Zimmer Biomet has announced a multi-year collaboration with the Indo UK Institutes of Health (IUIH), intended to increase the capacity of India’s healthcare infrastructure.
The first phase of the collaboration involves the establishment of the Zimmer Biomet Institute of India, a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art medical training and education facility on the campus of King’s College Hospital in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. The Institute is intended help improve the delivery of and access to high-quality healthcare across India by training more than 1,000 orthopaedic surgeons annually on the latest orthopaedic procedures, and the use of Zimmer Biomet medical technologies.
IUIH, in partnership with UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and its leading teaching institutions, plans to build 11 “Medicities,” with Amaravati’s King’s College Hospital being the first, in major states across India. Each Medicity campus will include a 1,000-bed hospital, a medical and nursing school, student and staff housing, hotel facilities, and a third-party-run training and education centre focused on a designated medical specialty.
“We are proud to support the Indo UK Institutes of Health’s important mission to make world-class healthcare affordable and broadly accessible to people across India, regardless of geographic location or socioeconomic status,” says David Dvorak, president and chief executive officer of Zimmer Biomet. “Currently, India has approximately 10 orthopaedic surgeons per million people. This is inadequate to meet current demand for orthopaedic care, let alone meet the anticipated surge in demand from India’s aging population, which is expected to triple by 2030. Zimmer Biomet’s partnership with IUIH addresses this immediate and critical gap in delivering patient care by providing much-needed continuing education and hands-on orthopaedic surgical training.”
Zimmer Biomet estimates investing more than US$5 million in the King’s College Hospital training and education centre over three years, beginning in 2017. Zimmer Biomet serves approximately 50,000 patients in India each year, and through its Zimmer Biomet Institute, has successfully trained nearly 7,000 surgeons, medical and nursing students, and paramedics since its launch in 2008.
“The success of the Indo UK Institutes of Health’s Medicities program is predicated in part on the support and commitment of private industry, and I applaud Zimmer Biomet for being our first industry partner and underwriting and overseeing the development of the Zimmer Biomet Institute of India orthopaedic training and education center in Amaravati,” says Ajay Gupta, chief executive officer and managing director of the Indo UK Institutes of Health.
The IUIH’s Medicities program aims to establish 11 hospitals with medical colleges, with a total bed capacity of 11,000 and a throughput of between 1,100 and 1,650 medical students per year. The initiative is backed by the UK and Indian prime ministers and governmental institutions, including UK Trade and Investment and Healthcare UK. The King’s College Hospital in Amaravati is scheduled to break ground later this year, and is expected to create jobs for 2,500 nurses and 500 physicians.
