How has imaging in healthcare evolved over the years?
| Bernd Montag |
Let me just touch on three aspects: Quality, speed and accessibility. Talking about quality, earlier, clinical images were pictures of shady grey, thus very difficult to read. 3D imaging, functional imaging or visualising molecular information was unthinkable. Today, we are close to delivering a ‘digital copy’ of the patient, showing structures of less than one millimetre in high resolution and 3D.
But I’m not only talking about reading images, we also offer equipment for image-guided therapies. For example, our angiography system, Artis zee enables surgeons to perform minimally-invasive interventions such as trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) through image-guidance, replacing conventional invasive surgeries. In terms of speed, we are currently living a world, where our flagship CT Somatom Definition Flash is performing a heart scan in a split second. Ten years ago, we would not have even dared to dream of this.
Finally, accessibility has significantly improved. Today, millions of people in the emerging markets like India have access to clinical imaging, which is also a result of more affordable imaging solutions. And this trend will continue, Siemens will come up with better, faster and more affordable solutions in clinical imaging.
What are the disease and patient trends shaping the imaging industry, in India and globally?
According to the United Nations, average life expectancy in India, during the 1950s, was less than 40 years. By the year 2000, life expectancy had gone up to an average of 64 years. By the mid of this century, Indians will live more than 75 years. So you can say that within 100 years, average life expectancy in India will have almost doubled!
This is pretty impressive and outstanding globally, even if the trend of living longer is of course a global one. This increase in life years comes with a change in disease patterns: With growing age the likelihood of chronic diseases in the area of cardiology, oncology and neurology increases. So the task for the imaging industry is to help doctors provide high quality diagnosis at the earliest possible stage, leading to efficient and effective therapies.
How has India’s imaging market grown in the past decade?
Global market growth in the last couple of years was between three to five per cent per year and India’s was definitely higher.
Which of your division’s products are most attuned to India’s healthcare needs?
We would not be the market leader in India, if most of our products were not suitable for the local market. For instance, our factory in Goa very successfully targets the special requirements of our Indian customers. In the high-end segment we see a great demand for our products. For example, we have sold Artis Zeego, a cath lab with the world’s first robotic C-arm.
Another example, which I just touched on, is the world’s fastest CT scanner, Somatom Definition Flash, which has been installed at quite a few health institutes in India. Biggest growth, ofcourse takes place in the middle segment. Our MRI system, Magnetom Essenza, explicitly addresses this market and due to its great price-performance-ratio it is now the best selling MRI system in India. In the course of Siemens Healthcare’s two-year innovation and competitiveness programme, Agenda 2013, we explicitly target further innovation in the middle segment to increase accessibility for our products.
Since the beginning of the Agenda 2013, we introduced a CT, an MRI, an X-ray and an ultrasound system that offer a very compelling balance between image quality and investment budget. We may see more of this at the RSNA Congress.
Tell us the rationale behind the Siemens and HCG collaboration to set up a Centre of Excellence for cancer care. Any more such collaborations in the pipeline?
The idea behind this is to give some kind of an organisational framework to our collaboration with one of our leading customers in Asia. At the end of the day, Siemens Healthcare is translating customer requirements based on clinical needs into products and solutions. The better we understand these requirements, the more successful we can be in this translation.
We believe both sides are winning in such collaborations: Our customers give us ideas based on their clinical expertise, and we present our ideas based on our technical expertise on how clinical work-flows could be improved.
So, this is truly a win-win-win-situation: The customers win through our input, we win through customer input and most importantly, the patient wins! We have a number of Centres of Excellence around the globe.
What are the unique opportunities and challenges in Indian healthcare market vis-à-vis the global market?
Due to its sheer size, the Indian market is a challenge in itself. This applies of course to the number of people and to the fact that India is a continent. Besides, the diversity of the Indian market is quite unique. On one hand, you have high-class hospitals with the same requirements as any teaching hospital in the US or Germany. On the other hand, there is a vast and fast growing market for entry and mid-level products.
We try to serve both markets with innovations that cater for quality, effectiveness and price-efficiency. We have more than 1,000 software developers in Bangalore, who contribute in achieving our business goals. I have just been there and was truly impressed by the quality and speed of our teams…
What are the learning lessons for India from the global market?
I believe there is no specific one or two specific lessons, India can learn from the global market. India certainly has great potential for the development of almost all industries. However, like most countries in the world, India too is facing the challenges of the current economic environment. The Indian Government is very ambitious to establish a modern healthcare system for its vast population. This is an effort that deserves the highest respect. Siemens has deep roots in India and we would feel honoured to help India on its way to implement an efficient and effective healthcare system.
What are the immediate policies or steps to enhance access to affordable imaging solutions in India?
Government rules and laws are always the result of the specific circumstances in the respective country, so it’s difficult to tell as a foreigner, what should be done. In general, what has proved to be efficient and effective is open competition and a predictable, stable, long-term business environment making it possible to plan and invest in business activities.
How can your division play a role in alleviating the concern of healthcare access in the country?
Just one year ago, our Siemens’ President and CEO, Peter Loescher proudly donated another Sanjeevan mobile clinic, this time to Medanta, one of India’s largest speciality institutes located in Gurgaon. The previous one was donated to Smile Foundation in Madhepura, Bihar. Sanjeevan mobile clinic was an initiative started by Siemens India to help improve the accessibility and affordability of healthcare services in the interiors of India.
Apart from our corporate citizenship programme, we are fostering our R&D efforts to come up with highly innovative and at the same time more cost-efficient imaging equipment. Last year, we introduced our digital X-ray system Multix Select DR, which is about one third less at cost than its predecessor. And as I already said, we may see more in the line of accessible innovations at this year’s RSNA congress in the US.
What are Siemens Healthcare Imaging & Therapy Systems Division’s future plans for India?
The direction for our business in India is clear north. We are ready to grow! We are very confident that we can do this with our unique offering in the high-end segment and we will develop more and more products for the fast growing mid-level market. Talking about partnerships I can only say: I am open for discussions – any time!