GenWorks Health Partners with Karkinos Healthcare

MUMBAI:
In the spirit of the season of commemoration of women strength and empowerment, GenWorks Health has announced a strategic partnership with Karkinos Healthcare to promote women health and support. The partnership will encourage adoption of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) DNA test for early detection of cervical cancer among women followed by standard diagnosis and treatment. Early detection of cervical cancer has shown that treatments are less complex and less expensive, with some pre-cancers treated in simple outpatient procedures. The survival rates are much higher, than if the cancer is detected in later stages.

Cervical cancer is a cancer that affects 1 in every 79 Indian women, with India contributing to nearly 1/5 th of all cervical cancer cases in the world, according to the GLOBOCAN report published by the International Agency on Cancer Research (IARC). Most of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer undergo complicated, expensive treatment regimens which accrue to large financial liabilities. This is due to late stage detection, stemming from lack of awareness on screening methodologies and paucity of access to these screening tests.

“The HPV DNA test is regarded by experts as the gold standard of screening methodologies. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) causes 99% of all cervical cancers, and the HPV DNA test is able to detect minute changes in cervical cell specimens, which may be indicative of a high risk. If HPV test is negative, the woman does not have CIN or cervical cancer at the time of testing and highly likely that will not develop CIN or Cancer in the next 5-10 years.” said Dr. Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, MD & Director, Preventive Oncology at Karkinos Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.

GenWorks is a nation-wide supplier of Mobile ODT’s EVA colposcopes, which offer AI diagnosis on colposcopy. This assists gynaecologists to confirm with a greater level of accuracy whether a positive-screened woman has cervical precancer. GenWorks has a wide network of users in the
form of the country’s leading gynaecologists.

“At GenWorks, our partnerships are compelling for connecting the healthcare ecosystem for affordable access with best-in-class solutions that can provide early healthcare services. We believe our partnership with Karkinos truly complements our strategy. The partnership will help to leverage our screening and diagnostic portfolio and build connect with the treatment expertise of Karkinos to being best in class care across the country for our customers to solve for specialist access and affordable care.” said Mr. S Ganesh Prasad, Founder, MD & CEO of GenWorks Health Pvt. Ltd.

Together, Karkinos Healthcare and GenWorks will provide primary screening through HPV DNA tests, and confirmatory diagnoses through colposcopy at the clinics and hospitals of the partner gynaecologists. Women may avail these services in their cities at the clinics and hospitals within the Karkinos-GenWorks network.

The tests would be made available to all women between the ages of 30 and 65 years, across India. The collaboration will aim to provide the services in every town in India, with a view to eliminate cervical cancer.