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India’s medtech story is often told as one of scale, of a system racing to keep up with one of the world’s largest and most complex disease burdens. Over the past decade, it has made undeniable strides. Yet, there’s a pressing constraint – when it comes to advanced medical devices, the ecosystem is held back by gaps in supply chains, high-tech infrastructure, and specialised manufacturing. 

Across our hospitals, this reality plays out in a familiar way. Our most critical devices are either imported, or domestically produced as affordable versions of foreign technologies. Access improves, but the underlying design remains built for healthcare systems that look very different from India’s. 

Siraj Dhanani, co-founder of InnAccel, adds another layer to this insight – that even if Indian companies do manufacture high-end devices, they mostly remain low-cost versions of foreign technologies. That’s the precise gap that InnAccel is looking to fill. 

InnAccel was launched in 2015 with the aim to innovate medical devices that delivered intelligent healthcare solutions that identify challenges faced by hospitals in India, build new technologies for those specific contexts, and focus on innovation rather than simple, low-cost replication. 

Why country-wise comparison of healthcare systems is not enough 

Dhanani notes that devices such as stents, sutures, ECG machines, or imaging systems are often manufactured domestically with the primary goal of reducing price and improving access.

While this approach has helped expand availability, it has rarely addressed a deeper structural problem: many medical devices used in India are originally designed for healthcare systems in Western countries. These systems typically operate with stronger infrastructure, more specialised personnel, and standardised hospital environments. When such devices are introduced into the Indian healthcare system, even at lower cost, they may not function effectively because they assume infrastructure or operational conditions that do not exist in many hospitals.

The central challenge is not simply cost, but a combination of limited infrastructure and uneven availability of trained healthcare personnel. 

The mismatch between device design and healthcare system realities creates a situation where improving access through cost reduction alone does not fully solve the problem.

Where InnAccel changes the game 

InnAccel’s devices reduce dependence on specialised equipment and infrastructure and intensive manual monitoring — two prominent challenges in India’s healthcare ecosystem. They have three devices: 

1. VapCare, an automated oral hygiene management system that addresses the challenge of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia, a serious lung infection that can develop after more than 48 hours of ventilation caused by bacteria entering the lungs from the mouth or stomach. The device automates the suctioning and clearance of these tubes to significantly reduce mortality, as well as patient-caregiver interaction and bedside time. 
2. Saans, an infrastructure-independent, multi-therapy system for newborns to provide them non-invasive breathing support. Owing to in-built air sources and in-built battery back ups, Saans is suitable for hospital as well as transport settings. 
3. Fetal Lite, an AI-powered fetal monitor that addresses the lack of efficient fetal monitors beyond well-equipped hospitals. This is portable and wireless to expand access to low-resource settings.

These have led to the treatment of over 2,75,000 patients, including 2,00,000 newborn babies with Saans. Deploying over 3,000 of its devices across 700 Indian hospitals, the company has also partnered directly with state governments and public health programmes to integrate its devices into hospital systems, allowing healthcare facilities with limited infrastructure to provide advanced treatment that was previously unavailable outside specialised centres.

Specific deployments, too, have shown significant improvements in clinical outcomes.