Texas Instruments (TI) India which inked an agreement with the School of Medical Science & Technology (SMST) IIT Kharagpur, is now aggressively pursuing its efforts in the area of imaging technology to develop devices for early detection of mouth and breast cancer. The company is working on the embedded system design for the diagnostic device. The pact which was signed early this year focuses on the development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) based bio-sensors to monitor the flow of blood.

Although, TI has inked several pacts worldwide with Universities and allocated $15 million to fund medical technology research at the selected universities, this partnership with IIT Kharagpur is a first-of-its-kind in India as it has not teamed up on research projects dedicated to medical electronics here. The agreement with India spans for three years and TI is confident that by 2011, there could be a product for the market in oral and breast cancer diagnostics.

Going by the use of semiconductor technology and its applications in the medical field, TI has a long term strategy for mass and custom-products. "With our expertise in analog, microcontroller and signal processing, we now see the portable medical devices business as a new and interesting growth area for us in India," Poornima Mohanachandran, director, business development-medical, Texas Instruments India told Pharmabiz.

TI has been able to offer its expertise in ultrasound scanners and imaging devices and is hopeful that medical experts will be able to use the algorithms-based hardware that can be embedded on the TI platform developed along with IIT Kharagpur to be used in diagnostic device of oral and breast cancer.

The TI India team is now screening the programmable nature of DSP which lends itself to algorithms. It has designed a novel high performance multi-core multiple DSP which can be embedded into the medical imaging equipment. The integrated DSP can achieve significant cost, power and board space savings.

The reason to opt for development of diagnosis devices for oral cancer is that geographically the north and eastern parts of the country are reporting highest rates of mouth cancer attributed to ghutka consumption and smoking. Breast cancer cases are also on the rise, across India.

The R&D operation of TI India is a critical part of the initiatives of its parent company. At all global TI projects, the inputs from Indian arm form a key component of the operations. The total strength of TI India is 1500 of which the research team constitutes 1400 personnel and there are 100 personnel taking care of marketing and business development efforts. The business development and marketing teams are looking at the various applications of TI which can be relevant and beneficial for the India market, stated Mohanachandran.