur, ICMR, AstraZeneca, AIM, Invest India and various funding entities. Winners for the innovation challenge will be announced in the last week of October. Interested applicants can apply on the website – www.indiaswedenic.com

The selected start-ups will collaborate with the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre to enable faster scale-up, cross-country mentorship, access to incubation centre located within AIIMS Jodhpur campus, lab facilities, guidance on funding, and ability to ideate with like-minded innovator from across India and beyond. Onboarded start-ups can also avail the incubation facility at NASSCOM Bangalore.

Speaking on the inauguration of the Innovation Challenge, Dr Randeep Gulleria, Director, AIIMS Delhi said, “Frugal innovation is the key to developing cost-effective and accessible innovative solutions to treat patients. The India-Sweden Healthcare innovation centre platform can help these new innovators to further develop their products/solutions to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to people in the country today”.

Dr Sanjeev Misra, Director, AIIMS Jodhpur said, “Healthcare system in India is undergoing a rapid transformation and Electronic health records, m-health services, wearable tracking devices, telehealth and other digital transformation tools are pivotal to complete patient experience. Innovators in these areas can avail the incubation facility at our campus through India-Sweden Healthcare innovation centre to further enhance their products and scale-up of solutions”.

Anders Wickberg, Swedish Trade Commissioner to India said, “Co-creation of innovation is key to solving some of the complex healthcare challenges in India and across the globe. With the prevalence of COVID, healthcare innovation is a key necessity. Entrepreneurs working in healthcare area could leverage this platform for co-creation and faster scale-up of the solutions”.

Gagandeep Singh Bedi, MD, AstraZeneca Pharma India said, “There is a requirement to establish an incubation of providers with diverse expertise who can bring relevant, meaningful innovative solutions that can foster holistic management of non-communicable diseases. We are pleased to partner with India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre and hope to receive positive response from stakeholders across the ecosystem, who are working hard to impact patients’ lives.”