This is a presentation made at the Asian eHealth Professionals Network by Rajendra Pratap Gupta on the Innovation Working Group Asia which he co-chairs.

1. Address at
On 26th July, 2013
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Co-Chair, IWG-A
Harnessing the power of innovations to accelerate progress
towards achieving the health MDGs
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2. Mission & Vision
• Created in 2010 by the UN Secretary General
• Aims to harness the power of innovations &
accelerate progress towards achieving the health
MDGs in support of the Global Strategy for
Women’s and Children’s Health.
• A global hub for innovation
• Catalystfor initiating and enabling the scale up of
cost-effective innovations
• Innovations across technological, social, financial,
policy and business domains.
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3. Organization Structure – IWG Global
• The IWG is maintained as a broad network of
interested partners with a small secretariat,working
through partner organizations.
• Partners represent government, non-government,
profit and non-profit private-sector and development
agencies
• Co Chairs – Government of Norway & Johnson &
Johnson
• Thematic work streams led by participating
stakeholders
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5. Innovation Working Group Asia (aIWG)
• Launched on May 28, 2013 in conjunction with ‘Women Deliver 2013’ in
Kuala Lumpur.
• Organized as a workstream of the Global IWG.
• Co Chairs
1. Mark Kelly, Senior Operations Director, South Asia, World Vision
International
2. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, International Health Policy Expert & President,
Disease Management Association of India.
• Facilitated by a coordinator and supported by the Global IWG secretariat
in Partnership, for Maternal , Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH ), WHO,
Geneva.
• Network of members/partners
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6. • Focused on Maternal Child Health Space
• Public sector Partnership
• Private sector Partnership
• CSR initiatives
Scope of Partnership
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7. • ICTs - Telemedicine & mHealth
• Nutrition
• Demand Creation
• South South Collaboration
Current Focus – Thematic Areas
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8. Opportunities
• Asia has largest numbers of women and children impacted by
MDGs 4 &5.
• Leveraging existing innovations ie Nutrition .
• Universal health coverage in terms of both conceptual
developmentand implementation is showing remarkable
advance in the region.
• The technological developmentin Asia within mobile
technology and ICT will add value to the IWG workstream on
e/mHealth.
• Growing economies in the region
• Strong development of corporate social responsibility.
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9. Value to our Partners
• Provide neutral meeting place for multi-stakeholders pursuing
shared value in the space of maternal child health.
• Initiate thematic work-streams based on priorities identified
for the region
• Facilitate shared experiences of stakeholders
• Stimulate on going and vibrant regional consultationbetween
stakeholders
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10. Membership
• Share Experience
• Share Expertise
• Share Resources
• Stimulate Discussion on important issues
• Support the Cause
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11. ICT preparedness toolkit
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12. Why this toolkit ?
• There is a need and a high level of interest to use mHealth /
ICT based interventions for RMNCH
• Since this is a recent development & due to lack of credible
resources , there is a hesitation to start such ICT based
interventions
• Are these new resources ?
• No, they are based on existing works and frame works, like
WHO work on developing application for safe care at delivery
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13. Can we use ICTs to improve coverage & quality
of RMNCH interventions?
• Some countries are still facing challenges in achieving certain
MDG RMNCH related targets.
• There is clear evidence about what needs to be done (a
package of essential low-cost interventionsthat have been
demonstrated to work).
• Partners want to come together in a multi-stakeholder setting
to scale-up, improve or deliver more effectively these
interventions.
• We want to see how ICTs/mHealth innovationscan be
leveraged in this context.
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14. The challenge: Lot’s of activity, different
stakeholder perspectives, no dialogue
• Hundreds, if not thousands of ICT and mHealth pilots.
• Not that many demonstrable scaled-up use of ICT/mHealth
innovationsat State or National levels.
• A larger health ecosystemthat is more complex than
innovators are sometimes used to (e.g. community level is not
the same as national level).
• There are stakeholders with very different perspectives and
agendas involved(Government,NGOs, International Agencies,
Commercial operators, Implementers etc.)
• Critical questionsare not being asked and there is a lack of
dialogue between different stakeholders.
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15. A response: Stakeholders review ICT/mHealth
preparedness/readiness
Develop an instrument that encourages dialogue
between different stakeholders, ensures that
critical questions are on the table for discussion,
and provides access to resources, tools,
guidance, case studies etc. to help countries
understand what needs to happen to leverage
the potential of ICTs/mHealth at scale.
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16. A workbook that brings together
resources, opinion and guidance
• Bring health innovators,
operators, sponsors and end-
users to the table
• Guide stakeholders through a
logical process of exploring key
questions
• Encourage stakeholders to use
tools, resources and assets that
already exist (e.g. WHO, GSMA,
mHealth Alliance, IWG)
• Focus on what can be done given
where we are, not what can’t be
done because we’re not ready.
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17. Synergies
• AeHIN is a platform for eHealth professionals from Asia
• IWG-A is workingon developing the Telemedicine road
map for Asia
• We can work together in making this happen faster
• Ideas for collaborationwelcome
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18. For more information, visit:
www.everywomaneverychild.org/iwg
Rajendra Pratap Gupta
Co-chair
president@dmai.org.in
Mark Kelly
Co-Chair
mark_kelly@wvi.org
Terry Leong
Coordinator
Email: terry_leong@wvi.org
Twitter: @iwg4health
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