- Collaboration will harness innovative digital technology to support the Government of India’s vision to provide quality healthcare for all
- This partnership will focus on mothers and children in Aspirational Districts, which include both tribal and non-tribal vulnerable populations of India
Mumbai, Maharashtra—Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute, the primary healthcare initiative of Piramal Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation today announced a strategic partnership to align with and support the Government of India’s vision to ensure Universal Health Coverage. In the initial stages, the partnership aims to set a global example by leveraging digital technology to reduce preventable deaths amongst mothers and children living in Aspirational Districts and tribal areas.
The Piramal Swasthya and Rockefeller teams will be working closely with the government on building cutting-edge primary health innovations and scaling them through policy interventions. The partnership will strengthen healthcare systems by integrating technologies such as artificial intelligence for evidence-based decision making. The idea is to save maternal and child deaths by providing appropriate and timely insights leading to effective policymaking and implementation of focused interventions.
The Piramal-Rockefeller partnership focuses on five of the 25 Aspirational Districts that are mentored by NITI Aayog. They are also part of the 117 Aspirational Districts identified by the Government of India as having urgent health and development needs. Many residents of these districts are members of tribal populations, who have significantly worse health outcomes than non-tribal populations. The maternal mortality rate in India is 122 deaths per 100,000 live births, while in the tribal communities it is even higher. Similarly, other health indicators such as infant mortality rates, child malnutrition rates, and incidence of malaria and tuberculosis are much higher among tribal communities than the general population.
At the outset, the Piramal-Rockefeller partnership will focus on two main streams of work:
- Develop and test novel approaches for using digital technology—including mobile communications, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning—to more efficiently and effectively deliver primary healthcare services to vulnerable people in their communities.
- Assess how vital information on community health needs can be better collected and analyzed through digital tools, so that the government and others can make informed, real-time decisions about targeting health resources.
“We are delighted to partner with The Rockefeller Foundation to leverage our combined strengths and experiences and to co-create transformative solutions for equitable primary care health services in India. Health should be a right for everyone, not a privilege for some,” said Dr. Swati Piramal, Vice Chairperson, Piramal Group, and Director, Piramal Swasthya. “India is at the cusp of a historic public health transformation, and we are hopeful that this partnership will accelerate government goals to democratize health across the country. Through this partnership, we are committed to building an evidence-based decision-making culture in the government’s primary healthcare ecosystem in India, and institutionalizing it. Piramal Swasthya is also building a technology platform for primary care which is going to be a public good. The platform will help create better ways for the government health workers to make informed decisions when it comes to identifying issues in primary healthcare. The aim is to create a technology & evidence-driven system as a public good in public primary healthcare which will help create better governance, accountability and knowledge repository.”
“Digital innovation offers tremendous promise to deliver quality healthcare to more people, especially the most vulnerable among our communities,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President, The Rockefeller Foundation. “By working with Piramal Swasthya, we aim to accelerate India’s commitment to using digital technology to promote health equity, which will serve as an exemplar for the world.”
The Piramal-Rockefeller partnership brings together two impact- and outcome-driven organizations with a robust history of collaboration with governments to strengthen public health programs for vulnerable people. Both teams stand committed towards complementing and supplementing the Indian Government’s vision of Universal Health Coverage. This partnership will work towards co-creating high impact solutions that will contribute significantly towards bringing a change in the space of primary public healthcare that India needs.
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About Piramal Swasthya
Piramal Swasthya, under the aegis of Piramal Foundation, is focused on bridging public healthcare gaps by supplementing and complementing Government of India’s vision to meet Universal Health Care for all. Piramal Swasthya is one of the largest not-for-profit organizations in India – in the primary public health care space with a focus on Maternal health, Child and Adolescent Health, Noncommunicable diseases. Piramal Swasthya is operational in 21 states in India through 35 innovative public health care delivery programs and has served more than 11.2 Crore beneficiaries so far. Piramal Swasthya employs 2500+ employees (including over 250 medical doctors) who work with Seva-Bhav. Over the last twelve years, the focus has been on, building platforms for sustainable impact at scale, Innovations to scale as a journey, Influencing policies, governance, and accountability of the public health care system as a knowledge and implementation partner of the NITI Aayog. @PiramalS
About Piramal Foundation
Piramal Foundation is a Section 8 company that develops innovative solutions to resolve issues that are critical roadblocks towards unlocking India’s economic potential. The Piramal Group’s core values of Knowledge, Action Care and Impact guide the organisation in carrying out its responsibilities towards society. It believes that considerable positive change can occur when we collaborate with like-minded partners and nurture projects that are scalable, ensuring a long-term impact. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the Piramal Foundation is focused on universal primary education, empowering women, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health and improving access to safe drinking water. The projects are implemented through Piramal Swasthya, Piramal Sarvajal and Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership Recently, Piramal Foundation partnered with NITI Aayog to transform 25 Aspirational Districts across 7 states in India. The Foundation currently works across 21 states and has impacted over 100 million lives, mostly in partnership with state governments. @PiramalFdn
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission – unchanged since 1913 – is to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today the Foundation advances new frontiers of science, policy, and innovation to solve global challenges related to health, food, power, and economic mobility. As a science-driven philanthropy focused on building collaborative relationships with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation seeks to inspire and foster large-scale human impact by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas and conversations. In health, The Rockefeller Foundation has been working to improve global public health for more than a century – from eradicating hookworm in the American South, to launching the field of public health, to seeding the development of the life-saving yellow fever vaccine. The Foundation’s Precision Public Health initiative aims to empower community health systems and frontline health workers with the latest digital innovations – including more accurate and precise decision-making tools based on predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter at @RockefellerFdn.
Media Contacts:
Piramal Group
Dimple Kapur
+91 22 3046 6359 / dimple.kapur@piramal.com
The Rockefeller Foundation
Estelle Willie
+1 212 852 8483 / ewillie@rockfound.org