TOP 50 MOST INLUENTIAL LEADERS IN HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
This ongoing change has been possible mainly on account of the leadership of individuals. Hundreds have displayed such leadership, and many of these “under the radar”. In this issue we present 50 such influential leaders who have and are contributing to healthcare & Medtech.
Their journeys are varied and interesting and we are presenting here some profiles in this issue. We look forward to unearthing many more as well. Dr. Minnie Bodhanwala
Mr. Suresh Vazirani
Mr. Himanshu Baid
Mr. Vivek Tiwari
Mr. Anish Bafna
Mr. Rajiv Nath
Mr. Abhay Soi
Prof. (Dr.) Balram Bhargava
Mr. Gaurav Agarwal
Mr. Sunil Khurana
Mr. Shankar Vardharajan
Mr. Rajan Verma
Mr. Amit Chopra
Mr. Narendra Varde
Mr. Bomi Bhote
Dr. Rajeev Gautam
Mr. Anish Bafna
Mr. Rupak Barua
Prof. (Dr.) Randeep Guleria
Mr. Narendra Bansal
Prof. (Dr.) M. Wali
Dr. Dharminder Nagar
Ms Veena Kohli
Ms Chandra Ganjoo
Ms Rekha Jain
Ms Sangita Reddy
Mr. Mukesh M Mehta
Mr. Prabhu Tiwari
CEO
Founder
Managing Director
CEO
CEO & MD
Director
Chairman & Managing Director Director General Managing Director
CEO & MD
Director
Director
Managing Director Managing Director
CEO
CEO
CEO & MD
Director & Group CEO Director
Chairman & Managing Director Senior Consultant Managing Director Cofounder & CEO
CEO
Director
Managing Director Directorsales & Marketing CEO
Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital Transasia Bio Medicals Ltd
Poly Medicure Ltd.
Medikabazaar
Healthium Group
Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Max Healthcare Institute Limited
Indian Council of Medical Research Innovation Imaging Technologies Pvt. Ltd. BPL Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd
Time Medical Systems India
MDD Medical Systems Ltd
Thermofisher Scientific
Roche Diagonistics
Ruby Hall Clinic
HORIBA India
Healthium Group
AMRI Hospitals
AIIMS
Intex Technologies (India)ltd.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital
Paras Healthcare
Vanguard Diagonistics
Trivitron Healthcare
Akhil Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Apollo Hospitals
Mehta Tubes Limited
SAI Sumeet Appliances
What are some significant innovations taking place in your respective field(s)? Which among these is the most exciting and why? How will it (or they, if more than one) impact your organization?
The industry is growing as always, but with increased innovation and improvements in technology in the last few years I see the industry to be growing faster in the coming years. Also there has been an increase in perception of health and wellness with mobile and other health gadgets, I do see a lot of scope in the preventive healthcare industry as well. Being supportive to new ideas definitely encourages creative thinking in the organization and this is the only reason we have an open door policy across all the departments where anyone can approach with their problems or solutions.
Wadia Hospital – one of the Pioneer in mother & Child, IVF etc., Please elaborate ? Are you planning any new association or tie ups for International Patient or are looking to open up new markets?
Our Children’s hospital The Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children established in 1928 is India’s first and largest Paediatric Hospital. We provide a wide range of over 40 Paediatric specialties over here. The department of Cardiac sciences is a center of excellence at BJWHC and is supported by a dedicated team of professionals who provide care at the Cardiac ICU, Cardiac OT and Cardiac ward. The department helps many children survive with early diagnosis and prompt management of cardiac ailments.
The department provides super specialty care for children with all kind of cardiac complications including congenital heart surgeries. The department caters to more than 5,000 patients on an annual basis who seek quality cardiac care. The department is managed by a highly accomplished team and equipped with state of the art equipment’s. Our Women hospitalNowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital established in the year 1926 is exclusively dedicated to Women and newborns and is a pioneer in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The hospital is a pioneer in the field of endoscopic surgeries and has a fully equipped endoscopic theatre and all laparoscopic surgeries like hysterectomy and myomectomy are performed by our
specialists. Both our hospitals have excellent departments for endocrinology as well thus catering to women and children of our community with a complete array of diagnostic, treatment and consultations.
