Title: Can similar technology work for US homecare and emerging market rural healthcare?

Authors: Sivakumar Alur

Addresses: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IO), Department of Product Innovation Management, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract: The US home healthcare has resulted in the development of several point-of-care devices. Such devices have relevance in rural areas of emerging markets. Rural contexts in many emerging countries present a challenge for healthcare services delivery. Doctor-focused and hospital-centric healthcare is not available to rural citizens. Rural residents spend a huge amount of money and time for availing healthcare services. Moreover, suspect healthcare quality requires an alternative for rural healthcare. Home healthcare devices can be useful for disease detection, treatment, monitoring and control. However, device-makers cannot directly transfer them to emerging markets. This paper aims to detail medical device-makers about the opportunity in emerging markets highlighting the commonalities with developed markets. It cautions home healthcare device marketers on challenges they could face in this endeavour.

Keywords: home healthcare; rural healthcare; point-of-care devices; information technology; home care; emerging economies; developing countries; emerging markets; medical devices; medical device manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2011.043299

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2011 Vol.7 No.3, pp.266 - 275

Published online: 21 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article