AstraZeneca Pharma India and Business Sweden  – The Swedish  Trade and Invest Council announced the launch of ‘Unnati Healthcare 2.0- An Innovation Challenge. This challenge, which has been launched for the first time, aims to encourage innovative solutions that can positively impact the treatment paradigm of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in India.

Recent years have seen an alarming shift from communicable diseases (CDs) to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the Indian Healthcare system. Technology and competence to cater to these NCD’s are largely concentrated in hospitals, as well as the increased cost-factor makes it difficult to cater to everyone’s requirements, when it comes to early screening and disease management.

Over 2.7 million cases of cardiovascular diseases, 62 million of diabetes, 1.5 million of stroke, 30 million chronic respiratory diseases and 1 million of cancer has further strengthened India’s commitment of working towards reduction of premature deaths due to NCDs through varied prevention measures and treatments. The need of the hour is to come up with diverse expertise that can provide solutions like:

• Remote/Portable screening methods for early detection of NCDs
• Precise, handy point of care diagnostic solutions that will ease detection and monitoring

Digital tools/techniques that enable efficient health record capture, patient monitoring, treatment pathway solutions and adherence trackersUnnati Healthcare 2.0  is an initiative to celebrate the spirit of Indo-Swedish Innovation partnership and providing proficiency towards disease management, reducing healthcare costs and saving lives. The registration process for this challenge is open until 10th  December, 2018 and is especially suitable for companies, entrepreneurs and people working in healthcare areas including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer/ oncology or respiratory.

Speaking on the rationale behind this challenge, Gagan Singh Bedi, Managing Director, 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 Business Sweden, Atal Innovation Mission – NITI Aayog, AGNIi and other reputed industry partners for this challenge and hope to receive positive response from stakeholders across the ecosystem, who are working hard to impact patients’ lives."

Carsten Grönblad, Swedish Trade Commissioner to India said,  "UNNATI is a model for co-innovation allowing industry, startups and the civil society to jointly develop solutions addressing global social needs. This challenge calls for collaboration to implement early- and remote screening as well as efficient, AI-based patient management. This is an important task as we see the prevalence of non-communicable diseases rise globally. We are happy to partner with AstraZeneca India, AGNIi and Atal Innovation Mission – NITI Aayog, with a shared vision of providing affordable and accessible healthcare."

Selected participants will be invited to present their ideas at the Indo-Sweden workshop scheduled in the first quarter of 2019 in New Delhi. Winners of the challenge will receive expert support from AstraZeneca India and funding by the Swedish innovation fund allocated to India, in order to further develop their ideas.