Bosch Healthcare is extending its reach in India. Guruprasad S, General Manager, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, talks to M Meelam Kachhap about technology as an enabler to drive efficient healthcare system, especially in the rural sector
Why did Bosch foray into healthcare?
Bosch’s tagline is ‘Invented for Life.’ We have been around for the last 130 years and have made significant contributions to make life better. We would want to be the technology-enabler partner to bring about a change in healthcare which is needed. Bosch can bring about this change in a very strong and intimate way.
How is healthcare a good fit for an engineering-driven company?
Till date, healthcare mostly has been a service where a close relationship exists between a doctor i.e. the caregiver and another human being i.e. the patient. But, we find that existing doctors or trained care givers are insufficient to cater to the exploding population on earth and this is where a technology player like Bosch can help.
There are various areas where Bosch can make a difference. We spoke about doctor-patient ratio that is heavily skewed. Bosch is an active part of a concept called ‘connected world’ which is basically our network. We believe that the connected world will be inhabited by connected life, which means billions of people who are connected to each other. In this concept, we believe that our technology solution can bring in the fourth multiplier effort to bridge the gap between the physical non-availability of a care giver and sort of virtualise him to make him available to the needy patients.
Can you give us a few examples?
Let’s take the example of healthcare capital investment. Most of the capital investments in countries like India or China is heavily concentrated around an urban establishment i.e. tier-I cities. This automatically means that no investments are possible in areas which are located in semi-urban, rural or remote areas. So, Bosch wants to introduce solutions where compact portable devices, as an addition to capital infrastructure of the city, could somehow help in extending healthcare services to rural setups.
Last but not the least, all of us are aware that healthcare costs only seems to be going up with no possibility of it being affordable to the masses. Bosch wants to bring about an integrated healthcare system. It believes that an integrated healthcare system will enable healthcare services to reach the masses at affordable costs. Again, it would rely on the new emerging concept of Internet of things where billions and billions of devices start talking to each other, exchanging information and bringing the world closer and closer.
How will the healthcare business affect your top line?
Bosch has already made significant investments for research and development on health technology and precision engineering which is required to manufacture these compact sensors. We have made significant headway in bringing this technology to product form. So, investments have already been made, the mind share already exists, all the way from Bosch Board of Management in Germany up to our local management in India and other emerging economies. We believe that this will definitely bring about a change which will add to our volume, i.e. our top line and make significant contributions to our bottom line.
I’m responsible for taking healthcare solutions to emerging economies like India. We are also taking it across the BRIC countries with the vision that ultimately we can bring about some reverse innovation and some of our products will start making inroads into developed countries.
How many people work exclusively for healthcare business in India?
We have the principle company called Bosch Healthcare Systems GMBH in Germany which was found in January 2015. This is a young, entrepreneurial-driven organisation where we have a research and development pool along with the delivery function. In alignment to that, we have a business domain healthcare practice in Bosch India. Today, we have a staff strength of more than 100. Most of them are high-end engineers and research staff. We also have partners who have assisted us in our journey.
Why did you choose eye-care to enter the healthcare market and not IT service solutions?
Bosch, apart from being a technology powerhouse and an engineering powerhouse, has competencies which are far more deeper and wider than just as an IT solution provider. Now, in the business domain healthcare, our team has very clearly designed our solution around leveraging these competencies like embedded hardware and near hardware software. We have the competence to develop application, software on top of it, even to the extent of web, mobile and cloud-based solutions and we want to package the whole thing as one offering, which a typical IT company cannot even dream of. At the lower end of the spectrum, when you are nearing hardware, many of these IT companies have no competence whatsoever to come out with or evolve such solutions. So for example, say a fundus camera which was launched by Bosch India has a physical hardware, physical electronics powered by low-level software are interfaced with various IT applications and information is able to go on the cloud to become accessible wherever it is required.
Could you give us a sense of the market you are looking at in India?
Numbers are still under works. We want to make small inroads in the emerging markets and developing countries. We foresee that by 2020 or 2022 a significant share of Bosch’s total revenue will be contri buted by this business domain.
Could you tell us about the products you have developed?
There are a set of problems that we are working on. We want to address healthcare’s burning issues. Affordable and accessible care is part of our mission. We have significant focus on non-invasive technology to deliver healthcare through smart healthcare solutions.
We recently partnered with Apollo Cradle to launch a maternal and paediatric mobile-based application. Similarly, we are trying to bring out solutions for geriatric care. We have got good traction for it.
We are working together with research institutes, have established a chair at IIS and working closely with them to take cutting-edge research to the market. We believe that these are directions to bring about newer technology to resolve problems of future. Robert Bosch India is a core member of NATHEALTH and one of the active participants in Digital India task force which is underway at NATHEALTH and other industry bodies. We try to give direction to policies for the betterment of people.
Currently, our fundus camera is the only device with the customers, but many more products are lined up to be launched in the coming quarter.
Could you tell us about your product pipeline?
In India, anaemia has emerged as a manifestation of malnourishment. We are developing a non-invasive haemoglobin monitor which can be a valuable enabler to detect anaemia. We are working on a cutting-edge optimal sensor into a product to make it marketable. There are several products in the market but many do not address the core problems of accessibility and affordability. We are working with research establishment on this.
Are you manufacturing your own products or re-branding existing products as Bosch?
We are not acting as a reseller to any company. We source components from our global channels. As far as whether the gadgets we sell is a rebranded product of some other company, I don’t think so. The fundus camera is a Bosch product.
Where is this fundus camera manufactured?
Any product that is branded as Bosch goes through all the processes, quality checks, mandatory certifications, etc. Again, with Bosch being a large multinational company, we have our partners who can give a set of components so that the fabrication can be done at a different location. Many products of Bosch are produced at multiple locations. The sourcing of the components can be done from anywhere in the world.
Is it true that the fundus camera is not made-in-India?
The product per say is conceptualised, designed and sold in India. As Bosch is an MNC, the subcontracting and channels can be world wide. Yes, it does have components coming from various partners, but I’m not aware of the exact fabrication location. I’ll have to check on that.
Are you selling this product in markets other than India?
Currently, we have taken the first steps in India. We may in the future make such forays into other markets but now we are focusing solely on the Indian market.
Has Bosch Healthcare US shut down?
Bosch Healthcare US, basically was an acquisition made by Bosch. Its function was in telemedicine with a specific focus on North America. As of July 1, that organisation has been shut down. We are in the ramp down phase and all further healthcare activity will be under the GMBH umbrella. Bosch has a dedicated focus in healthcare.