Bill Gates gives a thumbs up to Union Health Ministry’s BHISHM portable hospital project

The world’s first portable disaster hospital, a complete “Made in India” offering – the BHISHM ‘Arogya Maitri Health Cube’ - was presented to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, earlier this week who appreciated the initiative. Attempts are being made at collaborating with Bill Gates’ foundation to popularise the offering, Health Ministry officials in the know said.

While India has not received any commercial orders for the portable hospital kit, the country is already supplying the BHISHM Cube to neighbouring nations like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh, sources said.

In a post on micro-blogging site X, Bill Gates said, his foundation would look at opportunities for continued partnership with the Union Health Ministry.

 “It was great to see digital health innovations like the Arogya Maitri Disaster Management Cube-BHISHM and discuss our shared commitment to leverage Indian research and technology to eliminate TB, sickle cell, and maternal anemia with Mansukh Mandaviya,” he wrote.

The system also integrates AI and data analytics.

In a post on micro-blogging site X (formerly Twitter), Union Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya wrote about meeting Bill Gates and sharing insights. “We discussed a wide range of subjects related to healthcare including the promotion of digital health, affordable diagnostics, etc. He also observed & appreciated India’s BHISHM Cube initiative, an indigenous mobile hospital,” the Minister wrote.