Finnish and Indian Partners Aim to Develop a High-quality Health Care System for India

​The opening speakers of the symposium expressed a clear wish for permanent collaboration between Finland and India. According to the speakers, India provides excellent investment opportunities for Finnish institutions and actors, as the country features a huge domestic market for product commercialisation in addition to indigenous resources and fast-developing clinical conditions.

– Collaboration requires creative thinking. Even though there is still a lot to be done, I hope that new solutions can be created between our countries, noted Rector Kalervo Väänänen from the University of Turku.

– We must identify key areas of co-operation, of which health care is a prominent one. An active student exchange programme would bridge the gap and sustain activities and collaborative efforts between our countries, outlined Professor Sunando Dasgupta, Dean of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Professor Kim Pettersson, Rector Kalervo Väänänen at the University of Turku, Vice Rector and Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology at Åbo Akademi University Niklas Sandler, Counsellor of Education Tiina Vihma-Purovaara and the Dean at IIT Kharagpur Sunando Dasgupta explored co-operation possibilities in the field of health.

Aiming for a High-quality and Affordable Health Care System

In his keynote speech, Professor of Biotechnology Kim Pettersson from the University of Turku discussed diagnostic trends and technologies as well as collaborative projects between Finnish and Indian researchers, diagnostic industries, and decision-makers.

– In the future, the field of diagnostics will create a vast number of opportunities. Emerging and newly industrialised economies will play a greater role in this not only by offering growing market areas but also by developing new courses of action and products. Finnish diagnostic actors should definitely involve themselves in this process, emphasised Pettersson.

Professors Vinod Kumar and Partha Roy sketched out possibilities for the development of an affordable health care system for India, where many people do not have access to high-quality medical care.

According to the Professors, challenges in India include the lack of hospitals and information networks in rural areas, as well as a lack of awareness about common diseases. However, opportunities can be found in the development of an electronic health record system and in the utilisation of medicinal plants.

The end goal is the development of a high-quality and affordable health care system for India. The collaboration between Finland and India enables the development of better diagnostic tools and solutions for both research and treatment purposes.

The activities of the symposium were based on the Finnish-Indian Consortia for Research and Education (INDFICORE), which consists of 12 Finnish universities and 16 Indian Institutes of Technology and is coordinated by Aalto University. The symposium was jointly organised by the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. A consortium agreement has been drawn up between Finnish and Indian partner universities. The purpose of the agreement is to set a framework for forms of co-operation and to facilitate future mobility and research projects.

The symposium presentations can be downloaded here: http://www.utu.fi/indficore.

Text: Lassi Yli-Muilu
Photographs: Lassi Yli-Muilu and Hanna Oksanen