NOTES ON AN AGEING PLANET

Edited excerpts from a talk by Dr Madhu Sasidhar, president and CEO of Apollo’s hospitals division

- Dr Madhu Sasidhar

THE PLANET IS ageing. It has aged substantially in our lifetime, and it will continue to accelerate during our lifetime. This will fundamentally change some of the concepts around health care, because it is not the same diseases, and even when the same diseases affect our older patients, the kind of care they need is different.... Most of the morbidity, hospital admissions occur in the elderly patient population. So think about what is happening globally and what this means for providers, for insurers and payers, what it means for government and health care policy. Even beyond that, think about what it means for education, how we prepare our medical students, how we prepare our allied workforce and nursing workforce....