A vascular neurology conference held recently in Calcutta brought doctors and medical equipment manufacturers together so that each group better understands the needs of the other.
The conference — Neurohackathon: Core Lab to Cath Lab — saw two engineers from the US and several Indian medical equipment manufacturers interact with neurologists in the city to understand the requirements of hospitals using equipment to treat Indian patients with neurovascular problems.
“To understand the needs of doctors and engineers, such face-to-face interactions were long due. We could explain to the engineers who design neuro equipment our specific needs, which is always not possible otherwise,” said Kaushik Sundar, consultant stroke neurologist at the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, where the conference was held.
“In case of cerebral angiography, we have to pierce the groin and insert the catheter through it. The patient requires to stay admitted in hospital for at least a day. But if the procedure is done through the hand, then day-care admission will be enough. This will reduce the cost, too,” said Sundar.
However, he said, good equipment for cerebral angiography through hand is not easily available in India. “Representatives of US manufacturers promised to bring it to India,” he said.
Shyam Kuppurathanam, country head (India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) for Penumbra Inc, which makes products that “address challenging medical conditions”, said there was earlier a disconnect between doctors and manufacturers but the conference brought them together.
“We usually get biased feedback from a small group of experts about the needs for doctors. But at the conference, even budding neurologists were present and we got feedbacks from them, too,” said Kuppurathanam.
Gobindo Pramanik, consultant interventional neuroradiologist at the RN Tagore hospital, said the research and development teams of medical equipment manufacturers explained at the conference where to use an instrument and where not to use it, to reduce waste.
