Apollo Hospitals to set up Health Knowledge City in Aragonda

Chennai: Dr Reddy said that Apollo Hospitals would set up an integrated Health Knowledge City in Aragonda, Andhra Pradesh at an investment of about Rs 1,000 crore.

He said that the Apollo would partner with a couple of players to develop the Apollo Aragonda Health Knowledge City in 100 acres. It would have an integrated facility with simulation of lab, classroom, hospital, medical college and residential.

Also, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise is “keen to be pioneers” in establishing a National Electronic Medical Records repository. The repository will store all medical details of a person from his birth to death, according to Ms Sangitha Reddy, Executive Director, Apollo Hospitals.

Addressing a press conference Ms Reddy said access to medical records is essential to help patients in emergencies.

Recently, the Chairman of the Apollo group, Dr Pratap Reddy, had spoken of a project that would give each of Apollo’s patients a unique Universal Hospital Identification Number (UHIN). The number would enable any doctor anywhere in the world to access the medical history of the patient. Dr Reddy had said that Apollo was working with Tata Consultancy Services for the project.

The repository would be the storage point from where the UHIN would access the records.

Ms Reddy observed that in India, one could transfer money electronically, but there was no system of transferring medical records.




Industry forecast

According to a McKinsey study the Indian healthcare industry is expected to grow $190 billion in the next two decades. To meet this demand the country would require trained medical workforce, cheaper technology and better infrastructure. At present, India has about 5 lakh doctors and 7.3 lakh nurses, but the country requires an additional 6.71 lakh doctors and 18.7 lakh nurses.