medical research – The KGP Chronicle

Stepping-up Health Tech

IIT KGP and ICMR Collaboration for Mega Boost to Medical Technology Industry and Healthcare Ecosystem of India

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IIT Kharagpur is going to set up a Centre of Excellence on Medical Device and Diagnostics to foster innovation of affordable and indigenous medical devices and diagnostics in priority areas and promote entrepreneurship. The proposal has recently been accepted for funding of ₹20 crore by Indian Council of Medical Research.

In January 2020, ICMR had given a call for setting up a Centre of Excellence based on which IIT Kharagpur had proposed for the set up with thrust areas encompassing artificial intelligence in healthcare, medical devices for screening and diagnostics in healthcare, medical implants, biosensors in healthcare etc.

“We thank ICMR, the apex body of Government of India spearheading biomedical research, for entrusting us with this responsibility. We look forward to working closely with ICMR and making meaningful contributions through these efforts. We had a rewarding experience in engaging with ICMR through a pilot ICMR – IIT Kharagpur MedTech internship program that drew great interest among engineering and medical students,” said Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

India’s population size makes her healthcare challenges particularly the needs of the marginalized population in remote areas, unique, which require indigenous solutions. Accessibility and affordability have to be two key pillars of India’s medical technology development efforts. The coming together of ICMR and IIT Kharagpur is expected to give a big boost to already initiated R & D efforts at IIT Kharagpur that aim to lessen the burden of present pandemic. Further in the long run, this association will help the Institute achieve the goals set for the upcoming Dr. B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research, a R & D driven super-speciality hospital followed by the first of its kind medical college in the IIT system.

“Recently we heard that people residing in nearby areas of West Bengal and neighboring states of Jharkhand and Odisha are feeling hopeful that the burden of accessing healthcare facilities on patients and their families would be reduced with the upcoming superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur. This can be taken further by catering to the need of a patient to visit a hospital through technology enabled healthcare at home and local level. The ICMR-IIT KGP Centre of Excellence will carry this responsibility forward with the much needed boost by bringing medical and technology domains together” said Director Tewari.

The centre will target to develop marketable technologies in a mission oriented time frame and use this experience to achieve longer-term goals to address challenging problems in the field of medical devices and diagnostics. Also, new intellectual property generation and a clearly defined licensing path will be the priority of the centre. Further the centre will try to extend medical technology related support to other organizations including different centres of ICMR.

For Project Information: Prof. Goutam Saha, gsaha@ece.iitkgp.ac.in

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IIT KGP Lends Support to COVID Quarantine

The super-specialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur, to be named after Dr. B C Roy, has become COVID Quarantine Centre for Inter-state Travelers to West Bengal

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IIT Kharagpur’s super-specialty hospital has been busy for the past few weeks. While the facility is yet to be operationalized, who are these people walking into the hospital?

About a month back, with the announcement of the lockdown, a large influx of people moved to the borders of Bengal from various southern states with medical documents. They were patients and their families returning from Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vellore after undergoing treatment or health check-ups. As per hygiene and safety protocols they were scheduled to be tested for COVID. But testing about 300 people would have taken extensive facilitation for the local state administration. Here is where IIT Kharagpur came to the rescue. About 9200 sq.m. area spread over two floors of the superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur was made available to the district administration of Paschim Medinipur to be used as a quarantine facility for these passerbys.

The phase I of the IIT Kharagpur super specialty hospital was scheduled to start its outpatient department in June-July. Following this, the phase with 400 beds was planned to be extended with the launch of inpatient specialties encompassing Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Medical & Surgical Gastroenterology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Urology and Nephrology. The phase II was scheduled at a later stage with an additional 350 beds and Comprehensive Cancer Care, Radiology etc.

Registrar Prof. Bhrigu Nath Singh said, “We were ready with the structural construction though the handover from the construction company L&T was not taken due to some LAN, integration of modular OTs and few service lifts related works which are going on and expected to be completed shortly after lockdown period is over. Most of the medical equipment for OPD was already procured, hiring of medical doctors/visiting consultants/staff was going on since last year, advertisements were already placed for Medical Superintendent and Chief Administrative Officer.”

Due to COVID lockdown the plan had to be stalled. The work can now be resumed only after the situation normalizes following a revised schedule with the OPD launch expected to be postponed until the end of this year.

