| School of Medical Science and Technology Hindi: आयुर्विज्ञान एवं प्रोधोगिकी स्कूल |
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|---|---|
| Established | 2001 |
| Type | Education and Research Institution |
| Endowment | Government funded |
| Head | Prof. P.K. Dutta[1] |
| Academic staff | 11 |
| Postgraduates | 10 per year (MMST) |
| Location | Kharagpur, West Bengal, India |
| Nickname | SMST |
| Affiliations | Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur |
| Website | http://www.smstweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/index.php |
The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) (Hindi: आयुर्विज्ञान एवं प्रोधोगिकी स्कूल) is a educational and research institute affiliated to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.[2] Founded in 2001 the school of Medical Science and Technology is the first and also the "only" of its kind in the country to have doctors, scientists and engineers to work collaboratively on various projects for better healthcare. The school is currently offers the following courses- Master of Medical Science & Technology (MMST) and PhD. The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has described SMST as an innovative model which integrates the two diverse disciplines of engineering and medicine and signal new directions in medical education and healthcare delivery .[3]
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The School is located inside the Vikramshila complex in new academic campus of IIT Kharagpur. The Institute is about 5 km from the Kharagpur railway station.
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 first and only one of its kind in India, this school was an attempt to train M.B.B.S doctors in the engineering aspects of medicine in a rigorous and compressed format for two years followed by a year of internal or external training. Later it also opened up its arms to PhD students who are a part of its research.
While addressing the 57th Annual Convocation and Launching of Diamond Jubilee of IIT, Kharagpur in August, 2011 The Prime Minister Singh said that.[3]
| “ | 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. | ” |
The courses offered by the institute are:
The school runs a Masters degree in Medical Science and Technology, a 3 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.[4]
The institute is offers PhD in several areas related to medical technology.
The school offers a Masters degree in Medical Imaging and Image Analysis, a 2 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 first year students under go 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.
During second year students have various options to do their project such as DAAD IIT Master Sandwich, internship in MNC, be a part selective ongoing projects, e.t.c
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.
The eligibility criterion for admission to MMST course is the MBBS Degree from a medical college recognised by Medical Council of India 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.[5] Few seats are also reserved for Arm forces personnel.
The final selection is strictly based on an objective type of entrance test conducted by the 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 Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi IIT campuses. Candidates qualifying in the admission test are called for counselling at IIT Kharagpur before final selection.
Through GATE (EE,EC,IN) and standard GATE rules apply.
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[6]:
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.
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 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 the[7]
Corporate collaborations include Texas Instruments (USA), Siemens (India) and Phillips Electronics India Ltd.
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 .[8] The research team is now 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 .[9]
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 .[10]
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur