InnAccel with intention to help incubate medical device and diagnostic start-ups, is creating an eco-system to design and develop novel devices. It has instituted a six month fellowship programme on Affordable Innovation in Medical Technology (AIM) for promising qualified engineers and product designers to get trained in medtech innovation and entrepreneurship.

There are three professionals in the first batch. The objective is to design and engineer affordable medical technologies. The first batch of the fellowship programme is underway and as part of the training, the three professionals have to go through two months of clinical observation at the trauma and emergency care unit, of St. Johns National Academy of Health Sciences in Bengaluru, Siraj Dhanani, founder and CEO, InnAccel told Pharmabiz.

“Although there are qualified engineers, science and medical professionals engaged medical-technology innovation, the start-up ecosystem needs massive awareness. In this regard, we had also organized a week-long workshop for engineering and medical students to highlight the promising prospects for startups to focus on innovation in medical and diagnostic devices”, he added.

There is critical need to create an ecosystem for medical technology entrepreneurs. This requires setting up of a common infrastructure. In fact, a dedicated laboratory-cum fabrication centre can provide scores of medical-technology startups, a platform for developing products designed specifically for the Indian market, said Dhanani.

India has four potential innovation hubs at Bengaluru, Mumbai-Pune, NCR and Chennai which account for the bulk of startups. Of these, Bengaluru is known for its vibrant ecosystem with both med-tech start-ups and venture capitalists. Moreover, the presence of multinational companies like GE Healthcare , Phillips and Siemens have created a pool of trained med-tech professionals which is a key requirement for a startup ecosystem. Despite Bengaluru lacking an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), there are several novel healthcare technology products designed and developed from here and having a global presence, he said.

Global trends point to increasing interest by US and EU to partner with Indian med-tech entrepreneurs, as affordable medical solutions are the need of the hour. The 86 per cent of world needs affordable, high quality med-tech solutions, but the med-tech industry today caters only to the developed world, or 14 per cent of the world. “India’s qualified talent pool of engineers and doctors need to maximize the advantage of our cost and efficiency and start developing innovative products and solutions for the under-served 86 per cent of the world population,” he said.

However, there are challenges like access to physical infrastructure, financial and human capital, noted the InnAccel chief.