IIT Delhi to develop low-cost healthcare

NEW DELHI: India's premier medical
college and hospital, All India Institute of
Medical Sciences, got a new director on
Friday with the appointment of Dr MC
Misra. Till now, Misra was the head of the
institute's trauma centre.
Dr Misra (61) is known as a leading surgeon
and is also credited with developing the
AIIMS Trauma centre into a model of care
for emergency services in the country.
Speaking to TOI soon after taking over as
the AIIMS director, Misra said, "My aim
will be to make AIIMS more patient-
friendly. Computerization of patient
records, capacity building to ease
admissions and reducing the waiting time
for surgeries and procedures will be the
priority."
The new director also plans to enter into
partnerships with engineering institutes like
IIT Delhi to develop low-cost healthcare
devices. "We already have a 'Stanford India
Bio-design' project going on in which three
top universities of the world-Stanford, IIT
and AIIMS-are collaborating to develop low-
cost stents. In the future, we will have more
such partnerships," he added.
Dr Misra joined AIIMS in the 1980's and
became the head of the surgery department
13 years later in 1993. He took over as the
AIIMS Trauma centre chief in 2006. At
least 10 prominent doctors, from AIIMS as
well as overseas, were in line for the
director's post but Misra was always a
frontrunner. The former director of AIIMS ,
Dr R C Deka, retired on September 30.
Misra's name was forwarded to the PMO
last month by the institute body of AIIMS
that is headed by union health minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Four other candidates in the fray, who were
shortlisted by the search-cum-selection
committee, were Dr Y K Gupta who heads
the pharmacology department, Dr V K Paul
who heads the paediatrics department, Dr
Balram Airon who heads cardio-thoracic
and vascular surgery, and Dr S K Acharya
who heads the gastroenterology department.