ORGAN India was invited to be a part of the panel discussion for the Program “External Stakeholder Interaction” during Roche’s Annual Meet, held from 4th -8th February 2019 at Chennai.The Program was held on the first day of their Annual Meet i.e. 4th Feb 2019 at around 3.00 pm at Taj Gateway, Old Mahabalipuram road, Chennai.
The Objective of the Program was to understand the patient perspectives, hurdles and challenges and what do patient organizations expect from pharmaceutical companies like Roche. The session also had other objectives including but not limited to – future of healthcare, patient centricity, patient rights, etc.Accordingly, the panelists shared their experiences in line with the objective of the Program.
Dr. Geetika Vashisth, Senior Project Manager, ORGAN India represented the organization as one of the panelists for the program to talk about organ donation and the journey of the patients both pre and post-transplant; future of healthcare in organ transplantation; opportunities with respect to patient organization and pharma company association in order to benefit the patients and ensure overall patient rights.
Other panelists included,
– Ms. Vandana Gupta, Founder of V Care, V Care Foundation is a voluntary support group dedicated to providing free help, hope, awareness and education to cancer patients and their families through outreach programs and services that improve the quality of their lives.
– Mr. R. Sathyanarayanan, Hemophilia Society – Madras Chapter, Hemophilia Federation India is a self-help NGO run by Persons with Hemophilia themselves, with help from medical fraternity.
– Ms. GautamiTadimalla, Founder of Life Again Foundation, Life Again Foundation is about harnessing the collective strength of people and institutions in agriculture, health, and education to build a better tomorrow and a better society. Under health, the foundation has committed itself to cancer care speaking about the rights of patients, preventive and primary care for cancer patients.
The day began with a round of introduction with the members of the team Roche and Ms. Lara Yumi Tsuji Bezerra, Chief Purpose Officer (Managing Director) Roche Pharma India; Mr. Daniel Pluss, Director – Business Insights & Sustainable Value (Finance Director) – Roche India and Ms. Louise Abbott, Head of Policy and Social Impact at Roche Products India.
To begin with, as it was World Cancer Day, all the panelists and the senior team members of Roche signed messages for the cancer awareness on the cancer care wall. It was followed by the welcome of the panelists for the panel discussion. A stall on organ donation had been put at the venue with awareness videos running on the LED screen.
Initially, each panelist shared the work of their organization, the journey of being a patient organization and the struggles & challenges faced by them. After that the panel discussion began with a prime question that how each one of the panelists viewed Roche playing an important role to ensure overall healthcare for the patients suffering from cancer, organ failure or hemophilia.
During the discussion, it was emphasized by us that post-transplant care plays a major role in defining the success of the transplant. It’s not just the surgery of the patient but the health condition of the recipient that will help understand the achievements. Emphasis was put on the ‘Right to Know’ which is the fundamental right of the patients and the donors before they decide to undergo a surgery. Need and importance of support groups was highlighted. The importance of having medical professionals on board to ensure correct information and a proper channel of communication is established to support patients and their families. Overall, the need to put in efforts to benefit patient community in every possible way was highlighted.
A short 20 minutes session was conducted for the Roche staff members by Dr. Geetika Vashisth making them aware of the facts related to organ donation and about their choices to be an organ donor. Many came forward to pledge for organ donation.
