Global Health Care
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you ma'am, for that generous introduction about me. All the respected dignitaries on the dais and off the dais, I'm extremely happy to be present here today.
I'm deeply grateful to be bestowed this opportunity of being the keynote speaker for the 15th Global Healthcare Summit organized by AAPI, American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, who are one of the largest medical ethnic groups and the voice of 80,000 doctors of American, in America of Indian origin, who are constantly in the pursuit and being committed to making quality healthcare accessible and affordable to the people of India.
I am totally bowled over by the extraordinary minds gathered here, and I've grown up idealizing and seeing amazing doctors like you all and wanting to be like you all someday. And today, I feel humbled to be standing here amongst all of you all, amongst such socially responsible doctors who treat medicine not just as a profession, but as a calling. A calling towards service of the nation, service of humanity as a whole.
And also, amongst to stand amongst these young doctors, young men and women who are gathered here, who will be the torchbearers and who will go on to offer a beacon of hope to the healthcare industry.
Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to offer my gratitude and respect to each and every doctor who's been part of the COVID-19 pandemic, who's been working day in and day out as warriors and you know, risking their own lives. Hats off to all of you all, and thank you so much.
Patience, acceptance, tolerance, adaptability, compassion, empathy are the qualities which have been engraved in us right when we choose to become doctors and took the Hippocratic oath, which binds us not just to the patients, our colleagues, and our profession, but to the humanity as a whole.
I'd like to take a minute to appreciate the noble work done by AAPI during the COVID crisis, for the follow, for the, for the fellow India, countrymen of India, providing oxygen concentrators, ventilators, high flow oxygen equipments, PPEs, medications, and a fund to the PM Relief Fund and telemed, tele-prescriptions and whatnot. A huge round of applause for AAPI.
It is so welcoming to see all the goals set by AAPI for India. Thank you AAPI, for your commitment and contributions. And I must say, Indian healthcare industry has crossed many milestones by now.
The recent National Family Health Survey and of course, the NITI Aayog Health Index are definitely a proof to it, with the total fertility rate coming down to two point zero, which is less than the replacement level, with decrease of infant and maternal mortality rate and initiatives taken by government and of course, the vaccination drives. But there's a lot for us to do to become the global healthcare leaders.
As a young medical graduate, allow me a minute to take my views on the current ongoings. Number one being the short, you know, being the shortage of doctors and the huge demand and supply gap. I guess it'll take like, by twenty-thirty, we would need twenty lakh more doctors as all the, you know, elderly doctors and senior doctors have been mentioning.
And of course, the gap, you know, the postponements, the continuous postponements of NEET PG and UG has created a huge gap with one academic year, with the loss of one academic year for one batch and of course, another batch being overworked up doing more than hundred hours of COVID duties.
You know, either we have to get a top rank or have a reservation or you know, be born to rich parents or you know, compromise on your branch. So this has been happening since a while. And despite financial hardships, a lot of youngsters of India, they prefer studying overseas as, you know, for the sake, not for the sake of money, but for the sake of better expertise.
And of course, the violence against doctors, which is high right now. And we need more, research-oriented programs and fellowships, more of them, which, you know, in the US which some of the fellowships which are, which we are not even aware of here. But let me tell you with necessary changes made, we the youth, are ready to, you know, contribute our best to the nation.
And I'm sure with, you know, with amazing doctors like you all and we youngsters and AAPI coming forward and the government coming forward, we are sure to see India as the number one healthcare leader in the coming days. On a lighter note, "Prevention is better than cure" is the topic of this summit, right?
So we know that screening and early diagnoses are definitely, doing great, but primordial and primary preventive measures and lifestyle changes are definitely, are great steps towards, you know, stopping the non-communicable diseases, be it diabetes or heart disease or hypertension or any of it. I have a question for all of you all. How many of you all are into fitness?
Any kind of fitness, walking, you know, yoga, anything, swimming. That is great. That is wonderful. Wonderful to see so many doctors being fit because it is, it is only when doctors are fit that patients would be inspired to be more fit, right?
It is so nice to see us, looking, you know, looking, smart in front of our patients. And of course, as doctors, we get to stand eight to ten hours a day, and we need strong back and strong leg to be standing for so many hours a day. So it is extremely important that we keep ourselves fit, right?
And we keep, we keep talking about diet, nutrition, and fitness. But how many of us make time for our own selves is important here. Because you doctors are the most precious people of our society who are, you know, who would be treating millions of patients.
So if you don't take care of yourself, then who will take care of the patients, right? So Self-care, self-love, making time for yourself, for your own self, and being your own doctor is definitely the need of the hour right now. At least 10 to 20 minutes a day.
I'm sure that's not a lot for us. We can definitely make more, you know, more than that actually. Creating a 10 to 20-minute capsule of exercises for all of us to stay fit.
And you know, we all know this fact that health is wealth. And of course, you know, the WHO I mean, I'm a yoga practitioner, a certified yoga practitioner and trainer, who's been training so many students and the police academies and a lot of places.
And what I realized while doing yoga is that it does not just with it deals not just with the physical aspects, but also with the mental, physical, emotional, and psychological aspects, which perfectly fits into the WHO definition of health, which says health is physical, mental, emotional, and psychological well-being and not merely absence of disease or illness.
Introducing yoga or any sort of physical activity into the, you know, right from the childhood will develop a lifestyle habit and prevent them from having non-communicable diseases in their future. Not just that, it is also proved that waking up early in the morning and doing your exercises early in the morning has proved that those students are more productive and attentive.
And of course, we would definitely want to look smart and more impressive and attractive, isn't it? Yes. Okay, let's keep our profession aside for a while. And let's talk about I'm sure behind your white coats, most of you all are incredibly talented.
