IIT to soon produce doctors

IIT Kharagpur set to be a one-stop-shop for all your parents' 'doctor-engineer' dreams! :-)

Going beyond engineering, IIT Kharagpur would soon start offering MBBS courses as well.

On a three-acre plot on the edge of the campus, the 400-bedded super-speciality hospital, Dr B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research, would be ready by the end of 2017.

"The government has already sanctioned a grant of Rs 230 crore last year for this purpose. Construction work will start soon and is expected to be completed within 26 months," IIT-Kgp director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti told PTI.

The authorities have already sought approval from the Medical Council of India (MCI) for providing undergraduate medical education courses like MBBS.

IIT Kharagpur, known around the world for its engineering courses, would be the first one in the IIT system to venture into medical education.

Besides serving the local populace, the hospital will also work on biomedical, clinical and translational research.

Drug design and delivery will be other key research areas to which the hospital will contribute.

"It will bring the two diverse disciplines of engineering and medicine together in education and research.

Technology will be used to access and treat large number of patients through satellite centres and secondary hospitals," the director said.

The hospital is planning to use technologies like remote diagnostics, telemedicine, teleradiology, and expert systems leveraging outreach of cellular network.

Also proposed are a paramedic, nursing training facility, biomedical innovation unit and a medical outreach unit.

In the next phase, the hospital would be upgraded to 750 beds, officials said.

Adding to its international appeal, the authorities are also collaborating with Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA and Imperial College, London on medical science.

Since 2001, IIT-Kharagpur has been running the school of medical science and technology which has an inter-disciplinary three-year post-graduate programme in medical science and technology.

For its faculty, employees and students, the IIT has the BC Roy Technology Hospital inside its campus with 32 beds, including ICU and isolation ward.

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Image: The facade of Takshashila complex in IIT Kharagpur

Photograph: Ambuj Saxena/Creative Commons