Full transcript
0:00Well Harjit, it’s been an absolute pleasure...
0:04It has been!
0:04Lance, it’s been a pleasure being here!
0:07I love this In Conversation series that you are doing.
0:09Fantastic!
0:23Hey guys,
0:24welcome to another In Conversation for this year.
0:26In the spirit of becoming a better version of ourselves
0:30and continuous learning.
0:31It's my absolute pleasure to have with me,
0:34Harjit Gill, who is the CEO of APACMed
0:36APACMed for those of you that are not sure
0:38is the industry body for across Asia Pacific on all
0:42med tech including IVD as well.
0:44And so our topic today and the reason
0:46why we've got Harjit here with us is to talk about
0:48and explore the concepts around healthcare and equity
0:51and focusing on the areas of women's health.
0:54It's great to be here, Lance,
0:55especially on a topic
0:56that’s so close to my heart,
0:58and that's women's health.
0:59No matter how far we've come in many different areas,
1:03I still think inequity
1:05when it comes to women's health,
1:07we've still got a long way to go.
1:09There's a lot of work to do and I think
1:10as part of the discussion today,
1:12I think one of the things I'd like to explore is
1:14people talk about access,
1:15that there's a nuance to access,
1:16which is around inequity.
1:18I think that's a conversation
1:19we need to have more and more.
1:22Healthcare inequity for women, for me,
1:24really is about outcomes.
1:26Outcomes that are far behind the ones that you see
1:29for their male counterparts.
1:31I think there's still a long way to go
1:32when we talk about
1:34improving healthcare access for women
1:38and getting more parity when it comes to outcomes.
1:41A lot of the reasons though, behind this,
1:43especially in this region,
1:45have to do with financial security
1:47and autonomy for women.
1:48I mean, we are half the world's population, but still
1:51biggest part of the poor population are women.
1:54Secondly, there are many societal
1:56and cultural barriers in this region,
1:58and that just puts a lot of restrictions,
2:00especially for women, in terms of having a certain degree of autonomy
2:04in managing their own health.
2:06Women's access to education
2:08still needs to go a long way in terms of
2:11improving their understanding,
2:14but also taking ownership for their health.
2:17Societal pressures,
2:18I think, in this region are also putting
2:21a lot of pressure on women
2:22because they don't seem
2:24in all cases to have that autonomy.
2:26And I think there's a statistic that I read,
2:28in fact, from the work that Roche did,
2:31that one in five women actually delay getting treatment
2:34for specific healthcare issues
2:36because they're busy with the family.
2:38For me,
2:39one of the questions I get asked is
2:41this seems to be lumped in as a general access question
2:44and in all honesty, it's not.
2:46So even if you said
2:48we have 47% of the world's population does not get access
2:52to basic diagnostics.
2:53Okay.
2:54If you solve that problem,
2:55we still have an equities,
2:57given that the system doesn't deliver
2:59what specific groups need,
3:01men versus women as you've described.
3:04For me, I think almost the role of a woman
3:07in the household according to society,
3:09women will put their families well-being ahead of their own
3:14and maybe not interact with healthcare systems as much.
3:17So I think, there's so many elements
3:20that play into this question around inequity
3:22and we've got to move beyond the access conversation
3:25as a bucket and get into specifics of what needs to be done
3:30to address these challenges.
3:32I really think that
3:33one of the ways to get around that is to educate more.
3:36And whatever solutions
3:37that we put out there as an industry,
3:40they should go hand in hand with education.
3:43And I think one of the ways
3:44actually through my experience
3:46is really about building communities,
3:49because women tend to rely so much on each other.
3:53And it's only through putting communities,
3:56grassroot communities,
3:58that you can actually get certain messages across.
4:03The last thing I would say actually is also industry
4:05has quite a big role in terms of shaping,
4:08how this can be improved.
4:11You pick up on the industry piece
4:12and this is something we talk about a lot internally
4:15and as a market leader as we are in IVD,
4:18we've delivered a lot of tools
4:21into the healthcare system.
4:22And one of the things that we need to understand is
4:25even if those tools are available in an environment,
4:28they're not necessarily being utilised
4:30for the reasons that you described.
4:33And then so what's our role as an organisation
4:36to help go the next step.
4:38And what we need to start doing,
4:40as I described as a little bit
4:42like a football game, for example,
4:44instead of being on the sidelines
4:46and providing balls, boots and socks,
4:49we need to get into the game
4:51and start addressing the ancillary reasons why a test,
4:57a critical test, particularly, is not being taken out.
5:01For example, we know the societal dynamics
5:04and in a sense of judgment actually influences many people.
5:09And we've seen this in terms of the uptake of
5:11HPV testing for cervical cancer in women
5:14in places like Malaysia.
5:16What do you think industries could do differently
5:19when they then take their solutions to market?
