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After AIIMS, PGI To Get Incubator Cell Next Month

CHANDIGARH: If any scientist or a doctor wants to take his/ her innovation to market or for patent, the PGI has been granted an incubator cell, Centre for innovation and bio design, by the ICMR. This is the only incubator cell after AIIMS in a medical research centre. The cell shall aim at making affordable medical devices and diagnostic kits with IIT Ropar; Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala; NIT Jalandhar; CSIO and Panjab University. The centre shall be inaugurated next month.

For interfacing of doctors and engineers, the centre will come up in advanced cardiac centre of the PGI. Dr Varinder Garg, principal investigator of the project, said, “In this five-year project, we will incubate at least two projects per year. The ICMR has funded around Rs 4.9 crore for the purpose.”

The centre shall be on the lines of AIIMS India-Stanford biodesign programme to foster innovation. The centre at AIIMS has produced 30 low-cost medical devices and 10 start ups. While four devices are in Indian market, one has USFDA approval.

“We will create an ecosystem where the experts from premier research institutes in or around Chandigarh will collaborate with clinicians for development of indigenous medical devices,” said Dr Garg.

According to published reports, more than 80% of the medical devices and equipment are imported in India. The upcoming centre aims at producing the technology and bringing down the cost. “At present, clinicians and domain experts are working in isolation with little success in producing medical devices and instruments for securing patents. We feel that the proposed centre will create a platform for collaboration of clinicians and domain experts to share ideas and evolve innovative and patentoriented research,” said Dr Garg.

He added, “The move will boost the health sector as well as medical devices and instrumentation industry. It will also save precious foreign exchange and reduce the dependence of health sector on imports.”

The centre shall work as a consultancy point providing solution to hospitals and industries in area of medical science. “After the concept or an innovative idea is accepted, its feasibility shall be studied. Accordingly, it shall be taken forward for the development,” Dr Garg added.-Times Of India

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