In September this year, Medtronic appointed Apollo Hospitals MD Ms Preetha Reddy to the company's board of directors. "Preetha Reddy is one of the world's true pioneers in bringing high-quality healthcare to patients in India and other emerging markets. She will be a valued adviser as we focus on globalizing our company and developing innovative therapies that provide both clinical and economic value to the emerging markets," responded Medtronic.

Ms Reddy has been prominent in the industry and the Indian government's efforts to advance important healthcare issues for a long time. In 2009, she was appointed to serve on the Indo-US CEOs Forum and the Indo-Malaysia CEOs Forum, think tanks created to strengthen bilateral cooperation and trade.

Digging deep to penetrate

Medtronic is working to address the lack of health awareness among the populations in emerging markets. "The barriers in many of the emerging markets are focused on awareness of health conditions and therapies to get patients into the healthcare system, infrastructure to be able to provide healthcare to patients, and training for healthcare providers to be able to utilize or administer various therapies. Medtronic has a number of programs in different countries focused on addressing these barriers," Medtronic informed.

The company is also boosting its local R&D infrastructure and strengthening the product line apart from coming up with innovative patient care models. "As a well-established player in the premium market in Asia, Medtronic intends to be the leading device provider in both the premium and value segments. Our leadership in this market may take many forms, such as through bringing global products to the local market, by building a local R&D infrastructure or through innovative patient care models," said Medtronic. Some of the current efforts are focusing on addressing the infrastructure through training programs for physicians and other healthcare providers that will help remove some of the barriers to access.

Meanwhile, long registration lead time, insufficient reimbursement for advanced medical products and therapies, a much needed referral system between major hospitals and community clinics, and relatively low disease and therapy awareness of patients remain hurdles for the company in markets such as China.