AIIMS Nagpur, IIT Bombay to jointly develop affordable medical technology in India
At a national policy summit in Gujarat, doctors called for hospitals, researchers and industry to build homegrown, affordable medical technology.
Doctors and experts at the Indian Medical Parliamentarians' Forum's (IMPF) national policy summit stressed that medical technology should be linked to patients' real needs and developed within the country, to cut reliance on expensive imported machines. Hospitals, researchers and industry were advised to work together toward this.
The summit, held in Vapi, Gujarat, was themed "From a Healthy India to a Capable India: A New Vision for MedTech Access in India". Experts from AIIMS Nagpur said hospitals and medical colleges should not limit themselves to buying or testing technology developed abroad. Instead, they should take an active role in identifying unmet patient needs and in getting new technology built to address them.
Dr Prashant P. Joshi of AIIMS Nagpur said hospitals should work with engineers, researchers and innovators to build technology that genuinely helps patients. He said collaboration between medical and engineering institutions needed to be strengthened in research, academic programmes, fellowships and training.
Dr Joshi said AIIMS Nagpur was now exploring similar collaboration with institutions such as IIT Bombay. He said such partnerships between institutions from different fields could strengthen new ideas in Indian medical technology and improve patient care.
Rajya Sabha MP and IMPF chairman Dr Anil Sukhdeorao Bonde said developing new technology was not enough on its own, it also needed to reach patients. He said the impact of technology remained limited if it did not reach patients, and that sustaining its reach over time was difficult without reliable evidence, that is, solid data, behind it.
Dr Bonde said building a globally competitive medtech industry in India required strengthening domestic research and development, reliable clinical evidence, health technology assessment and sustainable payment systems. He said that as advanced technology such as robotics came into wider use, doctors' skills, infrastructure and technical systems would need to be strengthened correspondingly. He said the goal should be a health system in which Indian innovation and globally competitive quality technology reach needy patients at affordable prices.
At the summit, Dr Gaurav Shankar Pradhan said equipment being present in a hospital was not enough by itself, it was useful only when doctors, technicians and other staff knew how to use it safely and correctly. National Health Authority joint director Dr Shailesh Kumar Yadav said that for new medical technology to reach patients, demonstrating its clinical impact was not enough, proper funding and payment arrangements were also necessary.
Other experts, including Dr Neha Dumka and Dr Jashwantsinh Parmar, spoke on the use of technology in the health system, its cost, training, strengthening primary health services and extending medtech to underserved areas.
