IIT-Kharagpur to offer MBBS courses soon
New Delhi, June 22
Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) in West Bengal will soon become the first engineering institute in India to venture into medical education.
The super-specialty hospital named Dr BC Roy Institute of Medical Science and Research, which will be constructed on a three-acre plot, is likely to become operational by 2017, IIT-Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said in a statement.
The hospital will have 400 beds in the first phase: another 750 beds will be added later.
"The government has already sanctioned a grant of Rs 230 crore for the facility. Construction work will start soon and is expected to be completed within 26 months," Chakrabarti said.
"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."
Authorities have already sought approval from the Medical Council of India for providing undergraduate medical education courses like MBBS. The All India Institute of Medical Science will draw up the courses.
Last week, the union health ministry cleared IIT-Kharagpur's decade-old demand to start specialised medical courses.
The medical college will award MBBS, MD, MS and DM degrees, but will focus on research—particularly in biomedical, clinical and translational areas.
Drug design and delivery will be other key research areas for the institute.
The hospital plans to use technologies like remote diagnostics, telemedicine, teleradiology and expert systems leveraging outreach of cellular network.
Paramedic, nursing training facility, biomedical innovation and a medical outreach units have also been proposed.
Authorities will collaborate Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, and Imperial College, London, on various areas of medical science.
Since 2001, IIT-Kharagpur has a school of medical science and technology that has an inter-disciplinary three-year post-graduate programme in medical science and technology.
The BC Roy Technology Hospital, a 32-bed hospital on its campus with ICU and isolation ward facility, currently serves its faculty, employees and students. IANS/PTI
