While healthcare becomes ever more complex, technology is providing answers for some of the most challenging aspects of medicine. eHealth brings you a low down on medical technologies that are changing the way we provide clinical care.
Latest medical technologies are transforming health care like never before. Today, owing to the development of high-end equipments and instruments many complex surgical procedures are being performed with minimal incision such as endovascular surgery, interventional radiology or Laparoscopy. Beneficiaries are the hospitals, as it reduces the load on the hospital resources; and the patients who don't have to stay put in the hospital for weeks.
The modern medical technology is making healthcare effective, speedy and portable. The latest in technology are lab-on-a-chip devices. Though they aren't been used in India at present but for the first time a Bangalore-based firm Bigtec Labs has developed a hand-held device for rapidly detecting Hepatitis B. On the other hand, a compact, portable tele-electrocardiogram (ECG) machine controlled by a mobile or a laptop which costs somewhere between Rs 7000-8000 was recently launched by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The machine would be of use to the elderly, people who travel frequently and especially to people living in remote areas where the primary heath centers are very far off. Many such innovations are going around in India and the world to control the higher incidence of chronic and lifestyle diseases.
Medical electronics has a role to play in every aspect of healthcare, be it prevention, therapy, surgery, pharmacology, hospitalisation, analysis, prosthetics or implants, but it's the diagnostics which can transform the healthcare in India.
Higher incomes, easy availability of health insurance and better financing are some of the factors which have led to better health care facilities in cities. However, at the same time, rapid changes in medical technology have also been a concern of healthcare systems even in rich countries. It also shows concern over inappropriate diffusion of medical technology as any new technology is only valuable to the extent that it leads to significant improvement of health outcomes and patient care.
"The Indian health care system has always suffered from an acute shortage of healthcare professionals. A recent survey published in a leading business daily of India says that the number of students taking the medical entrance exam in India has reduced considerably. In such a scenario, modern day medical devices are the solution. It has an exceeding potential to make health care available to a billion people. Medical electronics has a role to play in every aspect of healthcare, be it prevention, therapy, surgery, pharmacology, hospitalisation, analysis, prosthetics or implants, but it's the diagnostics which can transform the healthcare in India. The reason being phenomenal increase in the incidence of lifestyle and genetic related diseases in the country and the growing elderly population without filial support. The need of the hour is low-cost portable diagnostic devices. An apt example is the Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) or thermography which is being considered as a valuable adjunct to mammography and ultrasonography. Thermal imaging is a 15-minute non-invasive test for not just the early detection of breast cancer but also to detect early abnormalities, and it's also being seen as a simple, valuable and cost-effective technology. Such speedy diagnostics tests combined with telemedicine can truly benefit the people living in rural India," says Dr Swapna Banerjee, professor of electronics and electrical communication engineering, IIT, Kharagpur.
The current scenario 
by 12 per cent per annum during 2005-09. Currently, the medical device industry is worth USD 3 billion in India, which is currently growing at a pace of 1215 per cent per annum and likely to touch USD 5 billion by the end of 2010.
There are several reasons which are causing the demand of medical equipments to soar. For instance, demand for quality health care because of higher incomes, availability of medical insurance, higher incidence of people suffering from lifestyle and genetic diseases and also growth in medical tourism. Today, the medical devices market is largely dominated by multinational players and most of them are expanding their portfolios. Recently, two of the leading healthcare technology providers, Philips and GE announced their entry into the Indian home healthcare market. Both these companies have expanded their healthcare product portfolios by launching sleep therapy solutions and respiratory care solutions.
Undoubtedly, medical equipments play a huge role in every aspect of health care, however it is still an unorganised sector plagued with out-of-date regulations in the absence of a formal body like the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) in the USA.
He further adds, "It is difficult to make the latest medical technologies available in the rural India and affordable to the common man until we bring down our dependence on imports and start manufacturing them at home. Currently, manufacturing initiatives in India are restricted to low-end equipments. Even if we consider importing high-end equipments, it wouldn't drastically affect the overall cost if we manage to stop importing simple diagnostic devices, consumables, disposables and instruments. For instance, the cost of neuro intervention procedure of the brain like aneurysm goes up to lakhs of rupees. But you will be surprised to know that the money fleeced from the patient doesn't go to the hospital coffers or to the doctor. Instead, the big chunk of the sum goes to the company (like Boston Scientific) which provides consumables like microcatheters. If we manufacture such consumables locally we can bring down the cost dramatically. On the doctors' part they should encourage local manufacturers by buying their products, if the product does the job equally well as the imported one. Primary health centres are the cornerstone of rural healthcare. If we can make low-cost and low-end diagnostics and general medicines available here, we can make a huge impact."
Need for regulation and certification
"Currently, most of the demand for medical equipments in India is met through imports. Imported equipments are preferred over indigenous manufactured equipments despite huge price differences as the government doesn't certify their manufacturers as bona fide. So, to promote the use of cost-effective indigenous medical equipments, which can make health care affordable to the common man, and increase their acceptance in the international market, we need to create a level playing field. On a fair competitive ground local manufacturers can compete at par with multinational players.
For all this to happen, we need a centralised regulatory body to form regulatory benchmarks and to ensure the effective execution of regulations uniformly in all parts of India,"says Rajiv Nath, co-ordinator, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED) and joint managing director, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices. AIMED is a newly formed association representing the interest of over 150 manufacturers of medical devices.
To promote the use of indigenous medical equipments, which can make health care affordable to the common man we need to create a level playing field.
"We also need to recognise that the needs of the medical devices industry are different from pharmaceuticals, thus they cannot come under one authority. Another step that can protect and promote the domestic industry against the onslaught of imported goods, and motivate domestic players is to give a price differential of say 15 to 20 percent on a blanket basis, as is done in other countries like Malaysia, Thailand. This will force MNCs, who are currently free traders in India without any manufacturing intent, to manufacture in India and thus reduce our dependence on imports. A proper regulatory mechanism will ensure an incentive to manufacture high-tech devices, standardisation of equipments, fair pricing and will also control inappropriate diffusion of technology. The only way to motivate indigenous manufacturing initiatives is through the right infrastructure and conducive policies," adds Mr Nath.
Last but not the least there is a need for better communication among the stakeholders: health care professionals, scientists, technologists, manufacturers, vendors and importers to discuss emerging technologies, techniques and trends in health care.
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