Digital Health Technology can revolutionise healthcare in India: Report

· Around 76% of healthcare professionals in the country already use digital health records in their practice: Future Health Index 2019

· India meets the 15-country average when it comes to the usage of artificial intelligence within healthcare at 46%

New Delhi: India is leading in the adoption of digital health technology with 76% of healthcare professionals in the country already using digital health records (DHRs) in their practice, according to a 15-country Future Health Index (FHI) 2019 report by Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology.

Interestingly, India meets the 15-country average when it comes to the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) within healthcare at 46%.

Commenting on the launch, Rohit Sathe, President – Philips Healthcare, Indian Subcontinent said, "Philips’ Future Health Index 2019 report confirms that digital health technology is a pivotal pillar in delivering value-based care across the healthcare continuum in India. Tools including telehealth and adaptive intelligence solutions can help lower the barriers between hospitals and patients, thereby improving access to care and enhancing overall patient satisfaction, particularity in tier II & III cities in India. We hope that the insights from this report will assist key stakeholders in designing and implementing robust and sustainable health systems in the country."

According to the findings, 80% of healthcare professionals in India have shared patient information with other professionals inside their health facility, which is equal to the number of healthcare professionals who share patient information electronically across the 15-country average

Individuals in India are likely not worried that AI will substitute the human aspects of their healthcare experience, as only one in five (19%) associate AI with less human interaction compared to one-in-three (31%) individuals living within the 15-country average.

The study found that when Indian healthcare professionals are supported by digital technology, their experience improves. For instance, a majority of Indian healthcare professionals who use DHRs in their practice report that DHRs have a positive impact on quality of care (90%), healthcare professional satisfaction (89%), and patient outcomes (70%) when compared to the 15-country average of 69%, 64% and 59% respectively. 64% of Indian healthcare professionals agree that patients having access to their own health data (including test results, prescriptions, scans etc.) has positively impacted their patients’ experience.

The report also found that about two-thirds (67%) of Indians feel comfortable or neutral about seeking medical advice from their doctor through a health application on their phone, suggesting a high willingness and openness to further adopt telehealth and unlock its benefits.

About half (49%) of Indians say they know nothing at all about the benefits of digital health technology or mobile health apps in healthcare. Providing education and information around the benefits of these technologies will be key in taking Indians along this technological healthcare journey.

The report reflects independent research, commissioned by Philips in 15 countries, in which India was included.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/ (Accessed on August 23, 2019)

Patent filings rise as Indian IT cos look to raise their game

Patent filings rise as Indian IT cos look to raise their game

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70780094.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst (Accessed on August 23, 2019)

UGC targets 30% enrollment in higher education by 2020 from present’s 25.4%

The number of students enrolled in higher education system has gone up to about 3.66 crore in 2017-18. The GER rose to 25.4 per cent in 2017-18, while the aim is to increase it to 30 per cent by 2020

Read the full article at:

https://indianexpress.com/article/education/ugc-targets-30-enrollment-in-higher-education-by-2020-from-presents-25-4-5926972/ (Accessed on August 23, 2019)

UGC asks nine universities in state to implement EWS quota

UGC asks nine universities in state to implement EWS quota 

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70784181.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst (Accessed on August 23, 2019)

NTA releases UGC NET December 2019, June 2020 schedule

UGC NET 2020 exam date: The application process for the December session will begin from September 9 to October 9. Candidates can apply on the official website — www.nta.ac.in or ntanet.nic.in.

Read the full article at:

https://indianexpress.com/article/jobs/nta-releases-ugc-net-december-2019-june-2020-sessions-schedule-ntanet-nic-in-5926199/ (Accessed on August 23, 2019)

After engineering, no new pharmacy colleges until ’22

After banning new engineering colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has placed a two-year ban on new pharmacy colleges, until 2022. This is because the AICTE as well as the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), a statutory body under the Central government which regulates pharmacy education and practices, believe that many colleges performed poorly at academics and there were not enough jobs for pharmacy graduates to justify the boom in the number of colleges.

