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The Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit at Apollo Hospital, Chennai will soon be opened to the general public. Explaining the importance of rehabilitation facilities, Dr. Rajendra, consultant at the department of cardiac rehabilitation, said "Most often tertiary medicine or rehabilitation is not given its due importance because the general misconception is that once a person is discharged from hospital, he must have become well again."

Rehabilitation of the heart is nothing but the restoration of the heart to its normal state, after an attack or infection. This is achieved by the reduction of all the risk factors like diet, stress, exercise and by promoting a positive outlook towards life. Usually post-angioplasty, post-myocardial or post-bypass patients are the ones who are considered for rehab.

In fact, rehabilitative care had enabled a transplant patient to reach not only the level of normalcy but also rendered him fit enough to compete in athletics. This is a three-day program that the patient is initiated into after which it is customized, to meet his individual needs and requirements. There are three levels to the program - mild, moderate and intensive. Briefly outlining the program, Dr. Rajendran says, "While this has been widely prevalent in the west for almost 75 years now, the concept is still relatively new in India."

The patient is taught to exercise control over his diet and it is imperative that he strictly adhere to the prescribed diet regime. He is taught different types of relaxation techniques for stress management. Starting with the basic levels, the patient is then slowly graduated to the higher levels. Exercise is a must for bringing the body back to shape. Patients are taught the how much, when and how of exercising. Attitude is something that is worked upon as well since the wrong attitude and approach can ruin one’s efforts towards attaining normalcy.

The patient is educated about the hazardous effects of smoking, short temper, excessive worrying, haste etc. on the body. And finally, motivation levels are looked into. "It is human tendency to become de-motivated after a point of time and it is up to us to ensure that our patients do not end up this way. Group participation is encouraged, explains Dr. Rajendran.

Boston Scientific, the world’s largest medical device company dedicated to less invasive therapies, sees $100m sales coming out of the Indian market in five years’ time. Boston Scientific presently includes six operating divisions, the company’s president, intercontinental - Jeff Goodman - stated that there was a possibility the company could look at India as a sourcing base for components for its devices.

Charles A Von Stackelberg, country director at Boston Scientific, India Branch, Mumbai said "we have around 10 to 15 products scheduled to be launched in 2000-2001. These products range from cardiology, radiology, urology to endoscopic devices.

The $2.9bn company, which operates through a liaison office in India, currently has sales of $10m each in India (13m project for this year) and China and about $100m in the whole of Asia. In a foresight towards the current year’s profits, Stackelberg implored that "the Indian market has been growing consistently: in 1997 the profit marked $17m, in 99 it soared to $24m. Going at the right speed, we hope the growth maintains this year too."

Boston Scientific presently competes with Medtronik, Johnson & Johnson and Guidant in the Indian market. Along with the introduction of the new range of medical devices, 30 percent of the turnover of the company is pooled in for research and development. Boston Scientific is all geared to launch a stent - which can self-position itself even when a surgeon is manipulating a wrong move.

Boston Scientific is renowned in the niche market of interventional cardiology for its stents, gastroenterology, urology and gynaecology. The company is also running clinical trials of its products in New Delhi, including a gold-coated stent and radiofrequency generator for myocardial revascularisation.

Apollo’s cardiac rehabilitation unit to be opened soon

Boston Scientific sees $25m profits from India

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