In an effort to develop affordable medical technologies in the areas of cardiovascular care, oncology and maternal and child healthcare, IIT-Madras -- in conjunction with GE Health Care -- is embarking on a three-year project that will identify, assess and evaluate appropriate technology solutions and then, create equipment accordingly.
"Accelerating innovation for affordable healthcare requires an ecosystem of partners and collaborative efforts by all stakeholders,” said Terri Bresenham, president & CEO of GE Healthcare for South Asia. “We firmly believe that the ideas and innovations developed by the next generation of researchers will be an added benefit to the healthcare ecosystem. This collaboration between HTIC and GE Healthcare will bring together start-up dynamism and corporate scalability to healthcare innovations while putting the unserved customer at the center of healthcare innovation."
GE will provide a grant of 7.5 million Rupees to HTIC toward research and development of these solutions for emerging markets. "The collaboration will encourage open innovation and leverage co-creation of solutions with the involvement of multiple stakeholders such as academia, startups, governments, NGOs and clinicians to achieve these goals," the statement said.
"We believe that a collaborative ecosystem is essential for innovative and disruptive solutions for affordable and accessible healthcare. HTIC today anchors a dynamic med-tech innovation ecosystem of healthcare institutions, industry and government agencies in pursuit of delivering high impact healthcare technologies. We are pleased to join hands with GE Healthcare," Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, head of Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre, IIT-Madras, said.
According to the 2013 World Health Organizations Ranking of Health Systems, India ranked 88th in Health Care Services.
"Today, two-thirds of the population has no access, but as incomes improve -- healthcare infrastructure is set up -- increasing populations will come in the ambit of the potential market, said Ranjit Shahani, country president at Novartis India. “So there is no question that India will remain an attractive market. The challenge is the unit value remains low, unlike in other emerging economies where the unit value is high."
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
