India has potential to make it big in healthcare, says Union Secretary

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has funded more than Rs 200-crore projects, which saw the development of 27 new medical devices in two years, said Union Health Research Secretary and ICMR Director General Dr Rajiv Bahl. These devices are either approved or are in clinical trials.

In Chandigarh for attending the PGIMER’s 62nd foundation day as chief guest today, Dr Bahl said, “Our target was to have 50 devices in 50 years, but it is going to probably be crossing 100 over five years.”

Speaking to The Tribune, Dr Bahl, a distinguished physician-scientist specialising in paediatrics and public health, cited few examples like what is called Cereco for detection of brain hematomas.

“And many of these devices we showed to Bill Gates during his last India visit and everything he saw, he was asking his colleagues, did we have anything to do with it? And they all said no, this is all done indigenously by India,” he recalled, while quoting Bill Gates as saying that the things that are being done in India have the potential to not only change healthcare in India but also across the world.

Dr Bahl said Cereco is a device that was created by an Indian institution and a startup. It uses infrared technology. “You can just put it on the forehead, two sides, on the parietal lobe behind. In two minutes, you will know whether there is any hematoma or not. So you can imagine the uses that this device can have,” he shared.

Recollecting another instance wherein NITI Aayog member Dr Vinod Paul, who is a paediatrician and physician scientist, asked for a lab that can be established at any Ayushman Arogya Mandir or any health and wellness centre. “So, we challenged our IITs. The IIT Guwahati came up with a mobi lab, which can do almost all the tests such as the biochemistry, serum, albumin, bilirubin and protein,” he revealed, while sharing that this is almost a lab in a small suitcase, which can be taken anywhere.

Dr Bahl said these types of innovations came through the ICMR-DHR Centers of Excellence (CoE) to foster the development of medical devices and technologies in India. These centres, primarily located at IITs and similar institutions, are aimed to drive innovation, promote “Make-in-India” products, and improve healthcare access, particularly for underserved communities. “It is something that gives great hope, with which we can move into the future,” he said.

PGI contribution

He disclosed that the PGI is one of the four institutes that conduct phase one clinical trials of these innovations outside of contract research organisations (CROs) and industry.

“The PGI is a very core partner in the Intent Indian Clinical Trial Education Network, which has 80 institutes on board to do phase one, two and three clinical trials,” he said.

PhD programme for physicians

When asked why a PhD programme for physicians is important, Dr Bahl said PhD gives a kind of training and research, which, when added to clinicians’ armamentarium, makes them even better scientists. “Only 3% of all physicians in the United States have a PhD,” he said, while attributing it to the lack of demand.

To turn it around, the DHR and ICMR identified medical scientists in ICMR and the faculty of medical institutes for adopting PhD programmes. Anybody under 45, who is a faculty member, is offered the PhD programme but only in institutes which have a culture of research.

“We have selected 28 leading institutes of the top 50 NIRF-ranked institutes which we will expand slowly to at least 50,” he divulged, while informing that the ICMR has also created Academy of Scientific Innovation Research and started offering grant of upto Rs 50 lakh to anybody who will do a PhD if they are nominated by their institution and then selected by ICMR.

In 2024, the first batch of 64 young medical faculty was enrolled and is currently pursuing this PhD programme.

Grants offered for research, innovations

Talking about the grants offered for research and innovations, Dr Bahl said the PGI has won 74 such grants in the past two years, which are the second highest in the country after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Significantly, 38 of them were in development research, which means that these are either working on new interventions or new products.

“Also, the first in the world challenge grant was also won by the PGI, out of 25 that we have given so far. These were not only for medical institutes but for anybody, including industry,” he said.

Just an idea can fetch Rs 1 crore

Inspired by Chandrayaan, the world challenge grant was introduced last year with the aim of instilling confidence in Indian scientists and researchers, particularly medical researchers. “We launched this challenge to say, if you do anything, make any device, product, or have any knowledge, that is first in the world, you will get the grant,” he said, while sharing that just an idea can fetch Rs 1 crore and if the idea has been developed and it is at a stage where it can go for some kind of evaluation then Rs 4 crore, and when it goes to that situation where it can go for the decisive trial, then Rs 8 crore grant is given.

Chandigarh