We proudly host Maharashtra’s first state of the art Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) centre in a public hospital setup offering a wide range of treatments at an extremely affordable costs. Our centre was established in 2016 and is managed by our highly trained and experienced team, since inception we have helped many couples by providing quality care to achieve their dream of having a child. We are the first IVF centre in India to receive an accreditation for quality by QAI. We offer a wide range of basic and advanced services at our IVF clinic: some of them include: Consultations & Counseling, Basic Workup of Infertile Couple, specialized Ultrasounds, Intra Uterine Insemination (self and donor), Saline Infusion Sonographies, Ovum pick up, ICSI, IMSI, Fresh And Frozen Embryo Transfer, Blastocyst Culture, Semen Freezing And Thawing, Oocyte And Embryo Cryopreservation And Thawing, Donor Oocyte And Donor Embryo Services, Male Infertility Management, Testicular biopsies, testicular sperm retrieval techniques(tesa), Percutaneous Epididymal Sperm Retrieval Techniques(pesa) etc.
Over the years we have conducted several camps in various countries for Pediatric Cardiac Surgeries and are in talks with various embassies and international organizations to reach out to more people in need. We are definitely looking forward to work with likeminded organizations in new markets.
Can cooperation with AYUSH lead to synergies for you? If so how?
Cooperation with AYUSH can be explored to bring out expertise in healthcare with an evidencebased approach. More research is required to identify synergies and impact in Modern and traditional healthcare in public domain. We can also look for synergies in improving quality of life for patients and bring down morbidity due to chronic health diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension etc.
While urban India is reasonably developed as far as medical facilities go; vast tracts remain deficient. What are some suggestions from you about how to go about rectification?
In the current situation of COVID 19 we are learning a lot about the strengths and weakness of our system in addressing public health concerns, these learning’s should be utilized to amend our public health policies and plan the budgets accordingly. One such weakness, which has come forward in the current situation, is our surveillance capacity for natural disasters. The Government definitely needs to increase the investment in surveillance capacity for communicable diseases and other natural disasters as well, to lower the burden on healthcare services during such situations. This is not the first and the last pandemic our country has seen, we need more focus and vigour in the healthcare sector collectively across all the sectors with special attention for the women and children, the elderly and disabled.
There is still a huge gap between the private and public sector healthcare facilities, which needs to be addressed. Poverty alleviation schemes in the metros and cities are also much needed as the cluster of slums becomes a huge hurdle in public health of the nation. Our human resources both medical and paramedical for public health are inadequate as well, there is a strong need to invest more in the training centres and better incentives for the public healthcare workforce.
Recent acknowledgement & award received? Your Success story that inspire others?
I have been Featured in India Forbes March 2019 as a “Globally Recognized Indian Business Leaders” and also rated amongst the top 25 Living legends of Healthcare in the country and a recipient of over 50 National and International awards in Healthcare, Public Health and Entrepreneurship. Recently I have also attended the Women on Boards Program at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Success Story:
Dr. Minnie has played an instrumental role in bringing a positive transformation at Wadia Hospitals and shown compassion towards the underprivileged Women and Children of our Nation. With her dedication, excellence, innovation and sustainable vision Wadia Hospitals being charitable semigovernment organizations are providing quality, safe and affordable healthcare to the underprivileged Women and Children of our community. With her efforts; our region proudly hosts the largest NICU in the country with 155 beds, the Children’s hospital caters to more than 40 Paediatric services. Under her leadership the hospital has established Paediatric Cardiology, Complex Paediatric Surgeries, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Nephrology, Hemat-oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant, thus providing comprehensive treatment to all children under one roof. Also dedicated nodal centre for Clubfoot treatment in Maharashtra, a dedicated clinic for Cancer, Malnutrition, HIV, TB, Epilepsy, Occupational therapy, MDVI Clinic, IVF Center, and Nutrition & Rehabilitation Center etc. She has contributed in a strong way for development of Public Health Panindia by leading projects through the various foundations. The project dedicated towards mobile health in rural areas and towards women and child healthcare in rural, semi urban and urban areas are of great service to the community. She is also working closely with UNICEF Maharashtra and established the State Centre of Excellence to tackle Malnutrition at the Children’s hospital.
How do you see the healthcare industry and particularly the medtech industry moving forward in the post pandemic era? I would like to share my views on three aspects government, industry and the patients.
The pandemic shone the spotlight on what has been the need of the hour for the Indian healthcare industry for years. It brought ‘Make in India’ into focus and gave India the opportunity to exhibit its capabilities of meeting the requirements of not just India but the world. It is interesting to see the awareness that the pandemic has created among the general population. There has been an awakening to the critical role of diagnostics in disease prevention and early detection.
