IIT Bombay BETiC is solving India’s massive doctor shortage

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The 13 innovation centres of the Biomedical Engineering Technology incubation Centre (BETiC), starting with the one at IIT-Bombay, have now created 40 different novel and affordable medical devices.
In less than four years, BETiC has become a centre of innovation where more than 100 doctors and engineers are working together closely to solve the healthcare problems of a billion people.
We got talking to Professor Bhallamundi Ravi, the head of BETiC to know how they achieved this feat.

What kind of innovative medical devices does India need to develop on a large scale?
“The large population and diversity of India demand a wide range of medical devices that are better, safer, suitable, reliable and 4 A's: affordable, adaptable, available and accessible,” says Prof Ravi.
“Given that prevention is better and cheaper than treatment, India could and should focus on the rapidly growing market for medical devices to screen, diagnose and monitor patients of both communicable and non-communicable diseases,” he adds.
He explains how young innovators can now use smart sensors and machine learning to easily test and develop point-of-care diagnostic medical devices. Most of such devices fall under class-A (low-risk) category, which have lower regulatory requirements compared to other classes of devices, and can be brought into the market earlier.
Novel and affordable medical devices designed by BETiC
Here are a few novel and affordable medical devices created by BETiC which have received a great response from doctors and patients:

How an innovative idea becomes a final product at BETiC
“New ideas are in plenty. The hard part is knowing which ideas are worth taking forward, all the way from invention (patenting) to innovation (commercializing) to impact (clinical use),” says Prof Ravi.
BETiC uses a four-stage process in close collaboration with expert doctors to develop new medical devices:

•  define an unmet need through clinical immersion
•  develop a suitable solution in lab
•  deliver a properly manufactured and tested device
•  deploy it in medical practice through a business entity

The BETiC process has been recognized with an ISO 13485 certificate of quality management system for medical devices.
Challenges faced by BETiC
Innovation is a challenging process. Going from an idea to a finished device is never easy.

“Finally, convincing the users (hospitals, doctors and patients) about the quality and reliability of a locally made product is not easy, especially when branded products from established MNCs are available in the market,” he adds.

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