Covid-19 pandemic worked as an enabler for innovation, Medtronic-Economist Impact survey whitepaper reveals
The whitepaper is written by the Economist Impact and supported by Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The findings from the Medtronic-Economist Impact whitepaper were centered around three main areas – access to healthcare, collaboration and talent.
Global healthcare technology company India Medtronic Private Limited has released findings from Medtronic-Economist Impact survey whitepaper titled ‘Asia Pacific’s Healthcare Technologies Ecosystem: Enhancing Start-up and SME success. The whitepaper is written by the Economist Impact and supported by Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). The findings from the Medtronic-Economist Impact whitepaper were centered around three main areas – access to healthcare, collaboration and talent.
The study also showed that almost 80% thought that the Government was very supportive towards innovations, and 33.3% agreed and 60% strongly agreed that talent recruitment was a significant challenge for early-stage start-ups. The study revealed that an overwhelming number of start-ups in India (76.7%) believed that the pandemic acted as an enabler of innovation in the space. Only 3.3% of respondents from India considered the pandemic a disrupter of innovation, unlike 34.7% of the respondents in the APAC region.
Moreover, a majority of respondents (76.7%) believed that treatment was one of the greatest unmet needs within the patient/disease pathway in the country, while more than half (53.3%) thought that testing/screening was one of the biggest requirements. All participants agreed that the health market in India was very competitive, rather than seeing collaboration amongst the various players.
The whitepaper aims to establish the present state of the healthcare technology sector in Asia Pacific and explores the challenges that start-ups and small-medium enterprises face in establishing and scaling up their business. This first-ever study on the region’s MedTech sector involves inputs from 150 executives from startups and business enterprises in APAC, including India.
The paper also includes in-depth interviews with several industry leaders from the healthcare technology sector as well as from company representatives in the technology sector such as SAP.iO Foundries and Microsoft Health.
Madan Krishnan, vice president and managing director, Medtronic India, said, “Innovation is critical in ensuring effective and timely disease management, not just in India, but across the world. The aim of Medtronic’s Open Innovation programs across APAC is to drive innovation – through internal ideation and now external partnerships as well. In India, we’ve always recognized the importance of collaborative innovation, whether it is with the Government, startups, hospitals and other like-minded partners to offer localized solutions to address unmet needs.”
He further added, “Our recent collaborations have been with Government of Telangana to expand our R&D center in Hyderabad; with Stasis Health Private Ltd to improve access to connected care with their bedside multi parameter monitoring system and with Government of Kerala’s promoted Section 8 Company, Additional Skill Acquisition Programme Kerala (ASAP) to equip final year students with advanced skill sets and improve overall employability within the healthcare industry.”
Last year, the company launched the Medtronic Open Innovation Platform (Medtronic OIP) with the aim to bring together various innovators across the Asia-Pacific as well as several stakeholders from the healthcare ecosystem. This was followed in October 2021 with the launch of the Medtronic APAC Innovation Challenge to give recognition to innovations in the healthcare space.