As an industry leader, I laud the Indian government’s Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat
Yojna as a great measure to focus on disease prevention. We all know the importance of preventive healthcare in a huge, developing country like India. This scheme will enable every Indian, whether in a city or village, a free health checkup at rural and urban health centres equipped with diagnostic facilities. This investment will help reduce India’s healthcare costs due to early diagnosis and prevention of disease. It will also help make India Healthy and Happy.
Also, it’s equally important to make tests affordable and not just accessible. This can be made possible if we reduce our dependency on imports and offer Make in India products and become truly ‘Atmanirbhar’. What lies ahead is how soon and how successfully we can implement these reforms for a positive change.
I am very optimistic about the potential of the Indian medtech industry. If all goes as per plans, the Indian medtech sector is expected to grow in market size from the present USD 11 bn to USD 50 bn by 2025.
Digitization of health records holds the key to a healthier India. It can aid the government with crucial data for predictive disease modeling, epidemiological surveillance, strengthening infrastructure and planning for better disease management.
You started from scratch and are today spearheading India's Leading IVD Company serving more than 100 countries. What are the transitions from the time you started up to now?
I consider myself fortunate to have got an opportunity to not just witness but also contribute to the growth of the Indian healthcare industry and create its space in the global community. Forty years ago, as a country we completely relied on imported medical equipment. These were expensive and hence could be used only in large private hospitals, accessed by very few patients, as affordability was an issue.
Moreover, in the event of a breakdown, after-sales service was a big challenge. The end result was a delay in treatment for the patient. That’s when Transasia Bio-medicals was setup as a provider of timely after-sales service.
Secondly, pathologists in India had to rely on using the manual and semi-automated systems and were not able to use complete automation due its very high costs. Cost of the equipment outweighed the benefits it offered. These limitations could be addressed only with Make in India products that could meet the needs of automation and affordability. And that is what Transasia did next… manufacturing in India.
Over the years, there has been a trajectory growth of the industry. Technological advancements, reach and elevating user experience have enhanced patient care. From large equipment that required lot of time and manual intervention, the industry has progressed to offer analyzers integrated with Artificial Intelligence and innovative robotics. Analyzers with high throughput provide results in a matter of minutes. It is exciting to see how the industry has moved in the direction of digitization. Analyzers are now integrated with remote monitoring software to considerably reduce the downtime.
All along, Transasia has been a key contributor through its ‘Developed in India’ and ‘Made in India’ sophisticated products that offer world-class technology, backed by superior technical service, the best in the industry, and affordability.
Tell us something about your global presence.
From being a provider of after-sales service in 1979, the Transasia-erba group has today touched billions of lives across 100 countries, through its innovative products. Besides India, our products are used in over 100 countries all over the world. At our R&D and manufacturing facilities in India, Czech Republic, USA, France, Austria and UK we design and develop technologies to serve the futuristic needs of blood testing labs and patients alike. Our global family of 1500+ employees is a rich pool of talent and years of experience and expertise.
We are celebrating the period of 2020-2030 as a decade of Indian healthcare excellence across the globe. How do you want to celebrate or contribute?
We remain committed to a Healthier and Happier World and for that we will continue to contribute through innovative Made in India products that are affordable and accessible to all. India has the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of 6.6 billion people living in 152 developing countries of the world by exporting Made in India, affordable and reliable medical devices to all those 152 countries. Transasia is already exporting some products to over 100 countries.
If Indian government can help achieve such a huge expansion of the Indian medtech industry, it has the potential to grow much bigger than India’s IT industry and create new employment for over 1 million educated Indians. And also benefit 6.6 billion people on this earth.
Transasia has been a key contributor through its ‘Developed in India’ and ‘Made in India’ sophisticated products that offer world-class technology, backed by superior technical service, the best in the industry, and affordability.
What are some significant innovations taking place in your respective field(s)? Which among these is the most exciting and why? How will it impact your organization?
Digital transformation is reshaping the Medtech landscape. A range of factors—from increased pricing pressures to more stringent regulations and operational inefficiencies arising from a general trend of consolidation—have reshaped the Medtech landscape. If players in the Medtech industry digitize their operations, they can build the necessary momentum for enduring growth and profitability.
