Hey designers !
I am Dr. Yerra Vishnu Akhil Raj Kumar—a long name, admittedly, but one that carries a journey shaped by medicine, design, and systems thinking. Most people simply call me Vishnu. I come from Andhra Pradesh, India, and my path into medical innovation began with my MBBS at the Institute of National Importance, AIIMS Patna, which I joined in 2014. Early in my training, I topped my first year academically, but more importantly, my exposure after the second year to clinical cases, treatment protocols, and hospital workflows revealed something deeper: critical gaps in how medical problems were being translated into solutions. I could see the need for better-designed tools and systems—but at that time, I did not yet know how such gaps could be addressed.

My first step toward understanding this space was through an ICMR STS project focused on a breast cancer survey. What began as a student research initiative became a formative experience. It allowed me to understand patient concerns, lived experiences, and attitudes toward care, while also observing the roles of clinicians, paramedical staff, and healthcare systems in treatment delivery. This exposure made one thing clear—incremental improvements were not enough; there was room for fundamentally better design. The challenge was knowing how to act on that realization. During this period, I also lost some patients who had become close to me—one with X-linked Bruton agammaglobulinemia and another with aplastic anemia. Those experiences shook me deeply and left a lasting impact on how I viewed medicine, care, and the urgency for better-designed solutions.
That answer to this challenge emerged during a lecture by Dr. Prashant Jha, now Professor of MedTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Patna. His introduction to bio-design was a turning point. The concept stayed with me deeply, and I began collaborating with him and seeking structured guidance in this domain. To complement theory with practice, I undertook an internship at BRUN, a portable cardiotocogram med-tech startup, where I experienced first-hand how clinical insight, engineering constraints, and business realities intersect in real products.

Building on this momentum, and with strong support from faculty and peers at AIIMS Patna—most notably Dr. Kranti, HoD of Otorhinolaryngology—we co-founded the Innovation Club of AIIMS Patna, Aavishkar in 2017. Through this platform, we organized national-level workshops, built institutional momentum for innovation, and formalized collaborations through MoUs, including with AMTZ (Andhra MedTech Zone) and KIHT (Kalam Institute of Health Technology). Over time, this body of work developed into a portfolio strong enough to attract the Atal Innovation Incubation Centre, supported by the Government of India, ultimately leading to the sanctioning of the Innovation Council of AIIMS Patna in early 2025. During this same period, I created MedTechMax—initially as a pen name and analytical persona—to explain, dissect, and critically evaluate medical devices, startups, and innovation pathways.
Immediately after completing my MBBS, I applied for and was selected into the Bio-Design Fellowship at the Centre for Healthcare Entrepreneurship, IIT Hyderabad. I remain deeply grateful to Prof. Renu John for this opportunity. The fellowship provided rigorous, hands-on exposure to microcontrollers, circuit design, 3D printing, clinical immersions, rapid prototyping, and the Stanford bio-design methodology applied across structured phases. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, our training and lectures continued uninterrupted, and I successfully completed the fellowship with a strengthened conviction that structured design could meaningfully transform healthcare.

During the COVID period, I attempted to launch a bio-design consultancy. However, due to family responsibilities and financial constraints, I had to shut it down. While ideas and passion are essential for innovation, I learned that sustainable impact also requires economic stability—to support oneself, one’s family, and eventually a capable team. With this clarity, I returned to formal medical training and began my MD in Physiology from AIIMS Raipur in 2022, a discipline fundamentally grounded in bio-signals and system-level understanding. In parallel, as artificial intelligence and neural engines rapidly advanced, I trained myself in Python and R, recognizing their importance in future-ready medical technologies.
Throughout this period, my commitment to bio-design never diminished. Instead, it matured. I continued refining methods to make medical device innovation more structured, modular, and reproducible—so that devices built on strong design principles are not only innovative, but accessible, available, and ultimately affordable to patients. This ongoing effort has culminated in the evolution of MedTechMax and the development of a structured innovation engine designed to bring rigor, traceability, and scalability to medical device development—about which you will learn more.