The decision to not allow more pharmacy colleges was taken at a meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday, barely a month after the PCI proposed a five-year freeze on colleges offering diploma and degree courses. In January this year, the AICTE decided to not permit new engineering colleges from the academic year 2020-21.

According to AICTE, the intake capacity of pharmacy institutes across India has gone up by 49.5% in the last three years, and this year alone, the capacity increased by 28.1%. From 1,809 diploma and graduate pharmacy institutes that existed in the country 2017-18, the number grew to 3,276 in 2019-20.

“Just like the engineering sector witnessed a sudden expansion a few years ago, the pharmacy sector seems to be witnessing a similar trend for the past three years. However, the passing percentage, as well as the number of students finding jobs after graduation, has not looked good,” said Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE. He added that the council will first focus on bringing quality into the existing institutes and improving existing facilities before allowing new colleges.

For the current academic year, AICTE had received around 900 applications for starting new pharmacy colleges, of which 565 applications are from Uttar Pradesh (UP). The second-highest number of applications came from Maharashtra, which had around 480 pharmacy institutes offering diploma, undergraduate and post-graduate courses in 2018-19. For the current academic year, 81 new institutes have been approved to start admissions.

While pharmacy institutes are confident about attracting more students to their colleges, experts are concerned over the rate at which these institutes are cropping up. “These colleges, especially the ones in rural parts, are witnessing growing seat vacancies year after year. The situation is worrisome because jobs in the sector are not growing at the same rate as the colleges and very soon, these institutes might face a situation like engineering colleges did a few years ago,” said another official from AICTE.

Source: Hindustan Times (Mumbai) dated August 23, 2019

In a Back-to-School Reading Goldmine, Millions of Books Have Just Been Released for Free Online

Get ready for your to-read list to reach even more ridiculous lengths.

Love to read? Then go ahead and buy as many books as you like. Experts from scholars to poets to tidying sensation Marie Kondo all insist that owning more books than you could possibly ever read says great things about your mind. The only constraints are the size of your bookshelf and your wallet. 

Except maybe that last one is as much of a constraint as you think.

Thanks to some hard work by the New York Public Library, there's a new way to get more titles for your to-read list for way less cash. 

It's not just the classics that are out of copyright. 

Everyone knows that some very old books are no longer under copyright and therefore available for free. That means you can get the likes of Shakespeare and Jane Eyre for little to nothing (depending on whether you're a sucker for a fancy cover). But according to a super helpful recent Vice article, most of us misunderstand exactly how many titles are actually in the public domain. 

"Prior to 1964, books had a 28-year copyright term. Extending it required authors or publishers to send in a separate form, and lots of people didn't end up doing that," reports Vice's Matthew Gault. 

Because of this administrative quirk, huge numbers of newer titles published during these years are actually available for free. The trouble, up to now, was that this information was stashed away in a hard-to-access Library of Congress database. But thanks to the heroes at the New York Public Library that's recently changed. 

"In a massive undertaking, the NYPL converted the registration and copyright information into an XML format. Now, the old copyrights are searchable and we know when, and if, they were renewed. Around 80 percent of all the books published from 1923 to 1964 are in the public domain, and lots of people had no idea until now," Gault continues. 

How to get more free books

That's awesome news for bibliophiles, but how exactly do you take advantage of this awesome development? A massive blog post from the NYPL has all the technical details of the project for those looking for an extremely deep dive, but as Gault explains, the basic process is that existing online resources like Project Gutenberg are using the NYPL's cleaned up data to update their offerings. Which is why the number of books on these sites has recently been exploding. 

To take advantage of the bonanza of newly available books, simply visit sites like Project Gutenberg, the Hathi Trust, or Standard Ebooks and get browsing. You can even check out Secretly Public Domain for some suggested highlights from the newly released books. But these aren't the only ways to access this goldmine of newly liberated knowledge. 

"Many libraries offer digital and audio books, for free, as a benefit of membership. Reading a classic or a new release can be a simple as getting a library card and downloading an app," Gault adds. 

So go ahead and expand your 'to read' list to even more massive proportions. Aren't libraries awesome?

Source: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/new-york-public-library-download-free-books-copyright.html (Accessed on August 22, 2019)