Physicians and engineers: boosting communication

         Observing the experiences acquired from an engineer studying to become a physician, a question comes to mind: how ally the acknowledgments from two areas apparently and practically too different? Some institutions are promoting symposiums to find a link between medical doctors and engineers aiming to achieve a better communication and consequently develop better projects in the future.

        The main issue consists in two different mindsets; while surgeons are looking for solutions to improve their acquired skills, engineers are trying to be more innovative developing devices with new capabilities able to accomplish the same task. The fact is that the medical expectation is different from the engineered progress. The engineers have a challenge between the innovation and the conventional medical practice.

        According to Dan Buckland, an engineer who is training to become a physician, communication between physicians and engineers can be sometimes a little noisy because of the way they are trained: “Engineers learn to always approach a problem from first principles, whereas physicians are trained to see problems from a categorical view”. This happens due to their distinct training, point of view and also because of their experiences and perspectives.

        Improving communication between both parts will drive to an optimum way of finding solutions. To work in cooperation, surgeons should realize that engineers are trained to solve problems by optimizing the results and they are not going to consider “surgeons’ way of doing” as optimal. Likewise, the experience of senior and junior surgeons is essential to help engineers to design innovative products to save lives and assist surgical procedures to become faster and more efficient.

References:http://medgadget.com/2012/08/how-surgeons-and-engineers-can-communicate-better.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Medgadget+%28Medgadget%29

Brazilian Reinforced Medtech Market

The already high-growth medtech market of Brazil has been reinforced by the announcement of a stimulus package for national medical technology companies and hospitals. President Dilma Rousseff published on Wednesday 27^th measures focused on the government acquisitions of equipment and capital goods for the healthcare system, reassuring the expectancy of this particular market to reach $20 billion by 2015 in Brazil.

Healthcare equipment manufactured by Brazilian companies will have preference on public orders, with a preference margin of 8% to 25% over the price of imported equipment. Moreover, special credit from the Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) will be available for the states and cities to modernize the health service, from the basic to the most complex concerns.

Brazil has the largest economy and largest medical device market in Latin America. With the implementation of these practices, an impact of R$ 2 billion and creation of 5 thousand jobs is expected, apart from the collection of R$ 50 million in taxes.

References: http://www.mddionline.com/blog/devicetalk/brazil-announces-medtech-stimulus ,

http://saudeweb.com.br/30781/dilma-assina-pacote-que-favorece-a-producao-nacional-em-compras-publicas/ .

Brazilian private and public health system coverage growth

Brazilian health insurance market has reached revenues of  US$ 41 billion in 2011, increasing 11.7% over 2010, according to the National Health Agency (ANS).

The number of people covered by health insurance increased 4.3% and reached 47.6 million in December (about 25% of the brazilian population).

There were 1,600 health insurance operators in Brazil by the end of 2011. Three major health insurance groups - Amil, Bradesco and Intermédica - have approximately 13 million customers, which means nearly 30% of the 47.6 million users.

Following the same growth trend, SUS (Brazilian Public National Health Care System) has coverage of about 63% of the brazilian population and carries out 75% of the high-complexity procedures, playing a very important role in the entire health care chain in Brazil.

Although still representing around 1.2% of world medical products market, data indicates a growth rate above the world average in Brazil, while the government has been creating several incentives for the development of domestic medical products industry.

Sources: http://www.blog.saude.gov.br, http://saudeweb.com.br/29827/convenios-medicos-faturam-r-834-bilhoes-117-a-mais/, http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br.

Intellectual Property in Brazil

Intellectual Property in Brazil

Much of the work done at Biokyra is related to the protection of intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to patents, copyrights and trademarks that can be bought or sold. The laws regulating them try to balance the interests of creators who wish to gain greater control over their ideas and take advantage of them, and the rest of society, calling for a greater flexibility of control.

A patent, in its classic formulation, is a public concession, granted by the State, which grants the holder the exclusive right to commercially exploit his creation. However, access is available to the public on the knowledge of the key points and the claims that characterize the novelty in the invention. The exclusive rights granted by the patent relate to the right to prevent others from manufacturing, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the said invention.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT was signed on June 19, 1970 in Washington, in order to develop the patents and technology transfer systems. The PCT provides basically a means of cooperation between industrialized and developing countries. By October 2009 there were 142 countries signatories to the PCT.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an intergovernmental organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations Organizations, and is responsible for the PCT. The PCT aims to simplify the necessary procedures in the case of a request for patent protection in several countries, making more effective and economic for both the user and for the government agencies in charge of the patent system administration. Brazil is a signatory to the PCT since 1978.

