IIT Guwahati establishes department to bolster healthcare… Leave a comment
Guwahati: Indian Institute of Technology- Guwahati has established the ICMR-DHR Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Device and Diagnostics Innovation and Commercialization to cater to the technological needs of rural India with a focus on healthcare delivery to the last-mile population.
The Centre of Excellence is presently situated at the Centre of Nanotechnology and Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology, IIT Guwahati.
This multidisciplinary Initiative is also in line with the National Education Policy 2020 of the Government of India wherein the professors, researchers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and students from multiple departments join hands under a single umbrella to inculcate research and innovation in the domain of healthcare innovation. The initiative has been led by the Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biosciences and Bioengineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, and Design and Mathematics, among others.
Elaborating on the critical work underway ICMR Mission Secretariat at IIT Guwahati, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “This centre is working towards realizing the vision of PM Narendra Modi that all IITs be involved in helping the nation in terms of achieving the goals of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in the domain of healthcare technology development.”
Sitharam added, “The centre is envisioned to
in the frugal innovations related to biomedical devices and develop a unique academia-industry model for the product development related to the med-tech innovation in the country. The translational innovations proposed in the centre are expected to cater for the societal needs related to diagnostics and healthcare delivery, especially in rural India. The technologies innovated may also spur import substitution to materialize the dream of Make-in-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
Prof. Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Head, Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology, IIT Guwahati, said, “Cutting-edge scientific inventions are the foundation of all modern-day technologies, which helps in improving the quality of life of a human being in a significant way. However, the benefits of such inventions and innovations are yet to reach the rural population of India. In next few decades, especially keeping the post-pandemic scenario in the perspective, the focus of healthcare innovation would be to develop frugal technologies to cater the needs of the last mile population.”
