Health awareness fuels growth of clinical diagnostic laboratories in India

A sharp rise in health awareness has given a boost to the growth of diagnostic laboratories and other health facilities, which in turn have indicated a progressive growth of India's $35 billion healthcare industry.

Currently there are over 12,000 hospitals and 15,000 diagnostic laboratories contributing extensively to the overall healthcare delivery market in India.

"70 percent of medical decisions are based on the diagnostic tests. This is clearly a driving force. This fact was there even earlier also. What has happened now is because of healthcare awareness both amongst patients...and they are extremely demanding and now they can afford it as there income levels going up. All these factors come in together are leading to the increase in the diagnostic tests," said Dr OP Manchanda, chief executive officer, Dr Lal Path Labs Ltd New Delhi.

The coming up of high-tech path labs in two-tier and small towns in India has made the domestic and foreign-based manufacturers of diagnostic products and instruments, a happy lot.

"Most of the fully automated platforms are all imported, so there is nothing manufactured in the country which is one of the worries for India today. If India wants to become self-reliant there has to be lot of manufacturing initiatives to make our testing more cost effective in the country," said Dr GSK Velu, managing director, Metropolis Health Services (I) Limited, Chennai.

Medical devices supply market in India is expected to grow from $1.19 billion in 2008 to $1.70 billion in 2010.By 2012, it is estimated to reach Rs2.78 billion.

According to a survey report on Indian medical care industry, India spends 5.10% of GDP on healthcare.