School of Medical Research and Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has been instrumental in bringing new paradigms of science-based, cutting edge engineering education. The Institute has always been at the forefront of teaching and research and gained repute at national and international level. With the path-breaking innovations in both its curriculum and research, the Institute has gained a legendary reputation. Today, the combined record of its past and present faculty and students along with the alumni spread across the world is awe-inspiring.
Undeniably, engineering solutions play an integral role in the field of biomedical sciences. In view of this,
1) IIT Kanpur established the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (BSBE) in the year 2001, which is dedicated for fundamental & translational research in biomedical sciences. The M. Tech program offered by BSBE is ranked highest amongst such programs offered in the country and it tops in the research and innovation impact in this area.
2) Additional centers were set up over the years to add to the ecosystem of IIT Kanpur in the area of healthcare and Medtech.
- Start-up Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC)
- Centre for Nanosciences
- National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NFlexE)
- The Mehta Family Center for Engineering in Medicine
- BIRAC Centre for Fabrication and Testing of Medical Devices
- DBT School for Healthcare Innovations & Entrepreneurship
3) SIIC at IIT Kanpur is one of the world class incubation centers with multiple success stories, and has the highest patent to commercialization rate of 16 % (in comparison to Global average, which is only 1%).
4) Presently, in the Biotech and MedTech domains alone the incubator supports over 20 start-ups.
With all these centers working in confluence, IIT Kanpur has become the number one ecosystem for innovation and incubation in the area of biomedical research and healthcare in the country. Biomedical research and MedTech innovations thrive in the transdisciplinary ecosystem. This is highlighted by the fact that, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, it became clearer that India lacks a required healthcare system and emergency care. During these unpredictable situations, IIT Kanpur faculty and researchers rose to the difficult situation, and multiple innovative ideas to fight against Covid-19 were conceived. Product prototypes were developed and 2 of the major products have been even tested for clinical feasibility and are being used today.
1) Development of high end indigenized invasive ventilator, and
2) Development of scalable and reusable N95 and N99 masks with enhanced antiviral/antibacterial property.
However, presently, in IIT Kanpur, even with thriving biomedical research activities, there is a major missing link which is absence of clinical set up on campus (Image). Although, there are existing collaborations with Medical colleges and Hospitals, distant clinical collaborations pose several challenges that compromise the overall outcome. The MedTech ecosystem at IIT Kanpur will be complete when there is a medical program on campus bringing in the clinical set up.
With this, we at IIT Kanpur started to work on the concept of establishing a full-fledged Medical School comprising of Centres of Excellence (CoE) and a super speciality hospital on campus. This proposed School of Medical Research and Technology (SMRT) would combine medicine with engineering and develop technology-based interventions for,
- the diagnosis,
- surveillance,
- management,
- mitigation, and
- prevention of diseases.
Besides its academic programs, the R&D focus of the school would be on developing need‐driven medical devices and technologies.
The institute envisages to establish one-of-its-kind medical school that would offer EnMed (Engineering in Medicine) programs wherein medical graduates will also be trained in engineering disciplines and vice versa to successfully bridge the technology gap and offer solutions to medical needs that are unique to India.
Recently, Board of Governors IIT Kanpur have approved the proposal to establish ‘Centers of Excellence (CoE)’ on different thematic areas on futuristic medicine as part of SMRT and a super specialty hospital as an extension of CoE on campus.
