IAPG launched to facilitate patient engagement

Indian Alliance of Patient Groups (IAPG), an umbrella body of 12 patient groups working in the areas of rare disorders and chronic diseases, was today launched here with member groups spread across the country.
It aims to promote and facilitate patient engagement with healthcare providers and policy makers.
IAPG will work with government agencies to identify specific issues to be addressed such as patient safety, quality of treatment, universal healthcare and patient rights.
IAPG will work towards the development and adoption of guidelines to standardise care and processes across India, uniformity and enforcement of quality teaching standards as they relate to the patient-physician relationship, it said in a statement.

Rubby Chawla, founding member of IAPG, said, "With 70 million people with rare diseases, 2.5 million cancer patients, 30 million diabetics, 60 million sufferers of mental ailments, etc.; India has a huge disease burden and needs policy interventions to provide accessible healthcare for all with support from the private sector as well as government.
"IAPG will be a facilitator, a forum, to ensure that best decisions are made in patients' interest," she said.

"In discussions on healthcare in India, the industry, policy-makers and medical associations drive the conversations, missing the most important stakeholder - the patient.
"Uninformed about their rights, Indian patients most times do not have a voice or a forum to raise their voice on healthcare issues," IAPG founding member Ratna Devi said.

Member groups of IAPG will exchange best practices for addressing patient needs in a particular disease area through crowd sourcing of ideas.
The alliance will also help individual patient/disease advocacy organisations to provide more information to their patients and their caregivers are able to better manage medical conditions.