Medtech companies can focus on new technologies and frameworks as a way of countering threats and positively affecting their bottom line. We have identified five areas where Polymed can reap the greatest benefits while adopting digital technologies:
Inventory management, Logistics and distribution, Device maintenance, Product development & Warehouse operations. By introducing digitalization in these areas, companies can enable increased supply chain visibility, reduced maintenance and research and development costs, customer satisfaction, and improved experiences.
We congratulate you & your team on 25th Anniversary of Polymed, can you share the journey of milestones to become one of the leading global medical devices company?
We have achieved a unique position for ourselves as an Indian manufacturer to have a comprehensive range of products that are efficiently backed by a patient-centric approach. Currently, Polymed holds more than 300 patents for its expansive range of product portfolio in the area of vascular access, renal care, oncology, transfusion & diagnostics system, and caters to a vast range of therapeutic segments covering infusion therapy, dialysis, respiratory care, cardiology, cancer care, urology, gastroenterology, critical care, blood collection & management, anaesthesia, and surgery & wound drainage.
Renal will be a growth driver for Polymed as this segment is growing at 15% CAGR and is expected to double in next 5 years. The high-quality standards of our products continue to make it one of the most preferred brands of healthcare professionals.
Started with a very few members, the company has gradually reached to a superlative team of more than 2500 employees working in its eight manufacturing facilities, one R&D centre and offices spread across the globe. Our plants manufacture over 1 billion devices per year confirming to the latest global norms. Recently, we have also commenced operations in US with our fully owned subsidiary, Polyhealth Medical Inc. Polymed has recently bagged the prestigious ‘India Medical Device Leader of the Year” award from Govt. of India. This award is a testimony of Polymed’s ground-breaking technology products which have set benchmarks in the Medical Device industry. Company also made it to the highly coveted Fortune “The Next 500” companies list for 2021 & 2022 and was also featured in the prestigious Forbes’ Asia. Some of our many recognitions include Medical Device Company Award for the year 2018 by Government of India & Top 25 Innovative Companies in India Award by CII.
The future of medical devices sector looks bright as demand for indigenously manufactured devices continues to grow. Today, Polymed is the largest exporter of consumable medical devices from India for last 8 years in a row. The company’s products are present in more than 120 countries and its strong distribution channel stands as a true testament to its position of one of the leading Medtech players.
What are your thoughts on the need for Skilling of manpower & investment in Healthcare training?
Healthcare is one of the largest & fastest growing industries today both in terms of revenue and employment, hence there is an immense need of trained and skilled professionals to offer quality services. A big economic opportunity for India, lies in developing a competent and trained manpower. Shortage of efficient and well-trained technicians & paramedical staff is a well-recognized hurdle.
Indian nursing community has always been the backbone to the healthcare system but hardly got deserved due in return.
E-learning would allow for greater access to quality content and expert trainers. India has seen tremendous internet growth in recent years, accelerated by increasing smartphone penetration and easily accessible mobile data in rural areas.
In a country with a huge population, primary physicians play a crucial role in disease management and prevention. Initially, the primary healthcare system was a saviour against preventing the burden of diseases to an advanced stage and get cost-effective preventive treatment. However, gradually with the lack of trained and qualified physicians, that role became unessential. Since the burden now lies on hospitals in urban areas, early disease detection and prevention will help reduce the load on primary healthcare centers.
While urban India is reasonably developed as far as medical facilities go; vast tracts remain deficient. What are some suggestions from you about how to go about rectification?
Currently, rural healthcare needs are met either by limited government facilities and private nursing homes, or by a number of general physicians. The quality of infrastructure is usually poor, and people end up going to nearby large cities if they need high-quality care.
One of the reasons for this is untrained or inexperienced rural practitioners who provide more than 70% of primary healthcare in rural India. Uncertified rural practitioners can be trained and sensitized to regulate, qualify, and integrate them into the existing rural health care system.
If India is to realize its goal of universal health coverage (UHC), it is imperative that technology and healthcare talk to each other seamlessly. Technology is all-pervasive and can help address India's unique challenges in terms of accessibility, affordability and quality.
Virtual health can improve health outcomes, reduce costs, reduce unnecessary utilization (such as nonurgent visits to the emergency room), and improve patient satisfaction. Telemedicine is also becoming a prominent tool in healthcare system to bridge the healthcare gap between rural and urban India by acting as a healthcare provider, bringing access to specialist doctors in rural areas where access to medical facilities, advanced healthcare amenities and specialist's opinion is limited.
In order to achieve all of this, public-private partnerships (PPP) have a key role to play.