Experts deliberate on tackling non communicable diseases

Senior government officials, chief medical directors from leading PSUs, expert endocrinologists and practicing physicians got together to deliberate current best practices in non-communicable diseases (NCD) management across States.

Organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Eli Lilly and Company, the Hyderabad NCD roundtable titled “NCDs Management: Translating BEST practices into NEXT practices” is being seen as a precursor to the upcoming fourth National NCD summit.

Sai Prasad, convener, Pharma & Life Science CII Telangana and president, Bharat Biotech International Limited, said, “The scourge of lifestyle diseases is on the rise and this NCD roundtable is topical and relevant. Some initiatives discussed indicate ways to better prevent and manage diabetes and other NCDs in our country.”

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with medical experts discussed the implementation of best practices in diabetes management. In India, an estimated 69.2 million adults live with diabetes.

Although there are many effective strategies to prevent and treat this condition, the country still has poor detection and control rates. Current estimates suggest that 123.5 million Indians will be living with diabetes by 2040, making it one of the biggest worldwide health emergencies this century.

The Hyderabad roundtable is the third in a series of discussions to be held this year. Key learnings from these discussions will be compiled, evaluated and converted into actionable tactics to be presented at the National NCD Summit, which will be held in September this year.

Anant Garg, Director of Corporate Affairs, Pricing, Reimbursement & Access, Eli Lilly, noted, “Since the launch in 2012, Lilly-NCD Partnership has been working with all stakeholders to fight the growing burden of NCDs in India, particularly diabetes.

As we lead up to the fourth Lilly-CII National NCD summit, we are trying to create regional platforms for participants from the States, PSUs & tertiary care centres to discuss and share the current best practices in NCD management and eventually replicate them to help more and more patients.”

Among the presenters at the meeting were Dr P V Rao Kumudini, Devi Diabetes Research Center; Dr Chakrapani, WHO consultant; Dr Sahu, Central Government Health Scheme and Dr Shailaja Murthy, Senior Medical Officer, Telangana State Road Transport Corporation.