BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday laid the foundation stone of the Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) University at Haridamada near IIT-Bhubaneswar.
With an investment of Rs 240 crore, the university campus will be built on an area of 20 acre in phases and it will house the most sophisticated laboratories and teaching infrastructure. AIPH is the only entity in the country conducting public health education, research and service with expertise in all major domains of public health.
Speaking on the occasion, AIPH Director Dr PR Misra said the first-of-its-kind university will add a new dimension to the educational hub of Odisha along side of IIT, NISER and AIIMS. “Though India has over 500 medical colleges, AIPH is the only institution that imparts required education at Masters and PhD level in the major domains of public health and conducts population-based hospital and laboratory research,” he said.
AIPH was established in 2009 to bring the much needed expertise in various domains of public health to Odisha. Later, a world class research in neonatal and infant infections was launched in collaboration with University of Maryland and headed by Prof Pinaki Panigrahi with funding from the National Institutes of Health, USA.
“A community-based research conducted over 450 villages in Khurda and Sundargarh in partnership with the State Government led to drastic reduction of neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate in the districts,” said Prof Panigrahi. AIPH university was the first unitary public health university to get the nod of the State Assembly.
Vice-Chancellor of AIPH University Dr J Mahapatra said the university will offer BSc, MSc, and PhD level courses on various health-related management domains. New research areas will include cancer epidemiology, cardio-vascular and chronic diseases, environmental exposures, big data analytics, and microbiome, he added.