THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Setting up a Kerala Medical Technology Consortium to position the State as an international medical devices hub over 10 years, though with a limited Government spend of approximately Rs 125 crore, is among thrust areas mooted by the Kerala State Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DSIC). The consortium HQ will on 2,000 sq ft at KINFRA Biotechnology Park at Kochi, ideal because of the city’s central location, good connectivity, location of a premier science and technology university, access to many leading hospitals, medical college/health university as well as availability of/emerging industry environment to support technology development and manufacturing.
The hub plan will be achieved with the sustained collaboration of and by scaling up R&D activities in prestigious institutions in the State and by drawing on the support of foreign universities. Satellite or secondary locations may be set up as technology/research parks later at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology/Life Science Park Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala University of Health Sciences Thrissur, Palakkad IIT and Kozhikode NIT. K-DISC assesses that the country’s medical technologies market has the potential to be one of the largest in the world and is expected to grow at 15-20 per cent over the next several years. It is thus critical to develop the ecosystem in the country supporting the emergence of an advanced and world class Indian medical devices and technology industry.
But the medical device and technology development pathway is long, complex and multidisciplinary and difficult for any one entity or organization to undertake all aspects of the technology development. Which is why the private sector is chary of investing in the slow-returns sector. In many parts of the world, especially in USA, a consortium or cluster of institutions joins to provide technological, research, clinical, business and other expertise to create such an environment in an efficient and cost-effective way to boost technological and economic advancements. Kerala is uniquely poised to play the global hub role as it has institutions doing world class research, a higher education sector with the potential to supply manpower, tertiary hospitals doing advanced clinical procedures and patients demanding cutting-edge clinical procedures because of exposure to advanced countries.
Growing medical tourism sector, good climate and standard of living which can attract the best of world experts, good international connectivity and emerging industrial infrastructure like electronics hardware park, polymer park, and manufacturing support structures are other factors. Domains in medical tech consortium: Medical devices, medical equipment, diagnostics devices, medical consumables, drug-device combination products, telemedicine technologies, home health products, preventive care technologies, assistive care technologies, mobile technologies, data management tools, educational and training tools.
