Creating new opportunities

Updated on: Monday, August 31, 2009

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has signed a preliminary agreement with the University of California, San Diego Health Sciences to collaborate in the development of an International Medical Center (IMC) at the IIT. This is a first-of-a-kind agreement in the country between any IIT and a US varsity to jointly establish a state-of-the-art medical centre.

The 300-bed hospital will be built on land provided by IIT-KGP and the IMC will include an R&D centre as well as infrastructure for the training of health care providers. UC San Diego will provide leadership and training in areas such as nursing, hospital administration, pharmaceutical practices, telemedicine, quality assessment and safety, etc. “The establishment of an academic medical centre to include the best in clinical care, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in medical education, will be a perfect partnership — bringing together the strengths of both institutions,” said Mounir Soliman, MD, MBA, Executive Director of UC San Diego Health Sciences International.

Professor Damodar Acharya, Director IIT-KGP said that the institute was keenly interested in initiating “technology-leveraged medical education and research to provide holistic healthcare for the entire lifecycle at affordable costs to the underprivileged, poor and tribal population of the region.”

UC San Diego and IIT-KGP’s research collaboration will include faculty, student and resident exchange programmes and jointly supervised clinical trials. As far as the development of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education is concerned, UC San Diego will advise the IIT on the formulation of a medical curriculum at the IMC, with the aim of meeting the accreditation requirements in India and the US.

“Our hope is to help transform healthcare by merging the resources of two world leaders in medicine and technology with the goal of promoting excellence in research and education,” concluded Soliman.

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Creating new opportunities

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