Import dependency has been a major obstacle to accessing medical devices and equipment in India. At present, more than 80% of India’s medical device requirements are met through imports. In the financial year 2023–24, a 13% increase (amounting to ₹688 850 million) was recorded in the country’s medical device import bill. To address this important dependency, the Government of India introduced the Production-Linked Incentives for manufacturing medical devices scheme, with 19 projects to produce 46 medical devices being commissioned in the first phase.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has partnered with the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), an autonomous Research and Development institution under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to install a 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system by October 2025, the first indigenously developed MRI machine, for clinical trials at AIIMS, New Delhi. In December 2014, the project ‘Indigenous Magnetic Resonance Imaging – A National Mission (Swadeshi Chumbakiya Anu-naad Chitran – Ek Rashtriya Abhiyaan)’ was initiated at SAMEER. Testing and integration of the necessary sub-components, including a procured 1.5 Tesla superconducting magnet and the gradient coil, have been accomplished. Fine-tuning of the images acquired with this system is currently in progress. Animal studies have been completed, and studies with human volunteers are currently underway at AIIMS, New Delhi. The development of the Indian magnet is in its final stages, with the integration of indigenous subsystems planned for the near future. When this device becomes available for public use, the cost of an MRI is expected to come down by at least 50%. Once clinical trials are complete, the machine will be eligible for certification by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

Dr M. Srinivas, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi, emailed this correspondent, ‘The majority of healthcare equipment is imported in our country. The AIIMS, New Delhi, by conducting the clinical trials, will assess the performance of this indigenous MRI, provide needed feedback to the manufacturer and help this indigenous technology to emerge at par with international standards’.

ALLADI MOHAN, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

ORCID iD : 0000-0002-3214-9884

Every year, on 3 March, World Hearing Day is observed. For 2025, the WHO has chosen the theme ‘Changing mindsets: Empower yourself to make ear and hearing care a reality for all.’ With this in focus, the WHO and the International Telecommunication Union jointly proposed safety standards for the protection of hearing from loud sounds and the subsequent prevention of hearing loss in March 2025. A particularly vulnerable population identified was the entertainment industry, with an estimated 3 billion video game and e-sports players. This includes a growing percentage of children who access media on personal computers, video game consoles, mobile phones, headphones, headsets, and other interactive devices. The standards were designed to raise awareness about the impending dangers and risks associated with hearing loss and to recognize the necessity for regular ear and hearing evaluations, along with encouraging behavioural change to limit hearing loss and support those who already suffer from it.

Separate guidelines have been framed for video gameplay devices and video gameplay software. For video gameplay devices, tracking of the individual’s sound exposure, anticipatory warnings when the safe-listening limit was being reached, and an overarching headphone safety mode that could control volume between devices were some of the recommended measures. Some of the standards that have been suggested for video gameplay software include incorporating safe-listening functions to the sound characteristics of all aspects of individual game software; adding warning messages about the potential risk of hearing loss from prolonged exposure to loud sounds in the gameplay activity itself and formatting of an automatically-activated headphone safety mode which resets the volume to safe-listening standards, when the user alternates between headphones and loudspeakers.

The standards, developed under the WHO’s Make Listening Safe initiative, aim to assist gaming manufacturers and local governments in developing global policies to enhance the hearing health of society and reduce permanent hearing loss and/or tinnitus that commonly result from prolonged exposure to video games at high-intensity sound levels.

MAHARRA HUSSAIN, United Arab Emirates

ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7632-0631

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding partner of the Mass General Brigham health system and the original teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, announced on 7 February 2025, the successful transplantation of a genetically edited pig kidney into a living human patient. This was its second such xenotransplant procedure. The operation, which took approximately two and a half hours, was performed on Saturday, 25 January 2025, at the Mass General Transplant Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The recipient, Tim Andrews, a 66-year-old man from Concord, New Hampshire, had end-stage renal disease and had required dialysis for over 2 years and was medically ineligible for a human donor kidney. Under the Food and Drug Administration’s Expanded Access (compassionate use) protocol, he received a pig-derived kidney engineered by eGenesis with 69 precise genomic edits, including the removal of antigenic porcine sugars, the integration of human compatibility genes, and the inactivation of porcine endogenous retroviruses to reduce infectious and immunologic risks.

The surgical team was led by Dr Tatsuo Kawai, Director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance, along with Dr Leonardo V. Riella, Medical Director for Kidney Transplantation and Dr Shimul A. Shah, Division Chief of Transplant Services. Dr Kawai emphasized that this second transplant provided another excellent opportunity to learn how genetically edited pig organs could become a viable long-term solution.

Mr Andrews is now the fourth person in the world to have received a genetically edited pig kidney and the second living recipient; he was discharged and was off dialysis with satisfactory graft performance as of early February 2025.

MGH also has regulatory approval to perform two more pig kidney xenotransplants in 2025 as part of a three-patient pilot initiative. The plan is to evaluate long-term graft viability and safety under the same immunosuppressive protocol, including the novel CD40L targeting agent tegoprubart.

This latest breakthrough follows the MGH’s historic transplant of a genetically edited pig kidney into 62-year-old Richard Slayman on 16 March 2024. Mr Slayman survived with functional graft support for more than 2 months before succumbing to unrelated causes.

Xenotransplantation stands at the intersection of cutting-edge gene editing and clinical transplantation. It holds promise to materially narrow the gap for more than 100 000 patients in the USA, who are currently waiting for kidneys for transplant operations. Of these, only around 27 000 actually receive transplants each year.

P.M. NISCHAL, Mysuru, Karnataka

ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3491-5500