The Book: The Essence of Medical Device Innovation yields many unexplored opportunities for medical device innovation. The journey of a new device from bed (hospital) to bench (engineering) to business to bed is however, long and arduous. There are ‘valleys of death’ from concept to prototype, prototype to product, and product to market. It requires a capable and committed multi-disciplinary team to traverse the long path from idea to impact. The Essence of Medical Device Innovation by Professor B. Ravi narrates 16 stories of innovators from different parts of India, who created novel yet affordable medical devices at the Biomedical Engineering and Technology Incubation Centre in IIT Bombay and their partner institutes. The stories provide valuable insights about the opportunities and challenges in this field. The best ways to define, develop, deliver and deploy medical devices are laid out. There are many useful and practical guidelines for every step, making it a handy resource for all those interested in creating, supporting or using new medical devices.
The Author: B. Ravi is an Institute Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, where he heads the Biomedical Engineering and Technology Innovation Centre. This was started in 2014 with support from Government to develop affordable medical devices and train the next generation of healthcare innovators. Within a short time, BETIC has grown into a network of centres attracting both engineering and medical professionals. These collaborative teams have developed and filed patents for many medical devices for diagnosis, surgery and rehabilitation. Some of these have been licensed to start-up companies, local industry or NGOs, and have already touched many lives.
