Most of us would agree that though Indian doctors are amongst the best in the world, the Indian healthcare system is sick. Private healthcare can be world-class; but this is expensive and unaffordable for the vast majority. While the government does provide free healthcare, a lot of it is of very poor quality. Both doctors and patients are unhappy, as evidenced by the increasing violence against doctors and patients.

One reason for this sad state of affairs is that the entire medical system is built around the doctor. This is crazy ! Healthcare is a service industry, and should be designed around the patient. The best way of doing this would be empowering patients with information, so they know how to get the best medical care, in partnership with their doctor.

Unfortunately, patient education seems to be no one's baby, as a result of which it is a releatively neglected area. This is a shame, because the potential cost-benefit ratio is huge ! For the investment of a small amount of money, it's possible to improve the healthcare millions of patients receive. We can teach patients how to talk to doctors; how to judge the quality of the care they are receiving; and how to get a second opinion. The tools to do this are easily available - they just need to be used more widely and effectively ! Patient education resource centers and libraries should be an integral part of all hospitals and clinics - even if it is only an internet terminal with a nurse or librarian to help patients make sense of the information they unearth. Patients represent healthcare's largest resource - and they have been untapped so far. If we can make intelligent use of patients, and help them to make use of their intelligence, everyone will benefit !

Don Kemper, CEO of Healthwise, is coming to India to talk about Information Therapy. US and UK health insurers have increasingly invested in ways to support their member's health and health care decisions. Kaiser, United Health Care, AETNA, CIGNA, WELLPOINT all have developed member Websites and disease management programs to provide the information and decision-support that their members need.

Mr. Kemper will be in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday, 7 and 8 April 2006 to present at an invitational workshop on "the business case for consumer health information within health plans” . Kemper's talk will describe the patient education trends among health insurers in the US and the business case for their contribution to health insurance success.

The seminar is at HELP, the Health Education Library for People; on 8 April 2006, from 11 am - 2 pm. Everyone is welcome to participate ! Attendance is free.

This seminar will take a holistic view of healthcare in India; and what we can do to fix the healthcare system in India by putting patients at the center of the healthcare system. We will be having presentations from diverse group, including: health insurance companies; pharmaceutical companies; internet companies; doctors; hospitals; investors; journalists and the public. Confirmed speakers include: Don Kemper; Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Director, HELP; Mr Rajesh Jain, Internet Entrepreneur; Mr Rakesh Jhunjhunwalla, Investor; Mr Bhava Narayan; and Mrs Vasumathi Sriganesh, Librarian.

Some of the topics to be covered include:

• Investing in the healthcare sector in India today – business opportunities galore !
• How can I make money by educating patients ?
• Why are patients so unhappy ?
• Why are doctors burnt out ?
• The health insurance company' perspective
• Pharmaceutical companies – can they be trusted to educate patients ?
• How pharmacists can educate patients
• How the internet can help – Dr Google, MD
• The role of books and libraries in prescribing information
• Improving doctor-patient communication
• Setting up call centres for delivering health care solutions.

An investment in patient education is one of the most cost-effective ways of improving healthcare in India. Well-informed patients will take much better care of themselves, and information therapy will help to make medical care much more patient-centric.

This is a major opportunity for health insurance companies who are just entering the Indian market. It's a market which is all set to explode, as the Indian economy is booming; and more Indians are now clamouring for health insurance, because of the increasing costs of medical care. The company which champions patient education can "own" this segment in India - and this can be financially very profitable as well !

It is true that this is a challenging area , and there are still many problems.

1. There are many different regional languages
2. Many people are still illiterate
3. Few patient educational materials have been published in India so far

Actually, this represents a major opportunity !

Producing high quality educational materials in India is easy, given the wealth of medical talent we have; as well as a huge pool of talented English writers. They just need to be married together, to be able to work as a team ! Translating the materials into regional languages is relatively easy, once they have been produced. Innovative formats such as animated graphics can be used intelligently, to reach out to illiterates and semi-literates.

All this material can be sold; and also given away for free through the internet, so it can reach out to anyone who wants to access it. This will mean that the distribution costs are virtually zero - it's only the production costs which will need to be incurred.

A national network of patient education resource centers can provide the "real-world" underpinning to patient education, by acting as a reference center; and training patient educators and doctors. Ideally, every hospital should have its own patient education library - and this could be as simple and basic as a librarian or nurse, armed with a computer connected to the internet, who can help to answer patients' queries.

We have all the resources and manpower we need - now all we need is the desire to do so ! We hope this seminar will act as a catalyst and bring key players together, so that patient education gets off to a flying start in India.