Medical device makers

The machines in the hospital, from the artificial hip and the surgical robot to the monitor at the bedside

Back to the grandmother in Texas from Market Segment 24.1, Hospital operations software, and her hip operation. The artificial hip in her body is a medical device. So is the robot arm that may have helped place it. After the operation, more devices surrounded her: the monitor over her bed, the pump that fed her medicine, and the sterilizer that cleaned the instruments for the next patient.

This last Market Segment of Industry Vertical 24 covers the medical devices themselves:

the pacemaker, which keeps the heart beating steadily, and the stent, a tiny tube that holds a blood vessel open
the knee or hip implant, and the surgical robot
the insulin pump, and the machine for sleep apnoea, where breathing stops again and again during sleep
the infusion pump, which feeds medicine into a vein, and the sterilizer

The devices around one patient: implants and surgery include the artificial hip (Smith+Nephew, Zimmer Biomet), the robot arm (Stryker, Intuitive, Meril), the pacemaker and stent (Medtronic, Boston Scientific) and the insulin pump (MiniMed); care at the bedside includes the monitor (Spacelabs Healthcare), the infusion pump (BD, ICU Medical), the sterilizer (STERIS, Advanced Sterilization Products) and the CPAP machine (Resmed).

Their makers are among the largest companies in medicine. Most of them run engineering centres in India. There, engineers build the software inside the devices, the apps connected to them, and the systems used to design, test and track them. The buyers are hospitals, clinics and patients.

The same manufacturing appears in its general form elsewhere. Devices sold to consumers are covered in Market Segment 36.1, Smart home appliances and consumer electronics (in Industry Vertical 36, Electronics and devices). Parts made for device makers are covered in Market Segment 37.7, On-demand manufacturing and 3D printing (in Industry Vertical 37, Manufacturing tech).

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

This Market Segment has two sub-segments:

Implants and surgery: devices placed inside the body, and the robots and tools used in the operation.

Care at the bedside: the monitors, pumps, sterilizers and therapy devices of the ward and the home.

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Implants and surgery
Care at the bedside

Implants and surgery

Cardiac and vascular devices, orthopaedic implants and robotics, surgical robots, dental aligners and CAD/CAM, diabetes devices

The heart and diabetes

Medtronic

with engineers in Hyderabad and Pune, has the most job postings in this Market Segment. It is the world's largest medical-device company. It makes pacemakers, stents, spine devices, and neuromodulation devices, which send electrical pulses to nerves. Its Hyderabad engineering centre is one of its largest outside America.

MiniMed

Medtronic's diabetes business, with engineers in Pune, makes insulin pumps and glucose sensors.

Stryker

with engineers in Delhi and Bengaluru, and Boston Scientific, with engineers in Pune, make orthopaedic, surgical and heart devices. Orthopaedic means to do with bones and joints.

Bones and joints. Back to the grandmother's artificial hip.

Smith+Nephew

with engineers in Pune, Zimmer Biomet, Arthrex India, with engineers in Pune, and Globus Medical, with engineers in Chennai, make orthopaedic implants. They also make the robots and navigation systems that guide the surgeon in placing them.

The surgical robot

Intuitive

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes the da Vinci surgical robot, through which a surgeon operates using small instruments controlled from a console.

India's own maker

Meril

the Indian device maker, with engineers in Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, makes heart valves, stents, orthopaedic implants and a surgical robot of its own.

Teeth

Align Technology

with engineers in Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru, makes Invisalign: clear plastic braces, 3D-printed to fit each patient's teeth. It also makes the iTero scanners that capture the shape of the teeth.

Glidewell Dental

with engineers in Chennai, makes dental restorations, such as crowns and bridges, and the printers and milling machines that make them in the dentist's office.

Care at the bedside

Patient monitors, infusion pumps, sleep and respiratory therapy, wound care, sterilisation, defibrillators, rehabilitation and sensory devices

Back to the grandmother's bed after her operation, from the start of this Market Segment.

Monitors and emergencies

Spacelabs Healthcare

with engineers in Hyderabad, makes monitors for the bedside, and ambulatory monitors that a patient wears while moving about. (It also appears in Market Segment 22.6, Remote patient monitoring (RPM).)

Heartstream

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes defibrillators, which shock a failing heart back into rhythm.

Drips and injections

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes syringes, infusion systems and diagnostic products.

BD (Tissuemed Ltd)

is a second name of the same company.

ICU Medical

makes infusion pumps.

West Pharmaceutical Services

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes the containers and delivery systems for injectable medicines.

Sterilising and the operating theatre

STERIS

with engineers in Pune, and Advanced Sterilization Products, with engineers in Bengaluru, make the sterilizers that clean surgical instruments between operations. STERIS also makes industrial autoclaves, which sterilise with steam under pressure. (For those, it also appears in Market Segment 37.5, Industrial machinery and robotics, in Industry Vertical 37, Manufacturing tech.)

Getinge

makes equipment for operating theatres and intensive care.

Therapy on the ward and at home

Resmed

with engineers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, makes CPAP machines for sleep apnoea. A CPAP machine keeps the airway open with gentle air pressure. Each night, the machine reports to the doctor through Resmed's cloud.

Solventum

the healthcare company that was separated from 3M, with engineers in Bengaluru, makes therapy for healing wounds. It also makes Fluency, software that helps doctors write their clinical notes.

Eyes, ears and recovery

Alcon

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes equipment for eye surgery, and lenses.

Natus Sensory

makes devices that screen newborn babies' hearing and eyes.

BTL India

makes physiotherapy and heart equipment.

Rymo

with engineers in Mumbai, makes robotic devices for rehabilitation, which help patients recover movement. They are built in India.

Three companies covered mainly in other Market Segments bring parts and sensors:

Dexcom Deutschland GmbH

with engineers in Bengaluru. (More on it in Market Segment 22.6, Remote patient monitoring (RPM).)

Halma

which is here for its medical sensors. (More on it in Market Segment 37.6, Connectors and industrial sensors, in Industry Vertical 37, Manufacturing tech.)

Motherson Health & Medical

with engineers in Bengaluru, which is here for making medical parts for other companies.

Motherson Health & Medical is covered mainly in Market Segment 37.7, On-demand manufacturing and 3D printing (in Industry Vertical 37, Manufacturing tech). Align Technology and Glidewell Dental also appear there.

The device that is mostly software.

A modern pacemaker, insulin pump or surgical robot is as much software as hardware. It is connected to an app and a cloud, and updated after it is implanted. Every change is regulated, because the device is a medical device. India's device centres write much of that software. The regulators' rules for AI inside devices are the frontier the companies here are working towards.

The device that is mostly software: a pacemaker, pump or surgical robot is connected to an app and a cloud and updated after it is implanted, and every change is regulated because it is a medical device (Medtronic, Resmed, Intuitive).

So the grandmother from the start of this Market Segment was surrounded by devices, inside her body and around her bed. Much of the software that runs them, from the hip-placing robot to the monitor, is written in India.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What hospital, diagnostics and medical device companies hire for.

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