Ideas In Full Bloom

Ideas In Full Bloom

- Manu Balachandran

Nitin Sisodia can claim full credit for the spark of innovation that led to the idea of SOHUM—a low-cost, non-invasive device that screens newborns for hearing impairments. But a part of the credit for developing the idea from concept to market goes to his alma mater, the School of International Biodesign (SIB), and its fellowship director Dr Prashant Jha.

In the past decade, many of Jha’s students have gone on to build medical technology companies, which include Sisodia’s Bengaluru-based Sohum Innovation Labs, Consure Medical that has developed the faecal incontinence management device Qora, Flexi OH that has made a lightweight cast for fractures and Brun Health, known for its lowcost labour monitoring device.

“These companies have managed to raise upwards of $10 million in investor funding,” Jha tells Forbes India. “The belief of the programme [at SIB] is that we should not leave innovation to chance, but to design.”

SIB, located at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is run by a consortium of Indian, Japanese and Australian universities and funded by the ministry of science and technology.