SUMMARY
The Covid-19 pandemic had opened the gaps in the healthcare system, underlining the need for tech adoption to cope with existing challenges
Indian healthtech startups are developing solutions to improve the quality of healthcare and make it more affordable
GE Healthcare launched India Edison Accelerator Programme in 2019 to nurture the country’s budding healthtech startup ecosystem and co-develop healthcare applications, services and AI-powered solutions
As India and the world brace for a dreaded third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, robust healthcare infrastructure remains in focus. In 2020, the country struggled to cope with the Corona crisis due to large gaps in the healthcare system. However, India appears to be better prepared now to tackle future outbreaks as various stakeholders continue to bring innovation and holistic improvements in the healthcare space.
In November 2021, the government announced investing INR 64K Cr in the healthcare sector to create better infrastructure in the next five years. Similarly, India’s startup ecosystem is also developing healthtech solutions to improve the quality of healthcare and make it more affordable.
In the past two years, healthtech has thrived in areas like preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and monitoring solutions. Take, for instance, Bengaluru-based Predible Health, an AI-powered radiology startup that helps physicians and patients with accurate diagnosis and disease-specific insights into lung CT scans within six hours instead of 1-3 days to manually prepare a CT scan report.
Large-scale and disruptive healthcare systems like telemedicine have also gained mainstream attention during the pandemic. In fact, telehealth utilisation saw a massive spike as the safest and most convenient mode of healthcare access and delivery.
An industry behemoth operating in this space is GE Healthcare. This global medical technology company has provided medical equipment and technology solutions across the Indian market for more than three decades.
Watch Dr. Shravan Subramanyam, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia, In Talks With Radha K, Partner, Unitus Ventures on the segment & the opportunities it presents for startups.
Through its technology centre in Bengaluru that houses more than 2,000 engineers, GE Healthcare has been developing cutting-edge products around radio imaging, ultrasound and life care and critical care solutions to improve patient outcomes and experience in India and abroad.
The medtech giant also launched its India Edison Accelerator Programme in 2019 to nurture the country’s budding healthtech startup ecosystem. GE Healthcare works with homegrown startups to co-develop and launch healthcare applications, services and AI-powered solutions in this collaborative programme. It has already completed three editions of the programme and worked with 17 startups.
Given the pandemic situation, the healthtech market size in India is expected to reach $21.3 Bn by 2025 from $6.8 Bn in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 25.65%, a report by Inc42 says. As the market growth underlines a significant rise in healthtech adoption, the ecosystem is set to bring more speed and precision to address public health issues and critical medical conditions.
