Health Secretary meets Google's Chief Health Officer, discusses digital health tools accessibility

Geneva [Switzerland], May 28 : Health Secretary Apurva Chandra met with Google's Chief Health Officer, Karen DeSalvo, at a side event during the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva and discussed the ongoing engagement between Google Research and the Union Health Ministry to improve accessibility to digital health tools.
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra has been appointed as the head of Committee A at 77th session of WHA.
At the outset, the Union Health Secretary appreciated the ongoing engagement between the two organisations, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press release.
He expressed the need for exploring possible collaboration in areas such as Artificial Intelligence and sought Google's support for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), building more digital health tools like Automated Retinal Disease Assessment (ARDA) and making them ABDM enabled, and in spreading awareness about ABDM among the student community as well as startup community, the release added.
The Google team highlighted the existing engagement of Google Research with India's National Health Authority (NHA).
Google Research has been engaged with NHA since 2022 when Google's AI model for diabetic retinopathy screening (ARDA) was listed on ABDM's website under the Open Call for Expression of Interest (EoI) for creating a digital health ecosystem for India, the Ministry stated.
Google Research and NHA have also been working on the development of an open-sourced ABDM wrapper to simplify the ABDM sandbox integration process.
Hekali Zhimomi, Addl. Secretary, Union Health Ministry; Aradhana Patnaik, Addl. Secretary and Managing Director (NHM), Union Health Ministry; Basant Garg, Addl. CEO, National Health Authority were also present on the occasion.
Notably, the World Health Assembly comprises sessions in three main committees, which are Plenary, Committee A and Committee B.
Committee A is being chaired by India. It aims to facilitate discussion on various programmatic topics covering Universal Health Coverage, Public Health Emergency preparedness and response, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and sustainable financing for WHO.
Addressing the WHA on Tuesday, he said the World Health Assembly's theme this year, 'All for Health, Health for all,' is much aligned with the core values and the ethos of India's 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'.
"I assure you that I will do my utmost to guide the deliberations of this committee in a productive and efficient manner...The World Health Assembly's theme this year, 'All for Health, Health for all,' is much aligned with the core values and the ethos of India's 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', which means the world is one family," he said in his address.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, India has not only managed the crisis within the country but also supplied vaccines and health-related products across the world, embodying the spirit of 'One World, One Family'..." he added.
Further, he also highlighted India's leading steps towards health and said India has been taking the lead in advocating for detailed health innovations.
"When all countries are working towards our collective sustainable development goals and ensuring health services for all so that no one gets left behind, India has been taking the lead in advocating for detailed health innovations as key to the crucial transformative process required to help us achieve our goals," Chandra said.
"India has established more than 1,73,000 health and wellness centres to not only address health issues at the community level but also focus on educating communities towards better health-seeking behaviour," he added.