Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley Infrastructure's Indian arm on May 15 announced Rs 145 crore investment in HealthMaP Diagnostics Ltd, a subsidiary of Manipal Health Enterprise Ltd, to expand its chain of diagnostic imaging centres across the country.

"The initial investment is Rs 100 crore in HealthMaP, a public-private partnership initiative for diagnostic imaging in Indian healthcare," Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure said in a statement. In view of shortage of affordable diagnostic imaging services, the four-year-old HealthMap is partnering with state-run hospitals across the country and has concessions to operate 37 centres across states like Haryana and Jharkhand.

"Our business is a 'shop-in-shop' model in which we own and operate the diagnostic imaging units inside the hospitals on long-term contracts," it said, adding it proposes to expand its footprint to 75 centres over the next three years.

"As millions of citizens are pushed into poverty because of healthcare emergencies and costs, early diagnostic imaging can help them avoid them but the cost of the tests are a deterrent," it said, adding it seeks to make diagnostic imaging available to the common man at an affordable cost.

"With universal healthcare scheme Ayushman Bharat, HealthMap plans to partner with private hospitals to set up facilities for diagnostics and treatment of cardiac ailments or cancer and increase access for patients in the under-served states," Manipal Health Enterprises Managing Director Dilip Jose said in the statement.

Backed by investors like Temasek and TPG, Manipal Health Enterprises provides healthcare services through 11 multi-specialty hospitals in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan and Goa. "We are partnering with the Manipal group at an inflection point in the affordable healthcare revolution in the sub-continent, which has the world's largest universal healthcare coverage programme," Morgan Stanley Managing Director Raja Parthasarathy said. "The public-private partnership is a huge opportunity in healthcare to deliver the best diagnostic at affordable cost to the masses," said HealthMaP Chief Executive Niraj Arora in the statement.