Functional Tester_Medical devices

Current and Future of Medical Electronics in India

The Indian Medical Electronics industry is currently valued at around $ 1 billion and has been growing at an average rate of 17% for past couple of years. It is strongly believed that growth will outperform the pace, resulting in the Indian Medical Electronics market reaching close to $ 6.5 billion by the year 2020.

Growing population, ageing, income base and associated disposable income, increasing socio-economic inclusion of rural and deprived in mainstream economy, heightened manufacturing innovation to create customised products to meet the needs of all income segments, changing disease prevalence pattern (e.g. early onset of diabetes and heart diseases) and growing awareness among the middle class to focus on early detection and disease prevention are the key drivers for the growth of medical electronics in India.

In other words, there is a great need for manufacturing high-end products in line with quality acceptance of international technical standards. The Medical Devices Safety Bill 2008 provides recommendations in this regards with specific guidelines on testing and calibration requirements for medical devices. There are two important regulatory initiatives being taken in India: a) Separate status to medical devices industry and b) Formation of Regulatory body looking into the standards, accreditations, etc. to facilitate quality healthcare.

Technicians are critical for proper use and operation of medical devices. The Functional Testers of medical devices form a part of the workforce of technical experts who use medical devices. There is a huge potential for increase in the numbers of Functional Testers of medical devices.