At the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025, student teams showcased impressive technical capability while working on MedTech, BioTech, and HealthTech problem statements under real-world constraints. As a Jury Member, Nimish Mittal closely engaged with these teams—evaluating ideas, prototypes, and their readiness for real-world deployment.

What became evident across many promising solutions was a common gap: product thinking often enters too late in the innovation journey.

In healthcare, building a working prototype is only the starting point. The true challenge lies in transforming that prototype into a solution that can be safely adopted, scaled, and sustained in real clinical environments. This requires early and deliberate focus on product fundamentals—well before the technology is finalized.

Strong product thinking in MedTech innovation helps address critical questions such as:

  • Is the problem clearly defined and grounded in real clinical or patient needs?
  • How does the solution fit into existing healthcare workflows?
  • Has reliability, safety, and repeatability been considered from the start?
  • What evidence or validation will be required for adoption?
  • Can the solution scale beyond a controlled environment or pilot?

Without this lens, even well-engineered solutions risk remaining confined to demos or proofs of concept.

Practical MedTech innovation demands a shift from “Can this be built?” to “Should this be built, and how will it be used responsibly and sustainably?” When product thinking, engineering rigor, and validation planning come together early, teams are far better positioned to bridge the gap between prototype and deployable solution.

The experience at SIH 2025 reinforced a strong and encouraging signal: the next generation of innovators is not only technically capable but also deeply curious, resilient, and genuinely motivated to solve meaningful healthcare problems. Across teams, there was clear evidence of rigorous preparation, hands-on experimentation, and an ability to think through real-world constraints—qualities that do not emerge in isolation.

A significant part of this maturity can be attributed to the ecosystem created by institutions like Parul University, where structured mentorship, access to infrastructure, and a culture of applied learning enable students to move beyond theoretical concepts and into problem-led innovation. The confidence with which teams articulated their ideas, defended design decisions, and iterated on feedback reflected a strong foundation built through sustained academic and practical support.

Organizations like Tntra help bridge the gap between promising prototypes and real-world healthcare adoption by bringing product thinking into MedTech early. Beyond engineering, the focus is on clinical relevance, workflow fit, safety, reliability, and validation planning. By combining domain expertise with design-led product strategy, Tntra helps teams move from working prototypes to deployable, sustainable healthcare solutions that can succeed beyond pilots and demonstrations.

With continued product guidance, early exposure to industry expectations, and deeper collaboration between academia, industry, and national innovation platforms, many of these ideas have the potential to evolve well beyond prototypes—maturing into deployable healthcare products, scalable platforms, and impactful startups.

Sustained collaboration across universities, industry, and public institutions will be key to ensuring that such innovation continues to translate into real-world outcomes and long-term value for the healthcare ecosystem.

Ready to turn promising ideas into real-world, scalable products?

At Tntra, we help innovators, startups, and enterprises embed product thinking early—combining domain expertise, engineering excellence, and design-led strategy to move from prototypes to deployable, sustainable solutions.

Explore how Tntra accelerates product-led innovation: Visit: https://www.tntra.io