When it comes to In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), couples often have to fight an immense battle – both with the society as well as with themselves. Hoping to give peace of mind to those looking for the joy of parenthood is Prashanth Fertility Research Centre (PFRC), based in Chennai, India. The hospital started 23 years ago and is headed by chairperson Dr. C. Geetha Haripriya, an expert gynecologist and senior fertility consultant. The hospital has, in fact, helped a 62-year-old woman deliver a baby, says Joe, Chief Executive Officer, International HR and Operations, Prashanth Fertility Research Center, Chennai, India.

He tells Daily Dose: “Most hospitals perform IVF with Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). But we use an advanced technology known as the Intra Cytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection (IMSI), laser-assisted hatching. If we receive a patient who is 40 years old and wants to conceive, we can assist them in the process.”

The success rate of IVF with the ICSI process, globally, is about 35-40%, on average, Joe highlights. But, in the case of IMSI, the success rate goes up to 75-80%. IMSI is a computer-assisted laser- technique and is safe. It zooms 7000x times into the sperm and selects the best from that. “This success rate and the quality of service we provide as well as the knowledge of our doctors have made us the number one facility in Chennai, ranked by the Times of India, for the last 4 consecutive years. We are able to deliver good results; in some months we are able to deliver 100% also!” he shared.

The age group of women that opt for IVF usually starts from the age of 28, says Joe. “However, they may not be a primary IVF patient because they may not have tried or may have gotten married late,” he explains. “There are also some young women who got married at the age of 20 or 21 and are not able to conceive till the age of 27-28, and they could potentially be candidates for IVF. But before that, we advise them to take some medications.” The duration of the process varies from person to person and the centre can complete it in between 28 to 60 days.

The centre offers a complete range of treatments for infertility as well as perform both the sperm and egg donor program. However, surrogacy is not allowed for international patients.

The hospital’s international patient program is reputed, and the institute receives a number of couples travelling from across the globe.

Joe says: “We get a lot of patients from the Middle East and Africa and have received good feedback from them. Our hospitality starts from airport pick-up and everything is taken care of by the guest relations team. Plus, the couples can also make the most of the tourist activities offered in India.” They can also enjoy the medical tourism benefits India has to offer.

When it comes to IVF, Joe explains that the centre works on three different levels. The first is the stress level of the patient, which is caused by society, family or even themselves. The second is the moral and ethical part, which refers to how society supports them.

“As a hospital, we have the moral responsibility to take care of the patient with proper counselling and providing transparency in treatment. Then there is the facility available in the hospital, which includes infrastructure. Some of the issues would be accommodation, language, etc., for that, we have a one-stop-shop with our guest relations team. We don’t usually give couples hospital rooms and want them to stay outside in a fully furnished rental house so that they have a homely feel and try to give them a comfort zone, which is important for IVF. We have translators in any language both on and off-site.,” he emphasizes.

The centre’s basic package costs a nominal US$4,500, which includes registration, scans, follicular studies, hormone injection of single dosage, egg collection, embryo transfer, ICSI and pregnancy test. The add-ons are also available in case patients want laparoscopy, IMSI etc.

“Quality is very important because, at the end of the day, the output is the baby. It is a joy to be in this profession when we see the happiness in the faces of couples who become parents after a long wait of sometimes maybe 20 years. This is indeed a very thrilling, exciting experience,” he concludes.

For more info email ceoprashanthhospital@gmail.com or Whatsapp +91 81246 05059

In today’s dynamic and constantly evolving healthcare environment, hospitals are facing a number of challenges on how to achieve efficiency. Critical communication plays a key role here as the hospital staff can share the right information, at the right time, to the right person. This also involves saving crucial time for the staff and enables them to take better care of patients.

Francis Schmeer, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Ascom, told Daily Dose: “Trending topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) are based on data analysis and what we see in many of the hospitals is that hospital information systems, medical devices, nursing systems and all the information systems are either clinical or administrative in a hospital, and are often built in silos and are not connected. If they are not connected, data doesn’t flow into systems such as AI.”

He explained that AI will work only if there are platforms through which the innovation can be delivered on. “We are offering the prerequisites or the infrastructure that can support the use of AI. Our solutions allow for this connectivity and once you have the data you can drive it to the AI engine that then delivers a more holistic population wide type of information. This then allows for greater efficiency.”

Ascom works with data on two levels. One is making sure what the data says happens at the right time for the right person, but the company also sets up that database and allows AI to work with the database. “We are the last inch to the patient, because all the data (which can be about 3,000 datapoints per patient) is accessed by us. We use that to help nurses and doctors so that they can provide immediate and better care. We also help it do population trends, and to improve overall hospital performance,” Schmeer highlighted.

Ahmad Al Jassim, Managing Director, Ascom, added: “Data is important, especially in the Middle East, because of insurance. God forbid if anything happens, the insurance companies will need data to substantiate any case – data for insurance, data for healing”

One of the areas where the company is innovating is in by bringing all the alerts and data from restricted areas such as the ICU and the OR into mobiles and big screens. “This gives a second line of support to give to doctors,” said Al Jassim. “Ascom is becoming an important player in this area. We have just won the second largest deal in clinical solutions to integrate our products with ICU and OR theatres.”

