Medtronic showcases technology excellence at its R&D facility in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: India Medtronic Private Limited, wholly owned subsidiary of Medtronic plc in India, showcased its engineering research and development (R&D) center, called Medtronic Engineering and Innovation Center (MEIC), in Hyderabad recently. The site visit was part of the 5^th Health Writer’s Workshop organized by Heal Foundation at Radisson, Hyderabad.

Research and innovation is central to the Medtronic Mission, focused on addressing the universal healthcare needs of improving clinical outcomes, expanding global access to care, and optimizing costs and efficiencies across the healthcare continuum—through three core strategies: therapy innovation, globalization, and economic value.

Medtronic globally invested $2.2 billion in R&D in FY2017 and owns more than 53,000 patents across its therapy areas. In India, Medtronic has a large footprint in engineering research and development, with two centers in Hyderabad and Bangalore, respectively.

Both engineering R&D centers collectively employ more than 350 engineers, supporting global teams with product design and development capabilities to serve international and emerging markets, including India.

Commenting on the occasion, Madan Krishnan, vice president and managing director, Medtronic, Indian Sub-continent said, “Meaningful innovation can come in many forms like a new feature to make a product more useful or a unique way to apply an evolving technology to a real-world problem. As a global leader in medical technology, Medtronic aspires to drive progress in innovation and devise powerful solutions with proven clinical and economic value as the basis of our offerings and value proposition. For us, our customers and patients remain at the center of our relentless pursuit to transform healthcare.”

The visit to MEIC entailed first-hand immersive experience of technology innovation, precision engineering, quality, and clinical science that goes behind some of the path breaking medical technologies that are designed and developed at the 80,000 square feet state-of-the-art center. MEIC provides engineering and development support in the areas of design, analysis, hardware, software development, and testing, while developing a footprint for future product development for India and the global market. Additionally, MEIC will be leveraging the local presence and ecosystem to support regional business needs.

Divya Prakash Joshi, site director, MEIC, Hyderabad said, “Medical technology is constantly evolving and we, at MEIC, make persistent efforts to collaborate with Medtronic’s global business units on engineering R&D efforts so that products reach the hands of patients and doctors on time. We are also developing market appropriate innovations to meet local and global needs and clinical challenges. MEIC continues to provide high-quality, high-performance, cost-effective engineering R&D support for our products.”

The innovations showcased during the event were portable respiratory monitors (Capnostream™ 35), ventilators (Puritan Bennett™ 980 Ventilator Series), remote patient monitoring platforms (Vital Sync™), ablation systems (Emprint™ Ablation System), vessel sealing systems (Valleylab™ LS10 Generator) and neurovascular coil detachment systems products (Artisse™ detachment device). These technologies are testimonials of the collaborative effort of the R&D center in India and its global partners toward delivering meaningful and positive patient outcomes.

“Our engineering research and development work at MEIC in Hyderabad further demonstrates our futuristic thinking and alignment with the government’s initiative to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for India’. Medtronic has been leveraging the unique strengths of India beyond just providing therapies to the patients; with a large pool of qualified engineers, talented doctors with wide ranging patient pool and hospitals providing quality care. All of these stakeholders have helped the Medtronic R&D center develop market appropriate technologies and products to serve patients with optimum clinical outcomes,” concluded Mr Krishnan.