The recent partnership between Abbott, a leading healthcare company in India, and Government of Puducherry, is a case in point.
Abbott India manufactures and sells diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic pharmaceuticals. But as part of its big picture vision or “continuum of care”, in its own words, the company looks for opportunities to create value in non-core areas encompassing “increasing awareness”, “facilitating detection”, and “diagnosis”.
By partnering with Puducherry Government, Abbott is set to create awareness about non-communicable and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia (cholesterol related disorders) and thyroid disorders, across the Union Territory, and screen over seven lakh people, the entire population of Puducherry who are thirty years or above, for such lifestyle diseases. Puducherry has a total population of 1,244,464 inhabitants (Census 2011).
Abbott provides subsidised diagnostics, educational support to healthcare providers, patient awareness material, conduct diet guidance camps, Non-Communicable Disease management kits (including supplies to measure blood pressure, body mass index and blood glucose) and glucose test strips. Its government partnership readily gives the company access to the physical infrastructure: hospitals, primary healthcare centres, schools, and other government facilities, and a battalion of healthcare team, across the Union Territory, to carry out the project.
The project outcomes will help government of Puducherry provide treatment and better manage chronic diseases for its citizens, using its existing public health infrastructure address the growing disease burden and the associated economic burden of Puducherry to plan it healthcare schemes in a better way. By way of their involvement in the project Government’s healthcare staff can build their skills through continued medical education provided by Abbott.
In addition to getting screened, the public will get to know about their individual health risks that will help them make a personalized care plan to drive better health outcomes and increase the focus of preventive care.
For Abbott, metabolics (thyroid disorders and diabetes) is one of the core therapy areas, and the project will help them get data on disease patterns, and create disease as well as brand awareness. And to quote Abbott, contribution to the continuum-of-care big picture can help Abbott provide “distinctiveness in the market place, and unique differentiation with the competition”.