Puducherry, where a major part of the movie Life of Pi has been shot, will provide infrastructure and logistical support for the joint-health program and Abbott will provide diagnostics, educational and healthcare support and patient awareness (Image sour
Bangalore: The Government of Puducherry, a Union Territory of India where a major part of the Oscar winning Life of Pi movie has been shot, has signed a three-year agreement with Abbott to improve awareness of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia (cholesterol related disorders) and thyroid disorders; and implement initiatives to fight them and record their prevalence in the Union Territory.
The partnership program will monitor over seven lakh people, who are 30 years or above. It will also build the skills of local healthcare providers through continued medical education. This partnership for integrated health management is the first of its kind to be initiated by a government in India to capture and assess reliable population level monitoring data. This data will help to create health risk maps to forecast the burden of these non-communicable diseases, facilitate early intervention, and ultimately help reduce disease burden in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Government of Puducherry will provide the infrastructure and the necessary permissions and logistical arrangements in the Union Territory to run the project, while Abbott will provide subsidised diagnostics, educational support to healthcare providers, patient awareness material and will conduct diet guidance camps. Abbott will also provide non-communicable disease management kits (including supplies to measure blood pressure, body mass index and blood glucose) and 150,000 glucose test strips free of cost to support monitoring of diabetes, as well as access to a unique internationally-recognized, evidence-based disease risk and health assessment tool.
Chief Minister of Puducherry Mr N Rangaswamy, said: "The partnership with Abbott is one of the first in the country for a state or Union Territory to build awareness, provide treatment and better manage chronic diseases for its citizens, using its existing public health infrastructure. This partnership will not only improve patient outcomes, but also help address the growing disease burden and the associated economic burden of Puducherry."
Mr Vivek Mohan, senior director, global integrated health, Abbott, said that, "Combating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a shared commitment in building a healthy society. Partnerships like these with government will help to prevent and manage these diseases effectively, in particular by strengthening the health care systems addressing NCDs."
