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The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences to advance innovation in healthcare through indigenous solutions.

The MoU was signed in the presence of the main members from both the institutes, including Director of IIT Kanpur Prof Abhay Karandikar, and Director of SGPGIMS Prof RK Dhiman.

Under the MoU, a Centre of Excellence will be set up by the institutes in healthcare and telemedicine robotics with a comprehensive objective of strengthening the healthcare system. The institutes have agreed to set up a R&D (Research and Development) establishment to promote telemedicine assisted by ICT and 5G, and point-of-care testing and diagnostics.

Prof Karandikar, on the occasion, said,"The MoU is a timely step in the right direction to enable an exchange of ideas across engineering and medicine as professionals from IIT Kanpur will receive the opportunity to collaborate with specialised doctors at SGPGI, Lucknow".

Under the joint initiative, various courses will be launched in different streams of digital health which are currently not available in any medical and engineering educational institutions across the country, added Prof Dhiman.

He further added that telemedicine technology has become a very popular and useful tool, especially in the current corona pandemic, to fill the gap between care providers and citizens. So, there is a need to develop an affordable and easily accessible indigenous technology platform and systems.