India should develop its own health model which is aligned with Indian genetics, and continental patterns of diseases relevant to its geography, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said. ?? ??

Speaking at the third convocation ceremony of AIIMS Rishikesh on Thursday, he also exhorted healthcare professionals to serve in districts and villages. Congratulating students at the convocation, the Union Health Minister urged them to wholeheartedly take up the opportunity of service and responsibility that medical science brings with it.

"Our sense of responsibility should align with our service to humanity, accentuating that a healthy society makes for a healthy nation," he said. The Union Health Minister said health in India is not a matter of commerce but one of service.?

“People of our country see doctors as messengers of God. We respect and value our doctors immensely,” he noted. The Health Minister also affirmed his confidence in the medical education system of India.?The event was attended by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar, and SP Singh Baghel, Minister of Finance for Uttarakhand, and Rishikesh MLA Premchand Aggarwal, and Uttarakhand Higher Education Miniter Dhan Singh Rawat.

The foundation stone for a 150-bedded critical-care block under PM ABHIM was laid as part of the event. The Journal on Medical Evidence, the Institute Anthem, the magazine Swasthya Chetna were also released at the event.?

This was followed by the inauguration of a Cath Lab, ICU, mammography and digital radiography machine at government Doon Medical College, Dehradun, by??Mandaviya. This is the first government Cath Lab facility in Uttarakhand.