#ICYMI: Be sure not to miss out next time

Incredible India. Thirteen Swedish health care representative traveled to India last week - in addition to the 17-person tech delegation arranged by SIBC to Bangalore, so Swedish presence was particularly high on the sub-continent - in order to begin preparations for increased collaborations during our Jubilee year 2019. With three separate tracks focused on regional collaborations, partnerships in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and private sector opportunities, the agenda for these Mini Delegations was incredibly packed.

The delegation trip itself would not have come about without the close collaboration between Swecare Foundation, Socialdepartementet, and the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi as well as InnovatioCuris. The visibility and credibility of the delegation increase significantly when we work towards a common goal while planning these visits.

Program Overview - Track 1

The Swecare trip started with InnoHealth2018, organized by our Central Baltic Health Access partners InnovatioCuris and led by Target Market Coach, Sachin Gaur. The Swedish Ambassador to India, the inimitable Klas Molin, opened the two-day conference in Gurugram with a passionate plea to delegates to innovate together, across borders, towards a common goal. The conference's strength in fact lies attracting those who are willing to put in the time, resources, and skills to do exactly that and the B2B sessions are unparalleled in their focus on action points. Special attention was given to affordable and simple solutions, especially with regards to management of chronic disease.


The following week included study visits to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, and Max Hospital Saket where the delegation had the honor of touring radiology, oncology, and infection control units at the leading hospitals in the country. The warm welcome we received touched the delegation and we hope to return the favor when these counterparts visit Sweden.


We also had very high-level access to two leading diagnostic brands in Delhi.
Dr Lal's National Reference Laboratory has arguably the most extensive network across India and we got to visit their state-of-the-art flagship center in Rohini. Dr Lal himself received our small delegation. This was followed up by a visit to the more specialized Mahajan Imaging where we had an intimate dialogue about premium Indian market, AI, and quality assurance.

After constructive discussions with a large team at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) cutting across a vast range of subjects from nursing to eHealth, we ended the day with a roundtable among Swedish life science companies in India, hosted by the Swedish Chamber and Business Sweden, and a reception at the Ambassador's Residence. 

Program Overview - Track 2

Socialdepartments trip started with WHO's 2nd World Conference on Access to Medical Products - Achieving the SDGs 2030, where we met the leadership at the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare during the inauguration. Niclas Jacobson, Socialdepartementet, spoke on Sweden's commitment to these issues and Pavan Aslapuram, EMPE Diagnostics, presented the case for Swedish colloborative structures.

The first day ended with a Team Sweden dinner hosted by our Ministry, where we got a chance to realign our objectives for the week and the year ahead.

Representatives from Socialdepartementet, Embassy of Sweden - Economic Affairs, Swecare, eHälsomyndigheten, Business Sweden, and Forte traveled to Jodhpur on the second day, along with Joint Secretary Sunil Sharma, to conduct a site visit to the AIIMS Jodhpur. The group were treated to dinner by the Indian Ministry at the foot of the Jodhpur Fort. A visit was also made to two Health and Wellness Centers which Sweden plans to 'adopt' in order to test, and eventually showcase, Swedish solutions in the Indian context. We were very happy to see Elekta, Sectra, and Hemocue products already in use in Jodhpur.

The delegation returned to Delhi to join the others at the Roundtable and Reception at the Embassy. And with this renewed energy and commitment, we entered into what was to be one of the most productive Joint Working Group meeting in this MoU's history on the morning of the last day.

Program Overview - Track 3

Representatives from Läkemedelverket and Folkhälsomyndigheten stayed back in Delhi in order to present at the WHO conference and meet with CDSCO and Safdarjung Hospital respectively. They rejoined the larger group for the Roundtable, Reception, and JWG meeting. The entire trip was rounded off by a Team Sweden meeting at the Embassy in order to debrief and delegate immediate action points.

Most common issues raised

• Nurse Training
• Doctor Exchange
• Clinical Decision Support (AI)
• Early Screening
• Elderly Care
• AMR / Environmental Impact

Participants

Much of the reason for the success of this delegation trip rests with the participants - a dedicated set of smart, funny, and flexible individuals. Thank you for coming!

