India is rapidly becoming a hub for lean innovators of healthcare, organizations that are constantly trying to bring in good quality products at better prices and helping the healthcare system in the country grow by leaps and bounds.

Medical innovations have been the backbone of medicine since a long time. Accurate diagnosis and treatment have been possible only due to major advances in the field of medicine. Here, we bring you some recent innovations which are set to make a wave in the field of medicine in the near future.

Forus health: 3nethra

K Chandrasekhar, co-founder and CEO of Forus Health, has installed 1,400 of its retinal imaging devices in 26 countries. Forus Health’s first product, 3nethra classic, is a compact and portable non-mydriatic fundus camera used for capturing digital images of the posterior (retina) and anterior (cornea) segments of the eye.

Sattva: Fetal Lite

Sattva CEO Vibhav Joshi got the idea of creating a simpler diagnostic tool for fetal distress, which is often not easily detectable due to the absence of adequate diagnostic tools in most Indian hospitals. The devices required for such diagnosis are usually too expensive and require adequate power supply to function properly.

The price of the device is also likely to be much lower, at around Rs 1 lakh, about two-thirds cheaper than devices manufactured by General Electric and Philips.

Remidio technologies: Fundus and Angio

Remidio, which makes eye-care diagnostics technology, has so far commercially launched two products — smartphone-based Fundus on Phone and Angio on Touch diagnostic imaging system. Imaging a retina is a complicated process, as one can imagine. The current machines needed for such visualization cost around Rs 65 lakh.

It is also working to create a diagnostic tool for age-related macular degeneration. R Venkatesh, chief medical officer at Aravind Eye Hospital in Puducherry, which has been using Remidio’s device for five years has certified that Remidio's invention has been a spectacular breakthrough and it does the work of much costlier machines. Recently, the company has also conducted experiments along with Google to prevent blindness due to conditions such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. More details regarding the trials are awaited.

Coeo Labs

Med-tech Startup Coeo Labs is another company to look forward to in the healthcare space. The founders once encountered a patient who had contracted ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), an infection of the lungs resulting from the bacteria in the fluids that collect in the lungs of a patient who has been on a ventilator for more than 48 hours. The disease is complicated as it affects already fragile patients due to infectious organisms in the ventilator equipment.

Managing patients on ventilators is usually a complicated process, and the machine now can do it without human intervention. Coeo has invented another instrument, a neonatal transport continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device, SaanS. In infants with respiratory distress syndrome, maintaining positive airway pressure can be critical to saving their lives. The machine, SaanS can be used with electric power or, in its absence, with something as simple as a mechanical pump.

Biosense technologies

Biosense technologies has been founded by two youngsters from Mumbai, Myshkin Ingawale and Abhishek Sen. Both realized the need for developing medical diagnostic tools which were workable in India’s underserved areas, both urban and rural. Biosense has developed devices like SYNC, a smart and indigenously manufactured glucometer and uChek (smartphone-based portable diagnostic system for routine urine analysis) to check the prevalence and spread of diabetes. Another device, ToucHb is a non-invasive anaemia screener, Biosense has also designed and distributed a remote diagnostic kit that enables screening and monitoring of malnutrition at the sub-centre and anganwadi levels.

The remote Diagnostic Kit focusses on reducing the malnutrition and non-communicable disease rates. The diagnostic kit is an easy-to-use and portable diagnostic kit which enables screening and monitoring at the sub center level. This kit enables Remote Diagnostic Kit/ASHA/Anganwadi workers to use it with minimal training.

India is home to many such companies, seeking to create devices which may be useful in the Indian context, that could be potential problem solvers of issues such as lack of access to healthcare, poor quality of treatment, and decreased affordability of diagnostic tools.