Of the six products and research prototypes showcased at the Philips Innovation Centre here , two cutting-edge innovations by healthcare major Royal Philips hold tremendous technological promise, particularly when it comes to addressing key challenges of the Indian healthcare sector.

One, a compact, portable ultrasound solution, which comprises no more than a small hand-held transponder paired with an off-the-shelf Android-powered tablet; titled VISIQ Ultrasound system, the intelligence of the device lies in a miniature application specific integrated circuit in the hand-held transducer, which is plugged into a standard tablet device through a USB port. Priced at Rs.10.50 lakh for a standard device (cost may go up to Rs.13 lakh for value-add apps), the device is a good 50 per cent cheaper than devices delivering comparable functionality, said Krishna Kumar Ananthasubramaniam, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Philips India. Two, a handheld device to conduct a routine ECG, which crunches the probe inputs to give an interpretation of the test that is easily readable by general practitioners.

At Rs. 25,000, this too is priced at about 50 per cent the cost of Philip’s own ECG device. While the VISIQ will be immediately available in the Indian market, the ECG 100 will be launched by the end of 2014. Both devices work off-the-grid making it very suitable for the Indian market, said Jim Andrew, Chief Innovation Officer, Philips. The focus is to address key health issues — one, maternal and infant mortality issues here, and two, fatalities and risks due to cardiovascular diseases which are on the rise here, said Mr. Ananthasubra- maniam.

Both products, made entirely at the Bangalore Innovation Campus, are about innovating to make the device not only radically smaller (both handheld) and truly portable, but also reducing the complexity of using the device. Philips hopes these will make a huge impact, particularly in emerging markets where healthcare access and costs are huge impediments. The research teams are also working on ways to integrate these to the cloud so the results can be shared in an instant and diagnostic support or advice be made easy, the researchers said.

Other product showcased, most of which aren’t market ready yet, included a Mobile Obstetrical Monitoring telehealth mobile application for early high-risk pregnancy detection (in pilot stages), and Solar DC Grid, a LED-based solution.