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M. Tech Clinical engineering

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Master of Technology in Clinical engineering is a graduate program in Clinical engineering offered jointly by three institutes in India. This is the only graduate program currently in India that trains engineers in the field of clinical engineering. It is one of the two programs jointly offered by the three institutes, the other being a PhD in Biomedical devices & technology.

Contents

Need for this Program

Over the past five decades, healthcare delivery has increasingly become technology driven - be it development of new drugs, vaccines or medical devices. Innovative solutions to healthcare can be developed with a cross-disciplinary approach with systematic training, in which, students with a background in engineering are trained in biological sciences and clinical practices.

Aim of the Program

The aim is to address the country's need of human resource development in Clinical engineering as well as in Biomedical Device Development, and thereby contribute to the overall development of healthcare delivery in the country.

About the Program

This Program was started in the year 2008 with the assistance of department of science & technology, Government of India. The three institutes in this joint program are premier institutes in India in their respective fields.

Participant institutes

  • IIT Madras(Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai)
  • CMC Vellore(Christian Medical College, Vellore)
  • Sree Chitra Tirunal institute for medical sciences and technology(SCTIMST, Trivandrum)

    • Course work

  • Duration:Two and a half years (5 semester program)

    • Orientation programme

    The orientation program is for about 3–4 weeks period at SCTIMST, Trivandrum. This orientation introduces the new entrants about the entire program and clinical engineering in generally. They are taken to various departments in hospital wing and also at the BMT wing. introductory classes are taken related to clinical sciences and medical device development by practicing clinicians and scientists who work in development of medica devices.

    1st semester

  • Biomaterials (at department of biotechnology)
  • Molecular and Cell Biology (at department of biotechnology)
  • Management Information Systems (at department of management sciences)
  • Maintenance Management (at department of management sciences)
  • Biomechanics (at department of applied mechanics)
  • Introduction to Research (interdepartmental)

    • The courses of 1st semester are held at the IIT Madras.

    2nd semester

  • Functional Anatomy and Physiology (at department of physiology & department of anatomy)
  • Transducers and Instrumentation for Physiological Measurements (at department of bioengineering)
  • Biomedical Imaging Systems (at department of bioengineering)
  • Functional Anatomy and Physiology Lab (at department of physiology & department of anatomy)
  • Elective 1(Introduction to Digital Signal and Image processing/ Physiological Systems Modeling/ Rehabilitation Engineering). Currently only Physiological systems Modeling being offered.
  • Clinical Attachment (at CMC hospital, Shell eye hospital, Community health & development hospital, LCECU)

    • The course work for this semester is held at Christian medical college, Vellore. .

  • Minor Project for duration of 2.5 months

    • 3rd semester

  • Medical Device Technology (at Biomedical technology wing)
  • Advanced Biomaterials (at Biomedical technology wing)
  • Critical care Instrumentation and therapeutic equipment (at Biomedical technology wing)
  • Clinical internship (at SCTIMST hospital)
  • Seminar in Medical technology

    • The courses of third semester are at SCTIMST, Trivandrum

    4th semester

  • Hospital Management Systems
  • Quality Management in Healthcare
  • Patient Safety and Risk Management in hospitals
  • Elective 2(Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine/ Advanced Polymer Science and Technology/ Analytical instrumentation and medical laboratory equipment)
  • Clinical engineering internship

    • 5th semester

  • Major Project

    • Rural hospital visits

    Visits to various rural hospitals are undertaken for period of about 1 week to learn and understand about the ground realities in rural healthcare system. Some of the locations to which the students have visited so far includes:

  • Herbertpur, Uttarakhand
  • Manali, Himachal Pradesh
  • Makunda, Assam
  • Bissamkatak, Odhisa
  • Gudalur, Tamil Nadu
  • padhar,Madhya Pradesh

    • Corporate Hospital internships

    These full-time internships are taken up by all students in this program for a period of about 4 weeks in the biomedical / clinical engineering departments of various corporate hospital across the major cities of India. So far the following are the hospitals where students have gone for internship:

  • Fortis Raheja Hospital, Mumbai
  • Max Healthcare, Delhi
  • Care Hospitals, Hyderabad
  • Apollo Hospitals, Chennai
  • King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai

    • Idea generation exercise

    All the students are required to independently identify the problems in clinical settings during their clinical attachment and then try to solve them using an innovative approach and finally submit 25 solutions which are novel, practical and implementable. one or more these ideas might on a later stage be implemented as a project.

    This gives the students an opportunity to horn their skills of innovative thinking. Hundreds of such ideas have been generated so far.

    Clinical attachment

    The intention of clinical attachment for engineers is quite similar to that why a clinical student is put into it i.e. to learn how to work in clinical settings and understand the various challenges faced there. This gives a good working experience to the students before the graduate itself.

    at CMC Vellore

    At CMC Vellore, the clinical attachment is 2 days per week for an entire semester leading to more than 100 hours of total clinical rotation across about 10 clinical departments.

    Eligibility criteria

    B.E./B.Tech./Recognized appropriate four year course; on the basis of GATE(Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) subject (AE, BT, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, IN, IT, ME, MN, MT, PI, TF, XE) and score.

    Admission Process

    The admissions are carried out by IIT Madras at the IIT Madras campus, Chennai. Only the candidates with a valid GATE score are eligible to apply for this program. Applications can be sent in when the notification is released (generally in the period of march every year). The list of shortlisted is declared by mid-April and these candidates are generally called further rounds of selection in the month of may. These selections include a screening test which is on basic mathematics and physics. This is followed by personal interview of those candidates who have cleared the screening test. Those who finally clear this interview process are offered admission into the M.Tech program.

    Intake

    Intake currently being offered under this program is around 16 students every year.

    References

    M. Tech Clinical engineering Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA