AHMEDABAD: Indian Institute of
Technology Gandhinagar ( IIT-Gn) is poised
to take up groundbreaking research on
global and public health, frugal engineering
and robot-assisted surgery.
After the recently held workshop on
biomedical engineering, IIT-Gn researchers
discussed proposals to study social factors
that impact health , find new drugs for
cancer, robot-assisted surgical techniques,
designing systems for electronic health
records of patients at public hospitals,
developing diagnostic tools for clinical
breath analysis and early detection of
Alzheimer's disease among others.
Speaking about her research on the impact
of social factors on undernutrition, obesity,
insulin resistance, diabetes and malaria,
IIT-Gn's Prof Malavika Subramanyam said,
"As a social epidemiologist, the aim of my
research is to identify social factors that
impact health. The ultimate goal is to design
interventions to modify the social
determinant of health identified in our
research."
Among the main objectives of the Center of
Excellence in Biomedical Engineering at IIT-
Gn is to develop low-cost technologies to
deliver healthcare to rural areas. Professor
Arup Lal Chakraborty's research aims to
develop diagnostic tools for clinical breath
analysis.
Prof Chakraborty said, "The area of clinical
breath analysis has emerged as a strong
candidate for early and non-invasive
diagnosis of various conditions such as lung
inflammation, fatigue and cardiac
malfunctions. Such a portable diagnostic
tool in conjunction with wireless
communication is a strong candidate for
deployment in mobile units in rural areas."
Participants at the workshop also explored
potential collaborations with Indian and
overseas partners in areas such as
rehabilitation robotics, neuro-engineering,
and diagnostic testing.
Prof Nitish Thakor of National University of
Singapore (NUS) said, "The Biomedical
Engineering Centre at IIT-Gn is a fresh bold
start and has the potential to have a
national impact. At the moment, our
challenge is to do it quickly and achieve
high impact - scientifically and socially
(healthwise) for India."
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