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur who has been busy reaching out to campus residents and students in small groups shared his delight to have been able to facilitate this initiative.

“The upcoming hospital is rightly being used to serve its cause towards the healthcare of the people even before its launch. We received a request from the office of the District Magistrate about three weeks back and immediately communicated our agreement towards it. We are in contact with district administration and the local community and ready to offer necessary help within our capacity,” he said.

What made the hospital appropriate for COVID quarantine?

Vaibhav Chaudhary, IAS, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kharagpur said, “We had about 300 people coming in after the lockdown was implemented and they were stuck at the border as they could not travel further into the state without being tested for COVID. While we could test 50 samples in a day, we needed a facility to accommodate the others. The hospital facility was well suited for the purpose with the huge available area, built-in structure, adequate toilets, electricity. Even the elevators were put into operation.”

He further remarked, “the location of the hospital was a vantage point as it is away from inhabited rural areas due to which we could avoid any speculation among the local community regarding accommodating these people.”

Chaudhary confirmed building temporary wooden compartments to ensure social distancing within the allocated areas. The district administration had also arranged for meals and other necessary items for those accommodated in this facility.

“We shall continue to use the facility for further batches of people coming in for reasons as considered acceptable to the state administration,” he added.

Left with a new hope

This initiative inadvertently has given a preview of IIT Kharagpur’s superspecialty hospital to the people for the first time. Those who were quarantined at the facility were not only overwhelmed witnessing the facility but also left with the hope that they might just find the answer to their prayer for best-in-class healthcare well within their reach and budget. Many of them, who are native of various remote areas in the districts of southern West Bengal, have to frequent hospitals elsewhere in India. Apart from the financial burden the journey itself takes a toll on their health. They are now pinning their hope that this hospital would become the one-stop facility for their healthcare needs.

And the corona war continues

The Indian Air Force on Sunday (May 3, 2020) held flypast and showered flowers at the Institute’s medical facility to salute the corona warriors.

The Institute apart from delving in R&D to fight COVID-19 is also engaging in social outreach to help large sections of people. Last month IIT Kharagpur also launched an initiative to support about 10000 people around the campus who are dependent on the campus for their livelihood through various temporary jobs. The alumni of the Institute are donating funds generously to sustain these people who are affected by the COVID-19 lockdown for a few months through supply of food and essential items and PPEs. The Institute has also contributed Rs. 1 crore to the PM Cares fund raised from employees and other sources. A disinfection tunnel for inbound vehicles and good carriers has also been built coupled with WHO approved sanitization facilities such as hand wash, appropriate use of PPEs.

New Repurposed Drugs & Methodology Identified by IIT Kharagpur Researchers

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Researchers from the School of Medical Science & Technology at IIT Kharagpur have identified new drug repurposing candidates for induction of fetal hemoglobin to treat beta-thalassemia patients

Blood disorders or hemoglobinopathies such as beta-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia affect millions. Drug-induced increase in fetal hemoglobin has been shown to improve the condition of those affected with these blood disorders. But these drugs have side-effects. Scientists are exploring if ‘repurposed’ or existing drugs can be used to treat these disorders. To find out which drugs could be used for possible repurposing the researchers at the Regenerative Medicine Lab at School of Medical Science and Technology of IIT Kharagpur studied the working of microRNAs which regulate the pathways along which the production of fetal hemoglobin is stimulated.

The researchers observed Curcumin, found in turmeric, and Ginsenoside, found in the roots of Ginseng, both known for their medicinal properties, could go a long way in treating blood disorders like thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. These two plant ingredients, together with approved drugs such as Valproate and Vorinostat were found to be ‘most suitable for future clinical trials’.

The researchers also studied how miRNAs work, how they regulate gene expressions and also which chemical molecules affect their expression pattern. The team at SMST used several bioinformatics tools to match differentially expressed miRNAs with differentially expressed genes (as found in publicly available datasets) and identify their pathways. The team has also devised a database called “miRwayDB” to provide comprehensive information of experimentally validated microRNA-pathway associations in various diseases. As many as 19 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in those who had high fetal hemoglobin levels in their blood. The team also identified some unique small molecules that strongly affected the expression of those 19 miRNAs.

