Recently IIT Kanpur has emerged as an innovation hub providing a platform to entrepreneurs. Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) established at IIT Kanpur in 2000 also harbors Bioincubator, runs multiple programs to promote innovations in different fields. Recently the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) approved setting up of School of International Biodesign-Synergizing Healthcare Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SIB-SHINE) as part of a collaboration between King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.
The idea for the setup of this center dates back to 2018 when the first edition of summer immersion program (Media coverage: Times of India and VoxPopuli) was started by Faculty In-Charge Prof. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay (IIT Kanpur) and Dean of innovation & Cardiologist Prof. Rishi Sethi (KGMU). The first part of this program involved seven IIT Kanpur students (engineers and PhDs) who stayed at KGMU and under the supervision of Prof. Rishi Sethi interacted with doctors from different specialties. Different ideas were discussed and few ideas were selected to pursue further at IIT Kanpur. Two week stay also involved a Hackathon where the team of doctors and engineers together presented solutions to medical problems to the audience consisting of doctors from KGMU and professors from IIT Kanpur. With further discussion and deliberation on selected ideas at IIT Kanpur, two ideas were selected for design and product development. Products were shown at Abhivyakti IITK 2019.
One product is “Electrosurgical Cautery with Suction Inbuilt” designed to prevent doctors & patients from carcinogenic & mutagenic effects of surgical smoke, produced during surgeries. It has been granted Design Registration No. 320342-001.
Another product is “DEESCOPE: a novel integrated system for gynecological examination” by a team lead Dr. Deeksha Pandey (Manipal University) and it received Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) 2018 from BIRAC (Patent pending).
This set-up the blueprint for a future edition of the program which is now officially announced as part of SIB-SHINE center. The program shares similarity with Stanford-India Biodesign program launched in 2007 as a collaboration between Stanford University, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. With many success stories this school transitioned to School of International Biodesign (SIB) based at AIIMS/IIT Delhi in the year 2014 with support from DBT and Ministry of Science and Technology (Government of India) in collaboration with QUT Australia and Hiroshima University, Japan.
Considering the growing need for similar programs to tap the unmet needs of the healthcare sector and recent success stories from the IITK incubation center, SIB-SHINE centre will take innovation to the next level. With ample indigenous resources available, this center will provide a unique one-year fellowship to doctors and engineers. Fellows will stay at KGMU to understand the issues faced by clinicians daily and to design and develop solutions for identified problems at IIT Kanpur. Institute now harbors Medical Device Rapid testing facility & EMI/EMC testing facility, funded by BIRAC and newly established Centre for Engineering in Medicine, funded by Mehta Family Foundation to support prototype/product development. The product development process will be accelerated by testing by devices in the clinical setup at KGMU which will help in better quality product development before clinical trials. SIB-SHINE centre is the right stepping stone at the right time when India needs more efforts for “Make in India” and “Make for India“. Looking forward to hearing numerous success stories from this center.
Photo credits: IIT Kanpur
