Novel initiative a boost for medical research
On February 14 this year, a new initiative got a major push in Bengaluru. It promises to usher in a breath of fresh air in medical treatment and research, integrated with science and engineering. Two MindTree co-founders and their wives jointly made one of the largest-ever private donations of Rs 425 crore to India’s premier scientific institute, the 113-year-old Indian Institute of Science (IISc), to set up a 800-bed hospital with an attached medical school and laboratory, which will offer a six-year dual MD-PhD programme.
The initiative is being touted as a pioneer in India with a hospital-cum-medical school functioning in an integrated manner to enable medical research while offering quality treatment to patients—a trend common in the sphere of medical education and research in the West. The facility, expected to be functional in two years, will allow seamless integration of clinical practices and laboratory research to help create a generation of hybrid physician-scientists well versed with practical and academic aspects of medicine. The timing of this concept couldn’t have been better, considering that it is taking shape while the country is just getting out of the third wave of Covid, having learned valuable, albeit hard, lessons from the pandemic.
With a large philanthropic involvement and proactive medical and research-oriented objectives, the concept can serve as an example for such institutions to crop up all over India. Not only will such hospital-cum-medical schools offer affordable opportunities to students aspiring for fulfilling careers, it will also significantly encourage medical science and research. This would directly benefit society within India and abroad. Tie-ups with similar institutions abroad and research exchange programmes yielding valuable knowledge exchange could propel medical research to higher levels. More importantly, closer collaborative involvement of government agencies with facilities like the one coming up on the IISc campus could go a long way in making medical treatment more easily accessible for people in remote rural areas.