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India is key focus of GE's low-cost healthcare products which showcases at the annual meeting of Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2009 ).

An ECG device that has the potential to reduce the cost of an ECG to less than that of a bottle of mineral water, a laptop ultrasound and a lullaby warmer for infants. These and many other innovations developed in India or made for India and other emerging markets were showcased by GE healthcare.

Part of GE Healthcare 's "healthymagination" initiative designed to lower costs, finding better ways to see more inside the human body and help deliver better healthcare, the new products were on display at the just concluded annual show of the Radiological Society of North America ( RSNA 2009 ).

The key word is adaptation, says V Raja, President and CEO South Asia. "Unlike others who just import and distribute, we have traditionally been a company which is focused on importing as well as making products locally in the market."

"In terms of technology, what we have developed in the western world is brought into India at almost simultaneous times as it gets launched providing access to the latest available technology."

"This is supplemented by making products in the local market at affordable prices and technology without the bells and whistles by indigenising to the extent possible without compromising clinical outcomes," Raja said.

"Then you have to make the products that work in conditions in India with all the infrastructural bottlenecks that we have," he said. "An ability to adapt to give customers what they need at lower cost and an ability to service them almost round the clock as also train them is probably our unique advantage."

"That's the essence of how we go about making products," Raja said recounting how growing constantly over the last five six years, the Indian unit earns about $500 million in revenue, almost half of it in sales in the export market and half in India."

One such product just launched in India is GE Healthcare 's new "MAC i" that brings cost of quality cardiac early detection down to Rs 9 - less than the price of a bottle of mineral water. The first MAC i unit was donated to HelpAge India to screen elderly people in rural areas.

Source: GE healthcare

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