NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from the old Indian Institutes of Technology, which were mentored extensively by different countries during their years of formation, new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences are all set to collaborate with top health institutes abroad.
These collaborations will be aimed at faculty exchange, learning best practices and coming together for research.
For now, talks are in advanced stages with Sweden and Japan to tie up for the new institutions at Jodhpur and Madurai while the government is also trying to tap the US, France and Germany for AIIMS institutes in other cities, sources in the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare said.
AIIMS, Jodhpur is set to tie up with Karolinska Institute, a research-led medical university, while Japan has in-principle agreed to support AIIMS, Madurai.
“The nature of these collaborations will be different from the IIT models, which were almost adopted by countries like Russia, USA and Germany and also received funding support till they matured,” said an official.
“The association that is now being chalked out with countries with which we have bilaterals on higher education is different as we are keen to learn and adopt practices, faculty assistance that will help our institutions evolve as quality medical research and teaching organisations.”
There have been 21 AIIMS institutions planned for the country, on the line of AIIMS, New Delhi, and 8 such institutes are already offering MBBS courses.