BHUBANESWAR: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar has collaborated with Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR), Cuttack, for academic, research and comprehensive rehabilitation care.
The two national institutes will work on the referral of patients of neurology, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, burn and plastic surgery, paediatrics and medicine and departments of SVNIRTAR like physiotherapy, occupational therapy and orthopaedics to improve health care and research in specialised areas.
AIIMS executive director Dr Ashutosh Biswas said the collaboration will help expand rehabilitation care to other patient groups such as cardiovascular, mental and cancer. “We have also planned to design various short-term academic programmes in the form of fellowship, collaborative research, conduct symposia, colloquium, workshops, seminars and conferences on chosen topics and areas to train students in both the institutions,” he said.
Stating the Ministry of Health has been emphasising on collaborative research in mitigating and responding effectively to emerging health crises, Dr Biswas said, the Covid-19 pandemic taught the need for increased collaboration and synergy in the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. “We are hopeful that the association will significantly improve rehabilitation care in the state,” he added.
SVNIRTAR director Dr PP Mohanty said since the national locomotor rehabilitation care centre has been providing a wide range of rehabilitative care like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, the collaboration will give an opportunity for exposure to acute care at AIIMS.