Innovation – The way forward in Neonatology and Paediatrics

India is rapidly progressing toward universalization of neonatal care and in many states is progressing towards the sustainable development goals of achieving neonatal mortality rate of 12 per 1000 live births and under –5 mortality to 25 deaths per 1000 live births.^[1] As neonatal mortality falls as a result of public health measures technology needs to step in to accelerate the progress or maintain the tempo. Technology brings with it rapid innovative ideas which are likely to change health care delivery in many ways. This issue of Karnataka Paediatric Journal brings forth a sampling of many innovations in neonatal care which have been done in our country – hopefully stimulating readers to innovate many more.

Innovation can be in many domains. The easiest to understand for clinicians is innovation in clinical care. We present a slew of article by various clinicians who have done a lot of lateral thinking to develop – new instruments such as laryngoscope, breast milk pasteurizer, and a new phototherapy shield. There is an article by Agarwal, Kumar, and Gupta which reviews various low-cost innovations developed by this group. Clinicians need not be restricted to innovations in devices- as the emerging world of smartphones has given rise to many applications (“Apps”) designed by and for doctors which makes clinical decision-making easier. In a cost-conscious country such as India financial innovation in healthcare is the need of the hour as detailed in an article by Kumar. Many a brilliant idea has died a natural death unless it is tempered by the fires of the marketplace. The article by Kumar and Sathasivam tells us the route to the market and the challenges and hurdles which it may face. The article by Ms. Sharma talks about patenting and intellectual property. The articles by Srinivas and Chaturvedi set the background and theoretical basis for innovation and give us an insight into the bio-design process. In all this issue attempts to set the stage for any possible “Edison or Edisons” who may be lurking in our midst. If you do have an innovative idea we hope this issue of the journal will help you to go about and develop it right till it helps children around the world.

Let me end by a quote from our beloved past President APJ Abdul Kalam who said –“Once your mind stretches to a new level it never goes back to its original dimension.” We hope this issue of the journal will ignite the minds that innovation is possible and feasible in our country to all strata of the healthcare industry.