India has some of the finest doctors in the world, and state-of-the-art equipment, but the best of medical care often does not reach the poor. One of the reasons is that a lot of devices used in complex surgical procedures are imported, making them very expensive. Though the country has excellent engineers as well, there is not much collaboration between clinicians and engineers, say doctors.
In an effort to change this, Fortis Malar Hospital, along with IIT-Madras, held a two-day workshop ending Saturday to bring together doctors and engineers from across the country as well as the world to find solutions to some of these problems, says Suresh Rao, head of the cardiac anaesthesia and cardiac critical care department at Fortis Malar.
“Roughly 2 per cent of the adult population suffers from heart failure. A lot of people think it is the end, even though we now have all kinds of treatment modalities available. The workshop will help provide a platform for engineers, scientists and doctors to work together for research and development in this critical area,” he says.
The workshop will also focus on what ails the Indian device industry, and what needs to be done to make it competitive.
Professor K. R. Rajagopal, one of the speakers at the workshop, said the Indian university system was isolated. “We have great medical colleges and great engineering ones, but they work in isolation from each other. What we need is an umbrella university bringing together both these disciplines,” he says.
Close to 100 delegates took part in the workshop. The Indian Society for Artificial Thoracic Organs will also be officially launched at the workshop, doctors say.