While Jeannine Pilloud, Chief Executive Officer, Ascom, shared: “At Arab Health, we are showcasing our integrated solutions portfolio on our booth. We are showing customers the different entry points where they can start their digitalisation process. We have a wide portfolio of solutions and services that is giving us the opportunity to help and support in several ways. I am very interested to see and hear from our customers, about how the solutions work for them and what their potential future needs are. This is important for us to plan our R&D sector.”

Accoridng to Pilloud the UAE is a strategic market for the company, as it is developing very fast and is always ready to implement complex solutions. Schmeer concluded: “The UAE is an important market for growth and development, but we also learn from here. Our global roadmap is informed by what happens here, so it’s a very symbiotic relationship.”

To address the needs of patients traveling from outside Dubai and to provide them every necessary assistance required for their speedy recovery, Dubai Health Experience (DXH) has introduced a Second Medical Opinion (SMO) program. The initiative is designed to take that burden off of the patient’s and his/her family’s shoulders, in order to enable them to make the best and most informed decisions about the treatment.

Fast turnaround is one of the most attractive features of the program. The patients will be able to receive a second opinion from a team of multidisciplinary specialists and consultants in selected health care providers within two working days once the complete reports and existing medical reports and Diagnosis is provided. Furthermore, full confidentiality and peace of mind is guaranteed as the reports and medical records are only shared with the concerned specialist. The seven key specialties covered under the DXH SMO program are Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, IVF/Fertility related treatments, Cardiology, Neurology, Oncology and Urology.

Signing up for the SMO program involves easy steps. To begin, the patient, insurance provider or a facilitator is required to set up an online account on the DXH.ae website and select one from the listed specialties. Following this, he/she must search for the preferred healthcare facility, which is an selected member of the DXH-SMO Program. After sharing the requested medical records and reports online, the patient must request a second medical opinion by completing the DXH-SMO request form. Once these steps are completed, the patient will be able to avail the second medical opinion report online.

Dr. Marwan Al Mulla, CEO of DHA's Health Regulation Sector, said: "Dubai’s strength in the healthcare sector lies in the delivery of patient-centric care. Led by a vision to provide happy and healthy recovery experiences to our patients, the program was developed that offers medical opinion by multidisciplinary teams comprising of specialists and consultants. In addition to ensuring a fast turnaround time, the process also standardizes the services and experience offered by the selected hospitals”.

Being diagnosed with a life-altering illness impact the patient and their loved ones in several ways, and coping strategies become imperative. The patient will need all the information to about the condition and the options before making a decision. This is where the significance of the DXH- SMO Program lies. It provides patients with a hassle-free and effective way of getting a second specialist’s perspective. This include insights into the diagnosed medical condition through the review of medical reports, validation of the original diagnosis, discussions with referring doctors, and recommendations on treatment plans, including latest/alternate treatment modalities that are available in Dubai.

Medical imaging data is one of the richest sources of information about a patient’s well-being. At the same time, interpretation of extremely high-resolution medical images is a complex task .

With a staggering amount of unstructured data packed into X-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and other testing modalities, it is no surprise that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slated to be a valuable ally for radiologists, pathologists, caregiver institutions, policy makers and public health governance.

The Daily Dose team explored the possibilities and promise of artificial intelligence in diagnostic imaging during a tête-à-tête with Sukhdeep Sachdev, Global Chief Executive Officer, Leader Healthcare Group.

What is the timeline to realize the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Diagnostic Imaging?

Arab Health 2020 will serve as Leader Group’s platform to unleash the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Diagnostic Medical Imaging. Leader Group partners with Centre for Advanced Research in Imaging, Neurosciences & Genomics (CARING) to launch CARPL - an AI-enabled diagnostic and analytics platform to support faster, reliable and cost-effective diagnoses through medical imaging.

What is CARPL?

CARPL is an AI-assisted global platform for development, validation and deployment of advanced radiologic analytics. It is a data processing platform that enables the deployment of multiple, multi-vendor AI algorithms into the radiology workflow. It is secure, seamless and a feather-light component of the health IT infrastructure. CARPL is the metaphoric octopus - supporting data mining, analytics, validation of AI algorithms, and more. It can be applied to enhance patient experience, improve healthcare delivery metrics, to create global disease level databases for population health management, to enable precision medicine through genomics and integrated diagnostics.

How does CARPL support KPIs for healthcare delivery?

CARPL places the ease and power of AI into the hands of radiologists, caregivers and caregiving institutions – restoring confidence to patients who may have experienced a mis-diagnosis, providing quality assurance to insurance providers who may have reimbursed additional tests due to false positives, and relief to caregiver institutions who may have encountered litigation arising from discrepancies in radiologic diagnosis.

What can CARPL achieve at granular and policy levels?

CARPL can reduce the previously impossible task of parsing through millions of medical scans to the timeframe of a few days – thus overhauling the approach to public health and empowering policy makers towards the monitoring of disease-burden in real-time at a fraction of the cost.

