You take a loan to buy your home or car and repay the amount through monthly instalments. Medical technology company Medtronic is exploring a similar pathway to help finance high-end medical devices for patients.
A first time for Medtronic, it has just initiated two pilot projects at Durgapur's Mission Hospital and Ahmedabad's CIMS Hospital, said Mr Shamik Dasgupta, Medtronic-Director (Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management). The plan is to help make products affordable to patients, cutting short delay between the time of diagnosis and the actual procurement of the medical device, say, for instance, a pace-maker, he explained.
A pace-maker costs from Rs 60,000 for a simple product to over Rs 1 lakh for certain specifications and close to Rs 6 lakh for high-end products, a Mumbai-based cardiologist said.
The patient would be required to make a down payment and the additional funds to get the device would be extended by “Healthy Heart for All,” an entity supported by Medtronic, Mr Dasgupta said, without getting into specifics due to the competitive market.
If the project finds acceptance, Medtronic would be willing to take the model to other markets where similar initiatives are required, said Medtronic's Mr Pat Mackin, Senior Vice-President and President (CRDM).
Innovative financing schemes, along with products tailored to local needs, are some of the strategies undertaken by the company to increase its base in India, Mr Mackin, on his first visit to India, told Business Line .
It is a start, but it requires more than what an individual company can do, observed Mr Milind Shah, Medtronic Managing Director. To make the project successful, the process needs to be quick and the interest extended to patients needs to make sense, he said, hoping that the banking industry would get enthused to participate in similar projects to make high-end devices more affordable. It is uncharted territory, he said, adding that it would be watched for about a year to get a picture of what safe-guards need to be tailored into the project to make it work, in terms of patients' credit-base and the follow-through if a patient cannot pay back the loan.
Medtronic recently opened a manufacturing facility in Singapore to make pace-makers and leads. The company's only plant in Asia, making pacemakers and leads, it would cater to the Indian and Chinese markets, among others, Mr Mackin said. Also, two research development teams would be formed to look at the CRDM segments in India and China, he added. The company spends about 10 per cent of its turnover on research. Mr Mackin and Dr David M Steinhaus, Medtronics Medical Director (CRDM), were in India meeting patients and physicians to get an insight into the challenges and requirements of the local market.