Follow us
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur will soon be starting offering MBBS courses too.
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, according to a media report.
“The government has already allotted Rs 230 crore last year for this purpose. Construction work will start soon and is expected to be completed within 26 months,” said IIT-Kgp director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti to media.
The college will be 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 numbers of patients through satellite centres and secondary hospitals,” the director added.
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.
Adding to its international appeal, the authorities are also collaborating with Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA and Imperial College, London on medical science.
