GAURAV AGARWAL
What was the rationale behind your career move towards being one of the Med tech influential leader?
Having graduated from the very first batch of Bio Medical Engineering from Manipal , MedTech industry was a natural option. In 2000 I started my journey in the cardiovascular industry started with Guidant - a world leader in stents at that time. I clearly saw lives being saved with stents and Cardiovascular products that Guidant made at that time. It was very gratifying to see patients’ lives being saved and enhanced using these devices. I decided to continue with the industry and the turning point came in 2010 when we decided to set up Innvolution with the aim of becoming India’s only Pan-India, professionally managed Sales and Marketing company serving Cardiovascular disease. Since then our stents have been used in over 75000 patients and our solutions have touched over half a million lives in last 10 years. With a vision to make Cardiovascular care more accessible to a larger segment of the society , we started a JV in 2016 with an aim to design, manufacture and sell Cardiac Cath Labs in India, only the 9th company in the world to do so. We are proud that since the launch of our Cath lab in 2018, we have sold over 100 Cath labs and have received 10 International and National Awards. The most satisfying part of the journey remains the ability to touch and save lives by using the most advanced solution in cardiovascular imaging and management
What was the key behind your success?
There are 4 key factors that I attribute to my success:
• Clear Vision to research and design cutting edge solutions to make
There is one thing thing that has paved the way to MedTech companies, and that is technology innovation
Cardiovascular Care more accessible.
• Great Partnerships - I have been extremely fortunate to be working alongside my co-founders - Ashvini Suthar, Atul Sharma and Sachin Garg as we share a common goal and vision. It has been a great privilege to know and work with our collaborators in IITPL for Cath Lab - Vijay Alreja, Naresh Alreja and Vikram Mordani are great partners and share a passion to build the best solution in Cardiovascular Imaging.
• Great Teams - in both company - Innvolution Healthcare and IITPL we are fortunate to have teams that are very committed and passionate and most of them have been with the companies since inception.
• Family Support : I have taken some very potentially risky decisions like every entrepreneur and my wife Pallavi and my son Aryan have completely supported me through this journey. My father and sisters have also been a huge source of motivation.
How the technological advancements in the Medical industry has changed the face of medical science in India?
Today, connected, digitally driven healthcare is the future as this pandemic has taught us. Cowin app , Aarogya Setu app and various websites that show real-time availability of beds in worst affected cities, tele medicine/consultations have shown us how technology can help us deliver better and more efficient healthcare . We are also using Machine Learning Algorithms to deliver sharper images at lower x ray dose in our cath labs and are in the process of developing some unique AI based applications that will make diagnosis and treatment of CVD even more efficient, safer and accurate.
These unprecedented times affected the healthcare industry to its core. How can the Med Tech industry helping contribute to patient care?
Though COVID-19 has disrupted the entire world, there is also a call to action for organizations improving the delivery of healthcare services. COVID-19 has put the MedTech industry at center stage with unparalleled demand for diagnostic tests, Vaccinations, personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other critical medical supplies.
There is one thing that has paved the way for MedTech companies, and that is technology innovation. Interesting use of technology is remote surveillance of patients; another is using new technology for rapid testing. Developing an effective vaccine in a short period is by far the most significant technological feat by the industry. There is an expected shift happening due to the huge impact of COVID-19 on digitization—the perception of what digital can do and how new business models can leverage that.
What are your future endeavours to the medical industry as a leading Med Tech innovator?
Since the inception of IITPL, we have been consistently working towards making our products better and more feature savvy. In the last five years of our operations, we have launched four variants of our Cath Labs (Pinnacle, Pinnacle Agile, iCathSuite, and Pinnacle Pro) with unique propositions.
Currently, we are working on our Next Generation Cath Lab that will be launched around September 2021 and will have a Proprietary, first in the world gantry movement for complete anatomical coverage for cardiovascular and all vascular procedures.
A brief about yourself and your organisation. About Gaurav Agarwal:
Mr. Gaurav Agarwal is a healthpreneur, angel investor, mentor, and public speaker, based out of Bengaluru. Effective and passionate business leader, with over 25 years of global experience in the Healthcare industry. Deep knowledge of Indian and Asian market, MBA from one of the most premier Management institute of India, IIM Kozhikode, strong history of incubating and scaling up start-ups.
Co-founder of Innvolution Healthcare Pvt Ltd (IHPL) - Rated among Top Ten Medtech Start-ups in India Co-Founder of IITPL - Winner of DoP " Medical Device Company of the Year" Award, Good Design Award, CII Top 25 Innovative Companies Award, Red Dot Award and CII Industrial Design Excellence Award, Winner of National Innovation Award by President of India.
About IITPL:
IITPL is a unique amalgamation of strengths in Cath Lab Design and Manufacturing, X Ray Imaging, Software, and Interventional Cardiology Consumables. The three promoter groups VJ Technologies - New York, Innvolution Healthcare - New Delhi & Ex Alpha X Ray Promoters - Germany and India, bring a combination of strengths that are unique and complementary resulting in the development of the Pinnacle and Pinnacle Agile Cath Labs – the fastest growing and the most awarded Cath Lab of India in 2018-19.
The promoters of the company have a vision of creating truly a differentiated solutions in Medical Imaging and offering solutions that make Medical Imaging more effective and accessible.