The doctor who invented 18 medical devices by Suzanne Bearne
Consultant Dr Jagdish Chaturvedi is not your typical healthcare professional. He's also an entrepreneur.
Since 2010, Bangalore-based Dr Chaturvedi, has co-invented 18 medical devices to help address inefficiencies he's spotted in the Indian healthcare system.
And he's part of a growing band of professionals who are using their frustrations at work to come up with money-making ideas to solve their problems.
He came up with his first idea before he even qualified in 2008 when he was still training to be a doctor.
Now a fully qualified ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist he remembers the rudimentary conditions in rural India where he learned his craft.
"We were using long mirrors and headlamps to check patients, whereas my hospital had a flat-screen TV and more advanced technology," he recalled in his book, Inventing Medical Devices - A Perspective from India.
Dr Chaturvedi has co-invented medical devices to help address inefficiencies in Indian healthcare
So he came up with the idea of a portable ENT endoscope with a digital camera attached.
But he found that being an entrepreneur was very different from being a doctor.
"Being a doctor and not having training on how to make a product, I really struggled, so I licensed it out to a design firm," he says.
He got full backing from senior professors in the ENT department which was vital as he was missing training days to get out and meet investors. His colleagues had to pick up his work load which, unsurprisingly, caused resentment.
Biodesign
Whilst the ENT endoscopy device was being developed - it launched in 2015 - Dr Chaturvedi applied to study biodesign at Stanford University in the US as part of a fellowship funded by the Indian government.
Dr Chaturvedi has also launched a platform to connect Indian doctors with the innovation industry
On his return, he set up a company focused on bringing more medical devices to market, including a tool to help chronic sinusitis, and a nasal foreign body extractor.
As though that wasn't enough, he also has a sideline as a stand-up comedian, performing a handful of shows a month.
Last year he launched a platform to connect Indian doctors with those working in the innovation industry.
"Bringing tech to the system becomes easier when you're part of it," says Dr Chaturvedi, who has no intention to give up his medical practice.
"My products are not looked at through the eyes of a corporate, they're created from a doctor's perspective, from within."
Getting the message across
In the UK another junior doctor also discovered a gap in the system - and the market.
Dr Lydia Yarlott was frustrated at the time colleagues wasted every shift trying to contact each other to discuss patients or medical information. They were using inefficient, old-style pagers, radios and telephone landlines.
Dr Lydia Yarlott was amazed at how much time colleagues wasted trying to contact each other
Many medical staff resorted instead to using WhatsApp and other messaging apps. But Dr Yarlott says that such platforms are "tools for social media not for clinical healthcare".
"I was astonished to find that it was virtually impossible to get hold of people you needed, even in an urgent situation," recalls Dr Yarlott.
"Patients would be sick on the wards and you couldn't get in touch with anyone to help you. It was a scary feeling."
When she mentioned the daily struggles staff were facing to Philip Mundy, an entrepreneur, one evening after work, they then joined forces to work on a solution.
With fellow doctor Barney Gilbert, they set up Forward Health, a secure messaging app.
"We knew there needed to be system that didn't make you more stressed, and again, as a healthcare professional, it's actually designed and built for you," says Dr Yarlott, who has reduced her hours to four days a week so she can spend more time at Forward Health.
"It was virtually impossible to get hold of people you needed," says Dr Yarlott
Since the firm was founded in 2016, more than 8,000 doctors and nurses across six NHS Trusts have used the platform, which received $3.9m (£3m) in funding last year.