Apollo Hospitals signs MOU with Stanford to reduce cardiovascular mortality in South Asia

New Delhi: Healthcare major Apollo Hospitals has signed a pact with Stanford University to gain insights into cardiovascular risks reduction in South Asians.

Apollo Hospitals announced that it recently signed a MoU with Stanford University for the Stanford South Asian Translational Heart Initiative (SSAATHI) related to South Asians and Chronic Disease. Together, both parties will attempt to delve deeper into the causes associated with cardiovascular risk in diabetic and prediabetic South Asians. The MoU is the first step towards a long-term partnership that will develop and grow over time.

Conceptualized with the overall objective to reduce cardiovascular mortality in South Asians, the study will capture data on prediabetes and insulin resistance, help physicians understand early patterns of glycemic imbalance, help them understand the epigenetic impact on genetically similar populations, and achieve targeted lifestyle and medical therapy. The collaboration will at a later stage look at moving towards a larger Framingham type study that was developed with the objective of identifying common factors or characteristics contributing to chronic vascular diseases in Massachusetts.

Studies have indicated that South Asians have four times higher rate of myocardial infraction (MI) and 40% higher rate of mortality after first MI. A WHO report states that there could be over 100 million diabetics by 2030 and South Asians will have 60% higher diabetes (DM) rates in US.

Both the organizations are driven by the same objective of strengthening and broadening research on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD’s), while also promoting the need for healthy living. Apollo’s rich experience in public health service and research expertise associated with guidance from Stanford will help physicians unravel more details on the NCD conundrum and devise necessary preventive interventions to deal with the same.

While initiatives like the collaboration with Stanford are aimed at fighting the rising incidences of NCD’s, Apollo Hospitals has also been emphasizing on the need to control Communicable Diseases, which is also a growing concern. The WHO emphasizes hand hygiene as the one single practice that can reduce diarrheal morbidity by 30 per cent. Diligently following and executing even minute protocols, such as hand hygiene, is what has helped Apollo Hospitals achieve the distinction of being one of Asia’s leading healthcare provider with many complex, yet successful procedures to its credit.

Established in 1983 by Prathap Reddy, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has 9,215 beds across 64 Hospitals, 2,200 pharmacies, over 90 primary care and diagnostic clinics, 110 plus telemedicine centres across India.