R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, NOV 13
Claiming that 80 percent of cancer care infrastructure is available in Metropolitan and big cities, Manikandan Bala, Senior Vice President, TIMEA & Asia Pacific & MD India of Sweden-based Elekta, pioneer in manufacturing Radiotherapy equipments for over five decades said, the company all set to ensure Radiotherapy infrastructure to reach last mile, education and training of clinical staff in safe operation of Radiotherapy equipments and affordability of the treatment to all.
Addressing reporters Manikandan Bala said, “Elekta’s focus on education and training is driven with the same sense of urgency with which we are looking to create access for care. Skill development at early stages is critical for success. Technology obsolesce needs to be factored in while looking to create sustainable training partnerships. This partnership is our endeavour in that direction, to benefit the community at large. We are committed to making radiotherapy accessible and will continue to invest in training and education in India,” he added.
- Huge gap exists between cancer care treatment infrastructure and increasing number of cancer cases due to lifestyle changes among the people
- Elekta has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Anna University in Chennai for setting up a training centre to train the students of Medical Physicians Course
- According to the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO), there should be 1 radiotherapy machine per million people.
- We are committed to making radiotherapy accessible and will continue to invest in training and education in India: Manikandan Bala, Senior Vice President, TIMEA & Asia Pacific & MD India
Huge gap exists between cancer care treatment infrastructure and increasing number of cancer cases due to lifestyle changes among the people. In spite of government and NGOs initiatives, many cancer cases were unreported, he said.
80 percent of cancer care infrastructure is available in Metropolitan and big cities. People from remote places were either reluctant to travel long distance for treatment due to poor economical conditions. Hence, the Elekta is concentrating on bridging this gap and taking the Radiotherapy equipments available in Tier-II and Tier-III cities on Public Private Partnership (PPP) or Private Private Partinership.
The company is in talks with 12 state governments to improve cancer care infrastructure, including Tamil Nadu, Manikandan Bala said.
He said, “There is increased requirement for radiotherapy in Tamil Nadu, because of the increased cancer burden. Radiotherapy is a highly technical and rapidly changing field of practice and study, wherein very sophisticated software systems are used to support clinical goals in delivering precision radiation therapy at scale.”
According to the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO), there should be 1 radiotherapy machine per million people. That makes it around 1,400 machines for India. We are currently at around 650 making it a little less than 0.5 per million.
This is also reflected in the waiting period for radiotherapy departments of public hospitals, which sometimes goes up to 1 year improving access to radiation therapy depends on expanding cancer care infrastructure rapidly.
He said Elekta is giving importance of accuracy in delivering precision radiation therapy, providing adequate training on software usage in advanced technology systems for qualifying medical physicists is paramount. Education therefore plays a critical role.
MoU between AU-Dept of Medical Physics and Elekta, 10 am today(11/11/22) & inauguration of Cancer Treatment Planning Software Lab pic.twitter.com/fvngu4kYRa
— Anna University, Chennai (@auvcochennai) November 11, 2022
Therefore, Elekta has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Anna University in Chennai for setting up a training centre to train the students of Medical Physicians Course. This is will bridge the gap between the qualified manpower and the Radiotherapy equipments, Manikandan Bala added. Elekta India in association with the Department of Medical Physics has inaugurated a Cancer Treatment Planning Software Lab at the University campus on Saturday.
Shankar Seshadri, Director – Sales was also present at the media briefing.
Why Cancer Care Infrastructure Matters for India
Cancer is fast becoming a public health emergency is India. According to one study[1] that drew upon the National Cancer Stasitics Report, there were 1.391 million cancer cases in 2020. In Tamil Nadu, there were 81,814 cases in 2021[2]. The incidence has been rising steadily, both in the state and across the country.
Cancer incidence in India is currently estimated to be 1.9 to 2 million annually; actual incidence is estimated to be 1.5 to 3 times higher than reported cases. Addressing this rising cancer burden is now one of India’s major health challenges, and calls for a thorough review of the nation’s cancer care infrastructure.