5:23And I've seen some great examples in the region,
5:27especially around maternal deaths.
5:31So if you see today,
5:32we're still losing 300,000 women
5:35during pregnancy and childbirth.
5:37And 99% of those women are in this region
5:41and 75% of that can be improved through education alone.
5:44So having a education element
5:48as part of the solutions that you offer,
5:51I feel is one way.
5:52I could probably speak for all of us
5:53in the industry where we would say yes,
5:56but we have education.
5:57But I think what is the piece
5:59that's missing that we need to crack is,
6:03we need to get alongside everywhere,
6:05everyone in that healthcare journey,
6:08shoulder to shoulder and say,
6:09this is what we're trying to solve for.
6:11Regardless of whether you're a healthcare provider
6:13or whether you're from the industry
6:15or government,
6:17it is going to take all of us to deliver our piece
6:21to solve that problem.
6:22And I think this is the step
6:24that hasn't gone far enough.
6:26I mean, companies, ourselves included,
6:28it's more about how do you deploy your educational content
6:33and when you address that, you then start thinking about,
6:35what is it?
6:36We're a science based company,
6:39so we're very comfortable
6:40having conversations around sensitivity and specificity.
6:44But does that land with a woman in Malaysia
6:47when we're talking about HPV testing?
6:49No, of course not.
6:50So, it's really taking another step
6:53into the healthcare game
6:54that I think we all need to do.
6:55But I think that's what's so interesting
6:56about our industry right now,
6:59because if you're working in this industry,
7:01it is about working and pulling together that ecosystem
7:05to get those solutions out.
7:07Just taking the solutions alone
7:09or having the solutions alone is not going to cut it.
7:12So I think as companies get more and more understanding
7:17around specific disease areas
7:19and especially the cultural taboos around them,
7:24we will require a different approach.
7:26And finding a way to address those.
7:28Exactly.
7:28Because we won't be able to reach the levels
7:32we want to in terms of,
7:34healthcare outcomes if we don't do that.
7:37So I think we need to acknowledge
7:38that this is a big complex topic, right?
7:40So what I'd like to see is some
7:43and to use today's terminology,
7:44some successful use cases
7:46where we're actually addressing
7:49the various elements of inequity
7:51for perhaps a disease state.
7:53So if we were to take
7:54something like cervical cancer for example,
7:57I would love to see a successful blueprint
8:00put together in an environment
8:02that has the challenges of society,
8:05finance and the lack of education.
8:07And the villages come together.
8:09And we've actually created a model
8:11that we know works,
8:13that we can then go, okay, let's now scale this.
8:17And I think that will help us break
8:20the mold of healthcare delivery today.
8:23And I would just love us to see that
8:26because then we're dealing with the systematic problems,
8:29not the individual symptoms.
8:31And that I'd love to see us be able to achieve that.
8:34And I think you're totally right, Lance.
8:35This is a systemic issue
8:38that needs to be tackled from all fronts.
8:41And if I look at the work that we do at APACMed,
8:44it is really around building advocacy
8:47on key issues like this.
8:48So I think as more and more solutions are developed,
8:52having those use cases that we could use
8:55to share with policymakers
8:57and to get the relevant reimbursement
9:00or regulatory approvals in the country is critical.
9:04So that's a way that we can actually collaborate
9:07and that's the way APACMed leverage is then
9:09the work that our member companies do.
9:12Yeah, totally agree.
9:13And if you look at it from the policymakers perspective as well,
9:16I mean, everybody knows
9:17there are these problems and challenges,
9:19but it takes a brave individual or group
9:22to bring in a new model.
9:24So if we're able to show use cases
9:27with proof points that show
9:28actually this step is the right thing to do,
9:31minimise the risk,
9:31address whatever elements need to be addressed,
9:34then the willingness for policymakers
9:36to take those things up should be a lot more.
9:39And this is a big gap in terms of capacity
9:42and capability in this region
9:43when we talk about policymakers and regulators.
9:46So those people in that position
9:48to make the change.
9:49And I think we have a great opportunity
9:52also to build those capabilities
9:55by sharing some of these new solutions.
9:58Well, Hajit, thank you so much.
9:59It's been an absolute pleasure having you here
10:02in our discussion today.
10:03In Conversation is a program that we have
10:06within Roche Diagnostics Asia Pacific,
10:08whereby we discuss key topics in healthcare
10:11and try and bring out
10:13some of the more core elements associated with those topics.
10:16So as we can educate the environment,
10:18the people in healthcare
10:19and the people around to improve the lives
10:22of people across Asia Pacific.
10:24So once again, thank you so much.
10:26Thanks for your insights.
10:27I wish you all the best.
10:28It was a pleasure.
10:29Thank you for having me.
10:30Thank you.