SAN FRANCISCO – Medical innovation in India is being enabled through a unique collaborative program at Stanford University, the directors of the program told an audience at the Commonwealth Club here Aug. 29.

Dr. Rajiv Doshi and Anurag Mairal, executive director and associate director, respectively, of Stanford-India Biodesign, said fellows from India in the program are returning to India with the skills necessary to start companies targeted for India’s healthcare needs.

Mairal briefed the audience on the healthcare climate in India. He pointed out that “60 percent of the world’s cardiac patients will be in India by 2015” and that the country “is one of the diabetes capitals of the world.”

An infinitesimal amount of healthcare-related revenues are invested by into research and development in India compared to the U.S., he added.

Director of Global Exchange Programs at Stanford and co-founder and executive vice president of Orbees Medical, a consulting firm for the U.S. medical device sector, Mairal said another problem is that medical devices in India are still regulated by the Drug Controller General of India.

A bill currently in Parliament, the Medical Devices Regulation Bill, is the best hope to separate medical device regulation from drug oversight, the Indian American added.

Doshi detailed the Stanford-India Biodesign program and its success stories. The program is a partnership between Stanford University and the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in partnership with the Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum.

Internships, offered at the AIIMS SIB Center annually, are very competitive and geared to researchers, scholars and potential entrepreneurs who have an interest in the early-stage development in India of medical devices.

The fellowships, which begin in January, are split between Stanford and India. Fellows must commit to remaining in India at the end of the program with the aim to either return to academia to develop biodesign-related programs, found health-related firms or join medical technology companies.

Doshi is founder and chief scientific officer of Ventus Medical, a Belmont, Calif.-based medical device firm that markets products for obstructive sleep apnea. The devices can be used in India and get around the issue of interruption of electricity.

He said Stanford-India Biodesign also sponsors faculty exchanges and Webinars and holds the annual Indian Medtech Summit in Delhi.

A collaboration with the Lunar Design company has developed a bone drill used to access marrow and the vascular system inside bones when a patient’s veins have collapsed or are inaccessible.

The device, which has been tested on cadavers in India, can be used when a patient needs IV treatment while in heavy traffic in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

The product was designed to be inexpensive, disposable, have a low-part count, be easily assembled, capable of being used by a poorly trained person and able to be made cheaply in India.

Jaipur Foot has also worked with Stanford-India Biodesign to develop a "$20 knee," Mairal said.

In a third collaboration, D-Rev has developed a product that provides affordable phototherapy treatment for neonatal jaundice.

Doshi said that one change India needs to implement is the amount of money available for medical-device and other healthcare start-ups.

Companies can scrape together funding ranging from $200,000 to $300,000, but above that “there is virtually nothing,” he said.

The Aug. 29 program, “Medical Technology Innovation for India,” was part of the Commonwealth Club’s extensive “India NOW” series in the month of August.

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