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Expert discussions in intimate, closed groups, leaving the participants with insights and food-for-thought-ideas, making them aware of how the healthcare model functions, its latest course and additions, and what changes should be brought into the industry. This is exactly what Catalyst is all about. 

After a hiatus of two years, the Max Institute of Healthcare Management (MIHM) in association with the Alumni Healthcare Special Interest Group (SIG) and Alumni Engagement office brought the healthcare community back to ISB campus with Catalyst, an annual healthcare and innovation meet.

With an overwhelming response of 180 participant registrations, Catalyst was held on Friday, June 10, 2022, at the Hyderabad campus.

Each year, Catalyst connects three important stakeholders of ISB-- alumni in healthcare, students from both PGP and AMP suite of programmes, and industry leaders-- for roundtable discussions on the latest healthcare trends. This generates an opportunity for the students to get familiar with the healthcare industry and lends them a hand in preparation for their post-programme careers. 

Catalyst is organised as a personalised conference or Un-conference where topics and experts are organised around roundtables at the Atrium. Each roundtable is assigned a particular topic and an expert. Participants are free to pick any table and have an involved discussion.

Each of the tables was led by an expert who set the context and guided the discussions thereafter. This year, ISB faculty Madhu Vishwanathan, Research Director, IIDS and Senior Assistant Professor, Marketing; Deepak Jena, Assistant Professor, Strategy, and Ashish Sachdeva, Research Director, MIHM and Adjunct Assistant Professor served as experts for three of the discussions. 

A full list of topics and experts:

·       Behavioural health: Dr Ashish Sachdeva, Research Director, MIHM and Adjunct Assistant Professor, ISB

·       Building successful healthcare platforms: Dr. Rana Mehta, Partner and Leader Healthcare, PwC

·       Design thinking and MedTech: Prof. Prashant Jha, Head of Affordable Medical Technologies, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London and Visiting Faculty, ISB

·       Digital marketing and analytics: Prof. Madhu Vishwanathan, Research Director, IIDS and Senior Assistant Professor, Marketing, ISB

·       Digital transformation in healthcare: Prof. Sarang Deo, Executive Director, MIHM and Professor and Area Leader, Operations Management, ISB

·       Innovation in pharma: Prof. Deepak Jena, Assistant Professor, Strategy, ISB

·       New therapy launch in pharma: Dr Hitesh Muley, Medical Advisor, Pfizer India

·       Start-up and funding: I-Ventures@ISB team and other startups

·       Technology innovation and scalability: Ritesh Dogra, AVP, Tech Commercialisation, Indegene; Moderator, Alumni Healthcare SIG; PGP Co 2009

·       Value-based care: Balkrishan Korgaonkar, COO, Leapfrog to Value

Professor Sarang Deo, Executive Director, MIHM and Professor and Area Leader, Operations Management, ISB, made the opening remarks, while Dr Rana Mehta, Partner and Leader Healthcare, PwC, delivered the inaugural address on “Decoding career and entrepreneurial opportunities in healthcare".  

Two ISB alumni, Ritesh Dogra, AVP, Tech Commercialisation, Indegene & Moderator, Healthcare SIG (PGP Co ‘09); and Dr. Satish Reddy G, MD, Aster Prime Hospital (AMPH Co '18), also addressed the attendees. 

In his opening remarks, Professor Sarang Deo emphasised on the need of healthcare management in the country and focus on technology. He also spoke about the upside of the ‘politicisation of healthcare’ during the covid pandemic and how healthcare has now entered the political discourse. 

Welcoming the attendees, Sowmya Shashidhara, Associate Director, MIHM, ISB, said: Catalyst is designed as an event to convey the excitement and opportunity in the healthcare industry to the students, and for them to meet with senior alumni and industry leaders to gain insights into current trends and opportunities in the sector.

“It is our endeavour to provide students opportunities to become 'industry-ready' and for ISB to engage with healthcare companies in a non-transactional way,” she added.

One of the participants, Madhuri Akella, Founder and Director of Second Innings House Private Limited, said: “I choose the table where the topic ‘Digital transformation in healthcare’ was discussed. It was very useful to me as it helped me to connect with people who are working in bringing technology to healthcare. I have made few contacts at Catalyst, and I’ll get in touch with them in future to expand my business further.”

Another participant, Dr Ayesha Khan Pathan, MS OBGY, Nisa Hospital, who is also an alumnus of AMPH Co '21, said: “The programme was great in terms of networking and the topics discussed were up to the date. I gained some important aspects that will help me in my profession. I wish the programme was for longer duration.”