With a curriculum to support creativity in education, framework for industry-academia engagement in translation research, incentives for the MSME and sharing of risk in innovative entrepreneurial initiatives and increased allocation of funds for investment, the government should create an enabling environment  for innovations in the healthcare sector, says a study by FICCI.

The study ‘Reinventing affordable and universal healthcare through innovation’ also recommended to the Government to set up a National Technology Mission for 10 years to identify and develop high priority devices and instrumentation used for prevention diagnosis and treatment of high burden diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular and cancer.

“Identify technologies that are at presently being imported in the country in large quantity or have large import value and which have greater bearing on the cost of healthcare delivery. Develop devices and processes that may be commercially available, but are required for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases,” said the paper.

Describing the healthcare scenario as a paradox, the study said there had been rapid advancements in technology and healthcare delivery system but the large section of the society still lacked access to affordable and quality healthcare.

“We shall have to relook at the basic fundamentals of our clinical tools and processes that need to be efficient, indigenous and affordable in order to address the unique needs of the vast geo-spatial and social expanse of our land,” it said.

The study has identified five key drivers of innovation in Indian context, namely, cost, access, clinical outcomes, efficiency and standard and disease screening and early detection.

“Healthcare costs have risen dramatically over the last decade. This coupled with the estimates that the demand for healthcare is expected to increase at a staggering rate of 25 per cent a year, driven by rapidly-rising cost of medical treatment and a growing middle care. We are witnessing a lot of reverse engineering and new techniques being experimented,” it said.

The study also suggested that the government should formulate policies to create a level playing field for domestic industry and encourage manufacturing of high end products within the country.  It said the medical technology industry continued to battle with a lack of regulatory awareness and attention from the government.

The agency also said the existing schemes like BIPP and SBIRI should be scaled up immensely to make an impact and similar new schemes catering to the specific requirements of various segments of the industry be taken up. It called for setting up a National Technology Assessment Programme similar to that in Britain.