Chandigarh: PGIMER planning to start a bio medical instrumentation hub

Chandigarh: The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is planning to initiate a bio medical instrumentation hub to promote indigenous biomedical instruments. The hub shall have experts from industry and medicine come together to develop medical instruments used in this field.

A core committee was instituted two years ago under the chairmanship of GD Puri, which shortlisted 12 projects under biomedical instrumentation for which experts requested the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to release 15 crore.

According to officials, the PGI has got a fund nod in principal from the DST.They are now waiting for an official communication.

“Department of Science and Technology’s endeavour is to encourage indigenous medical equipment, which constitute quite a major part of import,” said Dr GD Puri, Head, Anaesthesia Department, PGIMER.

If the fund comes through, the hub will get into operations within six months, making PGIMER the first medical institute in North India, to get into the indigenous medical instrument industry.

The Post Graduate Institute has been experimenting with bio medical instrumentation for quite a while now. The Department of Gastroenterology has invented a special kind of needle used in surgery, the Department of Paediatrics has come up with equipment for handicap children and the Anaesthesia Department with some more contributions.

The DST funded hub in South India to meet the ever increasing demand of instrumentation has 10-15 projects being run by the Anna University. The project coordinates with the local and surrounding industry.

“There was nothing of that sort in the North. So, we requested DST that there should be a centre which should act as a platform having basic knowledge capabilities, facilities for research and testing biomedical instruments, “ said Dr Puri.

“There are so many people who are using biomedical instruments in their labs for research purposes but were never accepted by the clinicians as they were never involved in the coming up of those instruments. So here, doctors will be involved to know the kind of products they want. At the same time, whatever product is invented with the help of the industry, it can be tested easily in the medical institute,” Dr Puri told HT.