School of Medical Science and Technology

Location

The school is inside the Vikramshila complex in new academic campus of IIT Kharagpur. The institute is about 5 km from the Kharagpur railway station.

History

The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST), IIT Kharagpur, was started in 2001 to provide a platform of interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medical science and technology. The school began with a 3-year program to train doctors in the engineering aspects of medicine followed by a year of hands-on training. This was followed by a PhD program for research in medical technology.

While addressing the 57th Annual Convocation and Launching of Diamond Jubilee of IIT, Kharagpur in August 2011 Prime Minister Singh said that

The School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur has done good work in Medical Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. It has sought to produce a new breed of doctors who are highly technology savvy, skilled in e-health monitoring, e-medical recording, tele-diagnostics, tele-surgery and tele-medicine.

Academics

The courses offered by the institute are:

Masters in Medical Science and Technology (MMST)

The school runs a master's degree in Medical Science and Technology, a three-year postgraduate course specially designed for M.B.B.S. graduates to train them in art and science of medical research. The aim is to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medical science and technology, which can lead to a better integrated healthcare delivery system. Students spend first two years in doing various course works, which comprises courses ranging from basic engineering subjects like Computer programming, Biophysics, Mathematics, Mechanics and Biomaterials in the 1st semester to advanced courses in fields like Signal processing, Image analysis and processing (related to medical imaging modalities), Genetics, Tissue engineering, Drug discovery, Pattern recognition and Machine learning (related to Artificial Intelligence in medicine, bioinformatics etc.). The last year of course is reserved for internal or external training either in India or abroad on actual research projects.

The students of MMST serve as Medical Officers rendering OPD and Emergency services at BC Roy Technology Hospital, a hospital with Intensive Care Unit and housing research labs for Medical Imaging, Instrumentation and Telemedicine, which provides the clinical acumen to the students for interdisciplinary research.

The students are exposed to all kinds of imaging modalities — microscopic and macroscopic — and will work on advanced image processing systems.

This programme imparts engineering skills to medical professionals and train them for the state-of-the-art medical research in frontier areas of Medical Imaging, Molecular Imaging and Image Analysis, Biomaterials and Implants, Biophysics, Medical Statistics, Telemedicine, Biomedical Instrumentation, Early Detection of Cancer, Immuno-technology, Recombinant DNA Technology, Biomedical Simulation, Wound research and so on.

PhD in Medical Science and Technology

The institute offers PhD in several areas related to medical technology.

M.Tech in Medical Imaging and Image Analysis

The school offers a master's degree in Medical Imaging and Informatics, a two-year postgraduate course specially designed for B.Tech/B.E (Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation). The aim of the course is to provide knowledge to design CAD (computer aided diagnostics) system. During their first year students undergo course work: to name a few PIMI (Physics and Instrumentation in Medical Imaging instruments like ultra-sound, C.T, MRI, etc.), Image processing, Biostatistics, MEMS, pattern recognition and machine intelligence, computer vision and advanced image processing.

Second-year students have options to do projects such as DAAD IIT Master Sandwich, internship in MNC, be a part selective ongoing projects, etc.

This programme helps students to apply their technical skills to assist repetitive work, reduce time requirement and improve the efficiency in the line of diagnosis under multiple imaging modules.

Masters in Medical Science and Technology (MMST)

The eligibility criterion for admission to MMST course is the MBBS degree from a medical college recognised by Medical Council of India (MCI) with a minimum of 55% marks in aggregate and having studied mathematics at +2 level (even as additional subject) or from any recognised Open University. Seats are reserved for backward class candidates and persons with disability as per Govt. of India rules. Few seats are also reserved for Armed forces personnel.

The final selection is strictly based on an objective type of entrance test conducted by the Gate,IIT. The test includes objective questions from medical domain as well as from +2 level Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The entrance test is conducted annually, in the month of April at Kolkata (IIT Kharagpur extension campus). Candidates qualifying in the admission test are called for counselling at IIT Kharagpur before final selection.

M.Tech in Medical Imaging and Image analysis

Through GATE (EE, EC, IN) and standard GATE rules apply.

Laboratories and facilities

The students at SMST have access to some of the finest infrastructure available in the country for interdisciplinary research and development activities, some of which are:

Names of the Laboratories:

Apart from these facilitates students have access to research labs of other departments and shared facilities at Central Research Facility (CRF) centre of IIT Kharagpur.

Collaborations and associated laboratories

The School of Medical Science and Technology is an interdisciplinary research department. Hence it works in close association with other departments at IIT, Kharagpur such as the Department of BioTechnology, and the Departments of Material Sciences, Physics and Meteorology, Mathematics and Statistics, Electronics and Communication, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. SMST is also in close association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of BioTechnology (DBT) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for research activities.

The school has collaborations with many institutions and centres of excellence throughout our globe. Some of these international collaborations are:

Corporate collaborations include Texas Instruments (USA), Siemens (India) and Phillips Electronics India Ltd, Bosch India etc.

Products and patents

The research team in the SMST is working on development of a low cost total artificial heart (TAH) since last 4 years. The initial experiments on goats have shown promising results. The research team is waiting for the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approval for human trials, which will be conducted at the Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. This artificial heart will have significant cost advantages over the USA-made artificial hearts.

A notable example of a successful research project in collaboration with other universities is the Reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance (RISUG) — a novel reversible male contraceptive developed at SMST.

Future plans

The Institute is planning to set up a 400-bedded state-of-the-art medical hospital and research centre at the campus with a vision of becoming a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary research in medical domain. A foundation stone for this medical research centre was laid in 2007 by then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The institute signed a $50-million MoU with University of California, San Diego, in 2009 for this purpose. This project got delayed because provisions of IIT act, 1961 which prohibits IITs from entering into fields like medicine and tussle between different government ministries. The institute was in constant touch with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to amend the IIT Act to give IITs autonomy to offer medical courses as well. Finally, the Parliament passed the Institute of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2010, in April 2012. IIT is also in discussion with the Medical Council of India for this project. In June 2012, IIT received fund of Rs 230 crore through a central grant for establishing the medical college. A 45-acre plot has been earmarked by IIT Kharagpur for what promises to be a modern green building with minimal energy consumption and advance facilities.

Once this medical hospital and teaching institute starts functioning, the institute will offer MCI approved courses for MBBS, MD, MS and DM. The institute, in association with the University of California and Johns Hopkins University, will develop a teaching module which will comprise elements of modelling, simulation and virtual reality in-addition to conventional medical wisdom to produce a new breed of tech-savvy doctors. In the first phase, the main focus will be on postgraduate courses. The number of beds would later be increased to 750.