• Karolinska University Hospital
• Getinge
• Aleris
• DocOnline
• eHealth Agency
• Public Health Agency
• Medical Products Agency
• FORTE
• Socialdepartmentet
• Swecare Foundation

Special Mention

• Embassy of India in Sweden
• EMPE Diagnostics
• Gothenburg Business Region
• AstraZeneca
• Sweden-India Business Council
• Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India (SCCI)
• Business Sweden
• Vinnova

For those interested in India - come check-out India-Sweden Business Day

Workshop on Nordic Sustainable Healthcare in collaboration with NCSH

With funding from Nordic Innovation, the Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare, NCSH is writing a Nordic White paper on sustainable healthcare. During the project they will give an introduction to sustainability within Nordic healthcare, put it in a global context as well as point to areas of certain interest and future innovation areas. To gather information and best practice examples NCSH had invited hospitals, suppliers and other stakeholders to workshops in all Nordic countries. In Stockholm, Sweden this was done in collaboration with Swecare. The day was started with an introduction to the project by Linnea Turnstedt and Daniel Eriksson from NCSH and a short presentation from Swecare on the global demand on Nordic solutions in this sector.

After which Arvid Løken from Nordic Innovation presented their Welfare Solutions program, and how Nordic companies can benefit from participating. After which we listened to company pitches from sustainable companies from Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

To get the perspective of the procurers on the role and need of sustainability Gustav Eriksson, Head of Environmental Departement at Karolinska University Hospital and Charlotta Brask, Head at Sustainability at Stockholm County Council, and Linn Josefsson, Upphandlingsmyndigheten presented some mindboggling stats and the take-home message that right now facilities energy consumption is optimized but on the utilities and medical devices the potential energy savings are enormous. The need is there, the solutions available, so lets close the chasm for a better future! 

Swedish-Hungarian Medtech & Digital Health Symposium builds bridges between two classic Life Science nations

It was a joyful group of delegates that met with key stakeholders in Stockholm at the welcome reception at the residence of H.E. dr. Adrien Müller Ambassador with the aim of increasing cooperation and partnerships.

The symposium was honored by the opening words of H.E. dr. Adrien Müller Ambassador and our CEO Maria Helling, after which the attendants learned about the Hungarian development in Medtech and Digital Health and the active work of Medical, Dental and Wellness tourism to Hungary by speakers Eszter Kovacs from Semmelweiss Medical University and Imre Varadi from Infoter.

After which Ylva Wide from the Swedish eHealth Agency and Karina Tellinger McNeill from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) explained their key roles in the Swedish eHealth ecosystem and the Swedish vision on eHealth2025.

After presentations from academia, public sector and NGO´s there was presentations on the business aspects. Janos Rajki from Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency delivered interesting stats and was followed by a case example from Björn Söderberg who had been working with Tensiomed and then company pitches from 77 Elektronika, Iron Rooster Technologies, Meduscmart and Solecall and subsequent speeddating.

The day was wrapped up by a visit to H2 Health Hub for presentations by the CEO Paul Beatus and Per Lek from Stockholm Science City where they presented the development of Hagastaden, and there was some time for companies to talk to the hub-companies. All in all a productive day and a good start for building lasting partnerships.

Bridgehead made to US. East Coast

Celebrating 200 years of diplomatic relations between USA and Sweden, Swecare Foundation and Swedish Medtech signed a multilateral MoU with Maryland Department of Commerce as part of the CB Health Access Program.
Deputy Secretary, Benjamin Wu @MDBiz welcomes both Swedish and the central-baltic companies to Maryland, and offer supporting them as part of the joint agreement and with the @MedTechCon and @BIOConvention 2019 is just around the corner making the connection is a great way of preparing yourself and your company.

While on the business mission our colleague @NMJokilaakso had several fruitful meetings in Philadelphia and Baltimore identifying key organisations and people (such as Bruce Ellsworth @SelectUSA ) for entering into the US market  and attending @AdvaMedEvents @MedTechCon as supporting partner together with @Anna_lefevre @Swedish_Medtech  where former PM Tony Blair reminded that Healthcare reforms are the hardest thing you can do in politics because vested interests are also important in public sector and inertia. So there is plenty of work left to do but some first strides have been made for our mutual aim to improve healthcare.