Is AI-assisted diagnostic imaging a threat to radiologists?

The radiologist is an integral part of healthcare delivery. No tool or technology can replace the human component and associated critical thinking skills. The radiologist and AI-assisted diagnostic imaging tools join hands to bridge gaps and deliver a superlative care experience.

The advent of AI as a support tool for diagnosticians has been heralded as a positive development by the thought leaders at The American College of Radiology. In addition, the American College of Radiology Data Science Institute (ACR DSI) has released use cases that support the deployment of artificial intelligence in medical imaging. The objective is to develop standardized AI for clinical decision support and diagnostics.

Having said that, in the era of artificial intelligence, it is beneficial for radiologists to master basic programming tools to sift and organise DICOM data. User-friendly simple tools that can be used in clinical and research practice are widely available.

What are the use cases for AI in medical imaging, and how can AI tools alter workflows towards improved detection of fatal conditions?

Applying AI to imaging data may help to identify thickening of certain muscle structures or monitor changes in blood flow through the heart and associated arteries. AI tools could also be used to automate measurement tasks, such as pulmonary artery diameter, aortic valve analysis, carina angle measurement. AI could be used to identify hard-to-see fractures, soft tissue injuries and dislocations. Certain fractures are often difficult to detect on standard images. AI assisted tools may be more likely to identify subtle variations that indicate an instability requiring surgery. Unbiased algorithms could be deployed to review images in trauma patients - to ensure that all injuries are accounted for and deliver the care required for a superlative outcome. These are just a few use cases that scratch the surface of the possibilities. A few years ago, applied AI for healthcare seemed a distant dream. As we step into 2020, the dream has transformed into reality.

Italy’s Gruppo Ospedaliero San Donato (GSD) currently has 19 hospitals treating over 4.5 million patients each year. Founded in 1957, GSD has grown since to not only become the largest private hospital group in Italy, but is also among the leading hospital groups in Europe.

According to Kamel Ghribi, Chairman of GSD Healthcare (GSDH), the most fundamental driver of the healthcare industry today is the peer sharing of innovative scientific R&D.

Sharing medical and technical expertise facilitates the rapid development of state-of-the-art technology and avant-garde training techniques, which in turn can be extensively tested globally. Such dissemination provides the medical world with the variables necessary to deliver the most advanced and targeted therapies to patients.

In an interview with Daily Dose, he said: “GSD Healthcare brought an R&D and training programme to Dubai Healthcare City because we saw a cluster model of interconnected prestigious institutions such as the Dubai Health Authority and the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Having prestigious academic institutions, public authorities, the financial sector and other esteemed entities in such close proximity, creates a critical mass that allows a long-term drive in innovative technology and treatments.

“In the same way, GSD and its flagship San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan combine vocational training with scientific R&D, medical technology development and innovative treatment therapies that have made the hospital a point of reference in Europe.”

At Arab Health, GSD is presenting a new approach towards the provision of training – tailor-made training workshops and courses.

“We believe that the true value of training can only be fully realised through expert-led hands-on training carried out in small groups. Practice can only be enhanced and honed in any given field of medicine when tailored to the specific procedures that are being performed,” he explained. “At GSD Healthcare, we build our courses according to the specifications and needs of the medical professional in question and deploy the services of internationally recognised physicians skilled at training teams for as little as two days right up to three weeks.

Over and above our highly skilled training services, we also offer internships in Italy, thus giving participants access to full training as well as real practice on the actual clinical cases present in our hospitals.”

Ghribi expressed that Arab Health allows participants to get involved in new aspects of their profession as well as allowing clinical professionals the chance to enhance their knowledge by providing them with an opportunity to see how all areas of medicine are constantly evolving. He added that it is a platform to highlight the importance of keeping up with the latest innovations, whether in the realms of diagnostic and treatment possibilities or the latest patient care guidelines and recommendations.

Efficient pathways

According to Ghribi, the healthcare industry is being driven forward by the need for new treatments, new procedures, innovative technology and more efficient pathways that ensure every patient receives the best possible care. In order to achieve such a goal, he said, it is of fundamental importance that scientific academics and researchers work together in collaboration with medical professionals, specifically physicians, within the context of a clinical unit.

He emphasized: “By adopting such a strategy, GSD has been able to create innovative treatments in cardiac surgery and in genetic therapies such as tailor-made stem cell medicine. It is now our principal aim to disseminate and share our medical innovations and knowledge throughout the MENA region through the vehicle of locus training, which also provides an ideal platform for the exchange of medical data and information.”

Furthermore, he highlighted that it has now become an undisputed fact that the quality of care received is not uniquely related to the quality of the physician. Therefore, GSD not only provides top medical practitioners and hi-tech therapies; it also provides Hospital Management courses in partnership with the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan.

“Having unparalleled expertise in the field of comprehensive care provision we are in the sui generis position of having the resources and experience to train hospital management teams, thus helping to deliver a high-quality service to both patient and practitioner,” he concluded.