Biokyra has its own team to write patent applications and to monitor the process of obtaining intellectual property. 

Minimally Invasive Surgeries

The global market for minimally invasive devices and instruments has been growing at a high rate 7.9% between 2011 and 2016, when it is expected to reach US$21.1 billion worldwide.

Minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) have been performed in the United States and in Europe for more than 10 years. Since then, techniques and instruments have improved and nowadays many organs can be operated through minimally invasive surgery. 

MIS is performed without the need for a large incision in the patient. It is performed through natural orifices or by small incisions through which tubes, catheters or laparoscopes are inserted, and by imaging techniques such as video-endoscopy or fluoroscopy, allowing the surgeon to access the sick region. 

This classification also includes prostheses and devices that can be implanted by minimally invasive techniques.

Some of the advantages of MIS are:

• Accelerated and less traumatic recovery for patients;
• Faster procedures for physicians;
• Lower costs for hospitals;
• Lower costs for health insurance companies;
• High value added products for the industries;
• Increased number of people served in the society.

Does Medical Device industry need start-ups to continue the innovation process?

Big companies seek innovation and efficiency to meet the market demands that is always running in a high competitiveness environment, meanwhile the start-ups with good ideas and solutions need to ensure economic survival to bring their products to market.

In a global scenario, and with specific knowledge of the brazilian market, brazilians start-ups gain notoriety not only due to challenges such as risk taking in business, but also by bringing to market the benefits of their innovative ideas. This business model has drawn attention of big companies.

Start-ups do not have the strong, hard and slow structures a big company has. The creative environment and people who can generate new ideas make possible to make mistakes and try again fast and agile.

Typically, start-ups must focus on one idea at a time; however, if that first idea is not as disruptive as first hoped, the end of that idea could also be the end of the company. Those that do survive often form the backbone of larger corporations’next-generation offerings, through acquisition or licensing.

Despite the crucial role that start-ups play in the medical technology industry, the current economic climate cannot be overlooked. Continuing the trend of previous years, in the USA in 2011 we have seen a decline in early stage investment in medical technology start-ups. The investment that has been made has focused on start-ups whose technologies are perceived to have a simpler regulatory pathway to market. The most complex regulatory pathways are often associated with complex technology areas (for example, in vivo imaging and surgical implants) and one could argue that it is these areas that most need disruptive technologies.

For their part, the more progressive medical corporations continue to recognize the importance of these smaller companies (approximately 73% of the United States’ 5300 medical device companies had a head-count of less than 20 in 2007) and many are taking a more collaborative approach to fostering new technologies. Rather than buying an idea outright before significant development has occurred, they are working with start-ups to bring products closer to market through equity or resource investment.

That could be also a great way and opportunity to develop the domestic brazilian medical device industry, that it, working with start-ups to bring products closer to market through equity or resource investment.

To read more about it, please, visit: http://medtechinsider.com/archives/26930

Patent granting in Brazil

A patent is a form of intellectual property granted to an inventor for a limited period of time. The procedure for granting patents varies widely from country to country, but it usually requires novelty and non-obviousness. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission.

Granting patents is important to promote invention, once that developing new products, for example, takes time and money. If there is little opportunity to benefit from the initial investment, then inventors and companies won’t focus on creating new products.

In Brazil, the law 9.279, of 1996, establishes the rights and duties concerning to patents. According to Isaias Masiero Filho, one of the founders of Biokyra, obtaining right over a patent is extremely important for those who work on the development of new products because it protects the inventor and guarantees the return on the investment made in the initial phases.

The INPI (National Institute of Intellectual Property) is the office responsible for analyzing patent applications. In Brazil the application can be issued by the inventor him/herself, but it is highly recommended to have the orientation of a lawyer because the process involves several deadlines and documents. The average application fee in Brazil is R$200 (US$108).

To know more about patent granting in Brazil, check out the following websites:

http://www.revistagestaoenegocios.com.br/gestao-motivacao/33/artigo225232-1.asp

http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php/english