Description of Innovation

High quality tertiary and specialty care, including cardiac care and cancer treatment, are unaffordable for most of India’s poor. However, incidence of heart disease, cancer, and chronic conditions like diabetes, are projected to increase.

Narayana’s process innovations including highly standardized processes and protocols, assembly-line inspired surgery procedures, right-skilling of clinical workforce, and telemedicine enable Narayana to provide specialized care with quality outcomes that rival those of the UK and US at a fraction of the cost. 


Narayana increases access to care by dramatically reducing costs: open-heart surgeries at Narayana cost $2,000 USD (or less) compared to between $20,000 and $100,000 in the US. In addition, Narayana provides free care for patients who are unable to pay. Narayana has 18 hospitals in India and also serves 800 remote locations through telemedicine, including 53 locations in Africa.