The role of start-ups is gaining in Kerala’s healthcare where machines and software are proving to be breakthroughs in checking a disease as dreaded as cancer, Health and Social Welfare Minister KK Shailaja has said.

Kerala’s sound incubator ecosystem will be of major help in providing the State administration with ideas and devices that can boost the ongoing fight against malignant diseases, she told delegates at an international meet that focusses on technology to eliminate cancer care disparity. Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM)’s start-ups are providing low-cost and cutting-edge solutions in this direction.

Hailing the key moto of CanQuer, the 3rd annual symposium hosted by Cochin Cancer Research Centre and KSUM, Shailaja said the government was open to suggestions that emerge at the event.

The minister stressed the need for early cancer detection and ensuring its access to the poor. The government’s Aardram Mission has been a step towards making healthcare people-friendly, and the practice of making public health centres (PHCs) function as family health centres have been a decisive step in this direction, she added.

Kerala has the healthy ratio of one PHC per panchayat, but the civic bodies have populations ranging between 18,000 and 65,000.

CanQuer 2019 hosted 18 sessions on topics related to cancer care, with experts from the fields of both medicine and technology.

In a major step, CanQuer announced the formation of a virtual community of clinicians and industry towards fighting cancer under KSUM. The focus will be on generating new-age technology that helps the mission, according to Jith Thomas, Senior Fellow, KSUM.

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