The burden of coronary artery diseases (CAD) is assuming epidemic proportions in India, contributing to almost a quarter of all deaths in the country. Health innovations that embrace new knowledge and technology possess the potential to revolutionise management of CAD.

A multi-stakeholder effort is needed to promote an enabling ecosystem to incentivise medical breakthroughs and state-of-the-art techniques that have given doctors new tools to improve treatments for heart disease.

As someone who has been a part of evolution of interventional cardiology in India, I feel that a disproportionate focus on cutting costs could lead to regressive steps that disallow the benefits of innovation to people.

Any new or breakthrough research should be valued and embraced for long-term patient well-being. Newer technologies are evolving to deal with conditions that were once considered inoperable.

Here are some examples of the evolution that has happened over the years and how it is positively impacting patient outcomes and quality of patient lives.

To begin with, coronary interventions — also called coronary angioplasties — have come up in a big way and are now done in India at par with standards of the western developed nations.

These procedures need implant of coronary stents. This particular invention has progressed from basic ‘bare metal stent’ to the now-widely-used ‘drug eluting stents’.

The drug eluting stents have undergone a lot of changes and evolved over the last 20-25 years; they are getting finer in terms of the basic structure, polymer coating and the drug used.

With innovation impacting the design, delivery and procedure approaches, there is a new generation stent coming up at an interval of every two-three years.

Innovative medical device companies are using novel designs to make them better suited for a particular case for both short-term and long-term results, giving way to more accurate treatment of multiple complexities and challenges which were suboptimal earlier.

In fact, the newly launched bio-absorbable stents have been devised to suit relatively younger patients to avoid unnecessary metal in the heart. As compared to earlier days, these innovations in stent designs offer more predictability and precision to treatment.

Stents are becoming socially more acceptable and thus unnecessary open heart surgeries are avoided for a lot of patients.

Having said that; all these innovations need a lot of R&D, clinical evaluations, proctoring or implant training sessions, which are to a large extent borne by the stent industry as a cost of innovation.

Making healthcare affordable through price-cutting measures is a welcome move, but the same should not disregard the value of innovative technologies in treating heart patients.

Measures with singular focus on pricing should not be encouraged as they may hamper the investments made in research and innovation which the entire world has embraced. Having done so, we will close the doors to achievable medical treatment goals making us inferior on the world map.

Another life-saving device worth mentioning is the pacemaker that is helping a lot of patients keep up with their lifestyles. It is a small device implanted inside a patient’s body.

The pacemaker technology has evolved from a very primitive stage when they were desk-sized bulky boxes plugged into walls for power to small portable device weighing few grams only — these can be wearable ones, implantable ones or transcatheter ones.

Innovators are working towards making pacemakers even smaller, longer-lasting, improving its functionality in a manner that it almost mimics natural heart beat and suits most of the bodily functions.

Medical device companies have made a constant endeavour to innovate pacing technology over the years. The newer MRI compatible pacemakers are now freely available for use and allow patients to avail a lot of flexibility in treatment with other medical conditions, an option that is not available in case of non-MRI compatible pacemakers.

Furthermore, the newer generation of pacemakers for the weak hearts are making a humongous impact over the quality of life and longevity of these patients. The leadless pacemaker is now a reality after many years of research and clinical evaluation and the product and procedural benefits associated with this invention has transformed outcomes.

These huge revolutionising advances in technology have been devised to improve the treatment related caveats with the earlier pacemakers. This is synonymous with technological advances in any other field such as computers, cars, aviation, etc.

We believe in the doctrine, “Science is Precision” and our thirst for innovation will get the horizons closer.

All innovation, regardless of the sector need a lot of R&D and funding apart from voracious desire. There are still a lot of things which are medically approved and practised currently in the developed world. Indian scientists and developers are attempting to master and bring the art to our soil to address the catastrophic disease burden in our country.

Percutaneous valve surgeries and heart transplants are a few examples. All these treatments are, at present, prohibitively expensive and not aided by the Government like in the developed nations.

Hence, despite the cost involved in these therapies the Indian market should be chiselled to suit their implementations.

Cheaper healthcare is a well-intended target in everyone’s mind, but not at the cost of quality and innovation. Newer and relatively expensive therapies should not be allowed to perish as no one else but the patients will stand at a disadvantage.

The writer is the President of the Cardiologist Society of India