Am I right? Okay. How many, how many singers in the house? Wow, I see a lot of hands up.
At least like bathroom singers, if you are. How many singers here? All are bathroom singers.
All are bathroom singers. Okay. How many dancers? Wow, I see a lot of hands up, right?
So hence proved that you all are incredibly talented behind your white coats. I'm here I'm called here to give a motivational talk, but I seem too young to motivate all of you all. But I think this is one of the points I really want to concentrate on, that I see amazing people.
You know, you could be swimmers, singers, dancers, poets, photographers, actors, bikers, and travelers and whatnot. Why should profession, career, you know, career and our passion be an either or option? All of us, you know, here are doctors who are specialized into different fields, but what makes us unique is that balance.
To be able to balance our passion and profession. You know, balancing your work and family, you know, it is as important as balancing your passion and profession. So, you know, balancing my profession and passion, I mean, I have been doing that for so many years so far, and I realize that passion helps us vent out our stress.
Passion helps us in times of crisis, and passion makes life more beautiful than mechanized. I've been a Bharatnatyam artist and given over two thousand, two thousand performances for the past 20 years I've been performing. And I realized that it keeps me happy, it gives me joy, it keeps me going, and it is my companion during my hardships.
And as ma'am mentioned, I've had this opportunity of performing in front of numerous legends, and one of my favorite being Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, sir. So during one of the conferences, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, sir, has been to my college, and it was an OSMECON conference in 2013, and I got the opportunity to perform in front of him.
And what he said on that day about, you know, after seeing my performance is something which is like a message for my life and all of us as well. He said, "When art and medicine join together, you create a good human being. Not only you can treat people, you can treat with compassion."
I'm sure we all are compassionate doctors already, but I would definitely urge you all to continue your passion as well. Make at least one, you know, a few hours out of your busy week, one day in a week, if you can, you know, make hours for your passion, then I think, it'll keep you happy. I'm sure you're gonna see a large difference after you do that.
And we know the world is being digitalized right now. It is important to improve the digital presence of medical industry. And the beauty of technology is that it connects us to millions of people.
A click of a button helps us connect to millions of people and give them the right medical information at the right time. And the next big thing that is going to happen, that is already happening is our online clinics. But there are definitely pros and cons for everything.
This, you know, the pros we already know. But the, but the disadvantages being that, you know, some of the quacks may utilize this opportunity to give wrong information and wrong treatment, which I think with some kind of regulations from the government, we can, we can definitely curtail that.
And I also remember Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, sir, saying this, that, during the conference itself, he encouraged both medical students and engineers to collaborate together. And we have created a program called MedTech, where both of them come together and exhibit their medical models. The engineers come forward and exhibit their medical models.
I think, it's a, it's a great and amazing initiative. Well, for us youngsters, I see some young people here. Online presence has a totally different meaning.
For us, online presence means Instagram, Facebook, right? Snap. So how many of you youngsters are on Instagram? All of us. Even I am on Instagram, right?
And I'm sure like all the, you know, senior doctors present here, we are all on Facebook. But I'd like to highlight that there is a difference. There is a huge difference between making your presence online.
You know, the difference between just browsing your social media and socializing, and you being the enlightening factor for people around you who are watching you online. There is a huge difference between both of these.
All of us young, youngsters here, you know, when it comes to online presence, I think it is important that we look beyond browsing the celebrity lives and become an inspiration by ourselves and you know, become a motivating factor for everybody who's watching you online, right?
And to be able to be successful, the only key is to utilize your time properly and your opportunities properly, to dream big, have a vision, and to execute that vision with a discipline and have a positive outlook towards your life. Believe in the supreme power and believe in your own self. A lot of us see a lot of failures in life.
Only when you know, only when you know how to overcome the biggest failure in your life, you would know how to sustain yourself. I was the All India's best cadet of NCC, honored by the Prime Minister and President of India. Being a doctor, being a Miss India, being a Bharatnatyam artist, a yoga practitioner, a philanthropist, an eco-activist, I can assure you that I have seen failures in every step of these achievements.
I have failed once. I have failed twice and thrice. But you know, waking up again the next day morning and having a new hope again is what made me stand again in front of y'all.
There is a difference between winning and being successful, okay? I never considered winning any of these competitions as being successful. For me, success is about, you know, waking up after you failed.
For me, success is about, overcoming the challenges and societal norms. Being disciplined, being consistent in your hard work, being happy with what you have and satisfied with what you have is success for me. Making my country proud, making my parents proud, and my teachers proud is success to me.
I think we've seen this, you know, a lot of times it's been forwarded in our, on our phones that the winner stands like this, and the person who got third will be celebrating the success, right? So that means that, you know, the position or winning is not success, absolutely.
Being happy with what you have and enjoying your journey and you know, exploring yourself and being able to, you know, chase your passion is success to me. And at the end of our lives, there shouldn't be any point where you look back and say, "I wish I had done that." There should be a point where there where you have to say that, "I chased my passion and I did that."
You know, but I must say this is just the beginning of my journey when I'm talking in front of legends like all of y'all. I as I said, I grew up idealizing, doctors like y'all, amazing doctors like y'all, and wanting to be like y'all. With all your blessings, I promise to serve my nation with total dedication and responsibility.
And I must say, for all the youngsters here, the senior doctors will be passing on the torch to all of us, and I'm sure the torch is being placed, certainly placed in the right hands. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I am deeply grateful for RP for giving me this opportunity.
And I must say that, you know, I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be standing in front of all of y'all and thank you so much. Thank you.
