1. University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Presented by
Ahmed Raihan Abir
PhD Student
Department of Biomedical Physics and Technology University of Dhaka

2. Bangladesh: Land of 160 million people
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

3. Bangladesh Healthcare in Brief
Population
156,594,962 (8th)
[Rural: 70%]
Population Growth Rate
2.55
Life Expectancy at Birth
70 years
Infant Mortality Rate
33 per 1,000 
Number of Health Centers in Country
15,000 Community Clinics
1200 Out Patient facilities
400 Semi Urban Hospitals
125 District & Specialised Hospitals
41,000 Hospital beds
Total Expenditure on Health as % of GDP 3%

4. ACEW (HTM Seminar) Experience
Date of ACEW(s)
7-12 June, 2015
Location of ACEW(s)
Toronto
Number of Attendees (if recorded or known)
40 (Approximately)
Main Topic of Interest for HTM Seminar 2015:
Basic Health care, Low cost device, Telemedicine etc
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

5. Country’s Health System Profile-1
Health service delivery: Provided through public and private sectors. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is responsible for planning and management of curative preventive as well as promotive health services. In urban areas, delivery of health services including Primary PHC services is mandated to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD&C).
Workforce: 59 Medical colleges (41 of them are private), 13 nursing colleges (7 of them are private), 69 nursing institute (22 of them are private), 17 medical assistant training schools (10 of them are private), and 16 institute of health technology (13 of them are private)
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

6. Country’s Health System Profile-2
Health Information: Three MIS, viz. health, family planning and nutrition are functioning separately. Large programmes such as, malaria and tuberculosis have its own vertical information system.
Medical Products, vaccines and technologies: local production meets about 97% of the overall local demand for drugs and 100% of that for the essential drugs. The internal market (private sector) for pharmaceutical products is worth annually approximately US$ 740 million
Financing: 3% of GDP is spent on health, out of which the government contribution is about 1.1%. In term of dollar, the total health expenditure in the country is about US$ 12 per capita per anum, of which the public health expenditure is only around US$ 4 only.
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

7. Country’s Health System Profile-3
Stewardship: Steps has been taken by the government to improve its leadership and regulatory role to  improve equity and quality of services, especially to reach the poor and the disadvantaged. Initiatives for development of new health policy, revitalization of primary health care by making all community clinics functional with required human resource, supplies and logistics, recruitment and appropriate deployment of human resource for health and gradual extension of e-health services to the rural areas are some of the examples for health development in the country.
Reference:
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

8. Country's Health Technology Program Key accomplishments
One of the objective of National Health Policy (NHP) is to encourage adoption and application of effective and efficient technology, operational development and research activities to ensure further strengthening and usage of health, nutrition and reproductive health services.
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

9. Country's Health Technology Program Status
Govt had taken steps to create 66 posts of Medical Physicists (for Radiation Oncology) some years back, but has not realized till now.
A National Electro-Medical Equipment Maintenance Workshop & Training Centre was set up many years back with external support, but its outcome has not been very satisfactory.
Biomedical Engineering services have not been incorporated into the health programme so far. There was a recent DFID (UK) support to look into this arena. Nothing tangible happened so far.
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

10. Country's Health Technology Program Needs for Improvement-1
Restructure health technology institutes, building new institutes nationwide.
Organise education and training of the medical technologists and other paramedics, the Pharmacy Council and the State Medical Faculty to maintain required performance standards.
Development of health technology/medical device policy (Steps is being taken of late).
Formation of health technology certification/accreditation body.
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada

11. Conclusions and Action Plan
Priority to provide basic health care facility to the rural people.
Supporting innovation and development of medical device locally.
Development and dissemination of Telemedicine system to provide basic/expert consultation to the rural people.
June 10, 2015
HTM Seminar, Toronto, ON, Canada