Cooperate with India

GE MAC 400 ElectrocardiogramFrugal Innovations in IndiaGE Medical Systems Group in 2008 launched an affordable, portable Electro Cardio Gram (ECG)machine - ‘MAC 400’ for rural India at one tenth the cost and one third the weight of previousunits. MAC 400 priced at around $800 delivers ECG reports for less than a dollar! The machineweighing 7 lb compares with a large 65 lb. machine which sells in the USA for over $10,000. Themachine uses just four buttons, unlike the usual dozen, and has an inbuilt tiny portable printer,which makes it small enough to fit in the physician’s backpack. It runs on batteries for up to a weekor 100 ECGs on a single charge enabling cardiac assessments even in rural areas, thus making itaccessible to a larger section of society.GE Healthcare engineers combined technology and creativity to develop the device appropriatefor the Indian market. The engineers who worked on this challenging project had to squeeze thetechnology used in a 15 lb ECG machine costing 5.4 million dollars and which took 3 and a halfyears to develop, into a portable device that would weigh less than three pounds and can be heldwith one hand, to be developed in 18 months for just 60% of its wholesale cost.The engineers adopted some natural cost advantages. The new device has lower material costs,uses less plastic and sports a smaller LCD screen. The labor cost was reduced considerably as eightof the nine engineers were based in India. For the machine’s printer, the team adapted the oneused in bus terminal kiosks in India. A commercially available chip was purchased at one-fourththe price instead of the conventional procedure followed - to customize processing chips whichrequires 18-week advance order.Other in house products like portable ultrasound machine, semi-portable ECGs in the ‘90s withoutdated technology were studied to understand low-cost source for technology and printerjamming problems. Plastic mold prototypes were cut far earlier in the process than usual, whichenabled early feedback from doctors. Software algorithm was simplified to reduce the memoryit was drawing and the battery was modified to prevent wear-out problems when stalled atdistributor’s outlets.In addition to being an illustration for creativity and technology innovation, this compact devicehas now become a case study in reverse innovation; a strategy of innovating in developingmarkets, and selling them in developed world. This ECG machine, very successful in rural India,was launched as an improved version a year later in 2009 in US as MAC 800.32