Innovation and better availability of medical devices can help India stay on top of its health

Medical devices and equipment form a significantly essential part of healthcare delivery. With the sector emerging as a major component of healthcare, the Indian government is planning to introduce a series of important reforms in the regulatory framework governing medical devices. Not only has the NITI Ayog proposed to establish a national register for medical devices, it has also proposed to impose a hefty penalty of up to Rs 1 crore on manufacturers and importers in case of unsafe products.

The reforms that streamline regulation and certification process for medical devices and instruments are expected to upgrade the regulatory framework to international standards. The Indian medical devices market, currently pegged at $7 billion, is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2025. India is currently the fourth largest medical devices market in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea.

The medical devices sector consists of a wide array of tools and equipment that help clinical practitioners deliver quality healthcare effectively and save crucial lives. Medical Devices consists of diagnostics imaging, IV Diagnostics, Consumables, Patient Aids, Equipments and instruments, Ortho and Prosthetics, Dental products and other devices such as patient monitors, oxygenarators, ECG etc. Each one of these categories is crucial to quality healthcare delivery. At the same time, constant innovation and technological advancement in the field is crucial to ensure the goal of Universal Healthcare.

Medical Devices and their role in improving healthcare outcomes

Constant improvement and technological advancement in the field of medical devices and equipment has helped doctors improve clinical outcomes and quality of healthcare delivery. Increased use of digital technology is driving a new revolution in the medical devices sector with greater focus on improving delivery, user experience and bringing down healthcare costs. Here is a breakdown of areas where constant innovation in medical devices industry is helping India achieve better health outcomes:

Diagnosis in real time and at point of care

Thanks to innovation and technological advancement, real time diagnostic tools have emerged as an important element in fighting infectious diseases. Classical detection methods such as culture and immunoassays offer accurate results but the time taken in obtaining results is often crucial time lost in treatment. Rapid detection tools are expected to play a significant role in ensuring better treatment of communicable diseases such as Tb.

Portable/point-of-care devices are an important category that have made it possible to improve diagnostic mechanisms at primary healthcare level, provide care at home and resulted in improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Point-of-care testing allows the patient get his diagnoses in a doctor’s clinic, at a health camp, an ambulance or event at home as these are portable devices that can be easily transported and offer a reliable alternative to laboratory testing in places where hospitals and labs are in short supply. It also improves the access to quality healthcare in underserved and remote regions, while also making it possible for patients to avail treatment outside traditional healthcare facilities.

Let’s take the example of Tuberculosis testing. For a country like India, where Tb burden is high and delay in diagnosis comes at a cost, there is immense need to have affordable, portable and rapid tests for TB diagnosis. Often, the traditional method of sputum smear microscopy takes about 3-6 weeks to yield results. Drug susceptibility tests to check for drug resistant strains may take even longer. This leads to a prolonged delay in diagnosis and delayed treatment. After years of research, the Indian Council of Medical Research is now gearing up to roll out TrueNat, a new battery operated portable diagnostic device that can remarkably change TB diagnosis and treatment.

Reducing healthcare costs

Technological advancements in the devices and equipment sector also plays a significant role in reducing healthcare costs which is critical to make healthcare services more affordable to the masses in India. New age surgical equipment has enabled doctors to treat highly complex and critical cases, and reduce the length of extended hospital stays. For example, advancements in laproscopic surgery have increasingly made it possible to perform procedures such as angiography, stenting and spine surgery easily with improved outcomes and reduced length of hospital stays. This has tremendously helped in lowering costs of treatment.

Similarly, with the onset of the era of remote monitoring and devices to help better manage chronic diseases, the overall healthcare costs are bound to come down over a period of time.

Remote Patient monitoring and chronic disease management

Remote monitoring is the new buzzword in the medical devices sector. With rise in incidence of chronic diseases and an increasingly ageing population, there has been a rise in demand for medical devices and tools that can monitor patients continuously, more effectively and reduce the need to visit clinics and hospitals. A growing interest in IoT-driven healthcare services and wearable medical devices is an emerging trend of our times. Using cloud based platforms these devices can alert doctors of important changes in vital signs in a patient.

These advancements in health screening devices have enabled patients to monitor their health conditions at home, reducing the need for hospital visits and bringing down the pressure on the over-burdened healthcare centers.

Boosting local manufacturing: Need of the hour

While technological advancements in the devices sector are expected to play a critical role in improving healthcare outcomes, it is important that appropriate measures are initiated to ensure greater affordability and accessibility. In a nutshell, improving the ecosystem governing the sector is the need of the hour. This includes improving regulatory mechanisms, quality testing as well as incentivizing innovation in the sector. Also important is the need to reate a more congenial tax environment. GST on medical devices currently stands at 12 percent.

On the other hand, customs duty is low. This tax policy negatively impacts indigenous production and supports imports, which is counter intuitive to the Make in India initiative. Notably, imports constitute 75 percent of the industry sales of medical devices in the country while local manufacturers mostly produce products in the lower end of the value chain. The government must consider revising its tax policy for devices to lower the GST while increasing the customs duty to help local manufacturers gain a larger share of the market. This will also help them manufacture products at more affordable costs.

The ‘Make in India’ initiative presents a platform for the sector to revisit the operating model, identify key imperatives for growth and explore possibilities for creating a step change in the medical devices sector.  This in turn, allows Indian manufactures to provide affordable options for crucial equipments such as CT scans, catheters, dialysis equipments and many more.  

(Edited by Athirupa Geetha Manichandar)

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