Well-known surgeons have been appointed as professors of practice to teach bachelor of science programme in medical sciences and technology department at IIT-Madras.
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The list includes Rajan Ravichandran, director of MIOT Institute of Nephrology; cardiac surgeon Ajit Mullasari from Madras Medical Mission; cardio-thoracic surgeon K.R. Balakrishnan, chairman of the Institute of Cardiac Sciences and director of Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare; Karthik Kailash, head of Spine Surgery department, Sri Ramachandra University; ophthalmologist Rajiv Raman, senior consultant and retinal expert from Sankara Nethralaya; from the city hospitals are involved to teach.
The practising doctors and engineers will teach the students, with the aim of making the latter an important link in the future of clinical practice. Their treatment advice maybe a vital input for the treating physician or surgeon, according to R. Krishna Kumar, course coordinator.
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The medical practitioners said the course was a long-standing need that would help develop a strong research base for the students. Dr. Rajan said the course would expose engineers to various medical branches and “medical lines of thinking with an engineering mind,” thus making a great difference and building a new specialty.
According to Dr. Ajit, the students would be exposed to “a lot of medical technology, patient care and adapt it to use it for products and licences” that would help build infrastructure in India for delivering better healthcare.
Dr. Balakrishnan said the course filled a long-standing need to bring together the two disciplines for the progress of basic health issues and hoped the proposed research programme would result in path-breaking work in the field of medical sciences.