Why Innovation in Rural Areas Matters: The Aura Story
By Arunima Rajan
Dr Kiran Kanthi, the founder of Lifetrons Inno Equipments Private Limited, believes that the solution to competitive quandaries is to build a "blue ocean", an idea suggested initially by INSEAD business professors W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. A blue ocean is a brand new market for an innovative idea, allowing a health device company to avoid competing because it has no direct rivals. How did Dr Kiran Kanthi do it? He focused on the product's characteristics that his rural customers cared about while discarding the characteristics they didn't care about. This has created a new product offering that doesn't currently exist in a space without primary competitors.
Bagalakote is a city in Karnataka, India, which is also the headquarters of the Bagalakote district. It is situated on a branch of River Ghataprabha about 481 km northwest of the state capital Bengaluru. The city's population was 111,933, according to the provisional results of the 2011 national census of India.
Dr Kiran Kanthi, Managing Director of Lifetrons Inno Equipments Private Limited, believes that affordable innovations can come only from places like Bagalakote.
Kanthi hails from a family of doctors and is an anesthesiologist. His own experiences at his clinic made him realize that phototherapy devices for treating neonates are expensive.
The medical device market is more like a red ocean, where fierce competition has stained the water with the blood of the combatants. Kanthi focused on what he calls "value innovation”, an innovation that makes his product unique and superior to the competition that you open up uncontested markets and leave rivals behind.
What is innovation? What is value? Value is the benefit that patients get for their money and while innovation is the uniqueness and originality of the benefit.
Most clinics/hospitals in rural areas can often not afford expensive phototherapy devices, leading to loss of life. After working as a physician for 18 years, Kanthi took the entrepreneurial plunge in 2013. "Our nursing home used to have a NICU, and we used to treat newborns with jaundice. Most of the babies came with complications because many parents stuck to exposing the baby to sunlight. However, it won't solve the issue in all cases. The incidence of jaundice has also increased by twofold these days."
According to studies, "about 50% of term and 80% of preterm babies develop jaundice, which usually appears 2 to 4 days after birth and resolves spontaneously after 1 to 2 weeks. Jaundice is caused by bilirubin deposition in the skin. Most jaundice in newborn infants is a result of increased red cell breakdown and decreased bilirubin excretion.
Kanthi noticed that what would have usually taken two or three days of treatment due to delayed medical care would take around a week or ten days of hospital stay and 8x or 10x hospital expense for low-income families.
The entrepreneur's desire to create an affordable phototherapy device led to the formation of Lifetrons Health and its flagship product, Aura. Aura is a bedside phototherapy device to treat jaundice in babies. It is also a portable phototherapy unit.
Kanthi highlights that a product must be novel enough to stand out from the crowd and reasonable enough that people want to buy it.
He started working on his idea in 2016, and the product was launched in 2018. The product was launched by Amitabh Kant, who had come to inaugurate Sandbox, which Deshpande Foundation ran.
Kanthi is a highly spiritual person and has also named his company inspired by his guru, Paramahansa Yogananda. Autobiography of a Yogi is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893–7 March 1952) published in 1946. "He has coined the term Lifetrons or Jivanu or Prana, which doesn't have similar l words in English. It is only there in Sanskrit or Hindi," adds Kanthi
Considering the Customer's Alternatives
So why should a doctor/clinic choose Aura? Kanthi quotes multiple reasons. "The existing neonatal phototherapy units are costly and bulky. Aura weighs lesser than 3 kilograms. It gives the same wavelength of light as prescribed by WHO/IAP. The device has integrated battery backup. Aura introduces the concept of jaundice treatment without the need for NICU admissions. Healthcare professionals can use it even in the remotest healthcare set up," adds Kanthi.
Weighing Price against Performance
Following are some of the critical features of Aura:
1. Programmable LED unit to set the timer with inbuilt microcontroller.
2. Highly compact in construction hence making it easy to carry with a case.
3. Wavelength 457nm, As per IAP & WHO.
4. It consumes only 20 W of power & has battery backup for up to 2 hours.
5. Zero maintenance
6. It reduces the need for double surface therapy.
7. Height adjustment with flexible head. Highly flexible with gooseneck hood - 360-degree rotation.
8. It is 2 kgs. Highly compact and highly portable.
9. Therapy can be given by the Mother side, maintaining Mother-Baby bonding.
10. LED has a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours, As certified by the manufacturer.
Considering other buyers in the Chain
What is the revenue model of Lifetrons? "Considering the overall B2B market size in India to be close to
2.5 lakhs organizations, and with an average sale of 5 units per organization, we have a market potential of 12.5 lakh units. Lifetrons' Principals are aiming for a 25% market share. However, a 10% market share is assumed for this analysis, spread over 3-5 years. We will work the sales model by dividing the market. Around 100 units have been sold so far. Beyond 2023, the company will strive to maintain growth rates of approx. 25% each year for this product, and well before 2023, it will also broaden its portfolio of medical device offerings," explains Kanthi.
What was the central turning point for Lifetrons? According to Kanthi, it was the tie-up with Deshpande Startups. "Earlier phototherapy devices used to have a height of 6 feet and width of 4 feet, and it used to be around 35-40 kilos. I have brought it down to 2 kilos."
Considering Adding Emotion/Function
Kanthi notes that the significant factor that makes his product unique is that babies need not be separated from mothers during the treatment of jaundice. The device can be carried even to the remotest setup and can run on solar energy.
How does a phototherapy device work? According to ScienceDirect.com,
"Phototherapy units treat hyperbilirubinemia by irradiating the baby with light in the blue region of the spectrum from 420-500 nm (Neuman, 1988a). This light oxidizes the bilirubin in the blood, thus producing compounds that can be eliminated from the body."
Aura is currently being used in six medical colleges, multi-speciality hospitals and private hospitals. "We have sold a hundred devices till now," Kanthi adds.
Kanthi points out that there has not been a single complaint about his device in the last 2/3 years, and the product has been working fine. A redesigned version of the product, Aura 2.0, is set to be launched in the market.