Haffkine Institute, IIT to start biomedical incubation centre

Centre will help create user-friendly solution to problems of diagnosis, reduce costs

The Haffkine Institute of Training, Research & Testing, Parel has partnered with IIT Bombay to establish a Biomedical Engineering & Technology incubation Centre (BETiC), which will reduce healthcare costs.

The Memorandum of Understanding for establishing BETiC at the Haffkine campus was exchanged on Monday at Sahyadri Guest House, Mumbai in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis and Minister of Medical Education, Girish Mahajan.

Citing the benefits of setting up BETiC, Dr. Nishigandha Naik, Director, Haffkine Institute, said CT scan probes are still imported and that they could now be made in India at a cheaper cost. Similarly, Dr. Naik said Genexpert, a molecular test to detect tuberculosis bacteria, is still expensive. “The proposed centre will help create user-friendly solutions to such problems and reduce costs. Haffkine Institute will also be providing the laboratory facility for research purposes,” she said.

Explaining the reason to choose Parel for such a facility, Dr. Naik said, “The presence of leading hospitals in Parel, including Tata Memorial Hospital, King Edward Memorial Hospital and Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children will enable better identification of unmet clinical needs as well as quicker feedback on devices during their development. An interdisciplinary team of doctors and engineers will develop innovative medical devices suitable for the local population, in the proposed centre.”

A meeting was held at Haffkine Institute on Wednesday, attended by around 40 clinicians from local hospitals. Professor B. Ravi from IIT-Bombay, sharing information about the meeting said, “There was a one-to-one talk with the stakeholders for suggestions about issues that needed utmost attention.” The clinicians were also invited to MEDHA, a Medical Device Hackathon, planned to be tentatively held at IIT-B in March.

“MEDHA will bring doctors and engineers on one platform. It will give a platform to students to create solutions, encourage them and help them with funding. It will help bring problems and problem-solvers too on one platform,” Prof. Ravi said.