Of the five molecules identified by the research, three – 5’-aza 2’-deoxycytidine, Valproate and Vorinostat – are commonly used to treat other diseases. For example, Valproate is used to treat seizure disorders in childhood and Vorinstat is an anticancer agent.

“These identified markers expand our understanding of fetal hemoglobin regulatory mechanism and may have importance in designing new therapeutic strategies to reactivate its production in patients with hemoglobin disorders,” said Prof. Nishant Chakravorty, who heads the Regenerative Medicine Lab and the team at SMST.

The study was conducted by Prof. Chakravorty, his student at SMST, Mr. Sankha Subhra Das, and Dr. Rashmi Sinha of IIT Kharagpur’s in-house medical facility B.C. Roy Technology Hospital and published in the “Gene” journal.

“Medical practitioners nowadays widely use repurposed drugs. An example is Sildenafil, which is used to treat impotence in males as well as neonatal pulmonary hypertension,” said Dr. Anish Chatterjee (MBBS, DCH, MD-Paediatrics), Professor, Dr. B C Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences. Dr Chatterjee believes that research into repurposing of drugs is important and could even lower the cost of medical treatment as cheaper drugs, instead of costly ones presently used, could be used to treat diseases.

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IIT Kharagpur’s Healthcare Ecosystem

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The superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur, Dr B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research, is expected to start the outdoor patient department by the end of this year. The indoor facilities in the first phase with 400 beds are scheduled to start next year.

In a recent interaction with Officiating Director Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, he confirmed that once the hospital is operational, the MBBS programme will be rolled out for 50 students in phase I. The course curriculum will be as per MCI guidelines.

Phase II Development

There is a further plan to extend the number of seats to 100 with the scaling up of the hospital to 750-bed in phase II. Postgraduate degrees will be introduced eventually. Health care data sciences and data analytics would also be among the primary thrust areas as IIT Kharagpur ventures deeper into medical research.

Hospital Management

While the MBBS and postgraduate degrees along with the academic affairs will be managed by IIT Kharagpur, the day-to-day hospital management will be run by the special purpose vehicle floated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The hospital’s board of directors will be headed by the IIT Kharagpur director and will include senior IIT faculty.

Societal Outreach

A key initiative of the hospital would be to cater to the huge community who are currently away from the reach of superspecialty healthcare services either due to distance or affordability.

The hospital will be run on a cross-subsidy model in a not-for-profit mode. While 10% of the beds would be free, 65% of the beds would be charged as per the rates in the central and state health insurance schemes ~ said Prof. Bhattacharyya.

Anticipating a heavy influx of patients, the Institute has decided to set up mobile healthcare units to cater to the healthcare needs in the immediate neighbourhood.

Basic diagnostics and treatment will be done by these mobile units, which will reduce the patient load in the hospital ~ said Dr Satadal Saha, project director and visiting faculty at IIT Kharagpur.

The Healthcare Ecosystem

Health ecosystem and not just a hospital, as Prof. Saha calls Dr B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research, it will cover the entire spectrum of tertiary healthcare, high-quality medical education (undergraduate and postgraduate), allied health education (nurses, allied health professionals), inter- and multi-disciplinary research that brings all three stakeholders – doctors, engineers and patents –together; rural primary care and public healthcare, technology innovations that work in the resource-constrained environment of extreme-point-of-care, and a sustainable model that holds the entire elements together in a synergistic manner.

Collaborations

The Institute has already formed collaborations with All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, Tata Medical Center, South Eastern Railway Hospital. The Institute has also set up a Common Research & Technology Development Hub supported by DSIR to promote healthcare technology innovation and supporting manufacturing by MSMEs.

What are the faculty members saying?

I am very excited to know that the hospital is being set up next to IIT Kharagpur campus with a key focus on education and research which will help us a great deal to attain our goals. Without any active collaboration between clinicians and scientists, we will never reach the higher goal of serving our society by alleviating the disease burden ~ said Prof. Ritobrata Goswami, Assistant Professor, School of Bioscience at IIT Kharagpur.

This will lead to the development of better therapeutics and possible early detection devices that will be affordable to all. Such collaboration will fetch competitive research grants and will potentially lead to high-quality research publications and patent applications. This will definitely fulfill the aspirations of a lot of faculty members like me on the campus.