First of Its Kind ‘Medical Cobotics Centre (MCC)’ Inaugurated in New Delhi; to Foster Innovation in Healthcare

New Delhi : iHub Anubhuti-IIITD Foundation (Technology Innovation Hub of IIIT-Delhi) and iHub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC, Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Delhi) have inaugurated their joint medical facility, ‘MCC-Medical Cobotics Centre’ on the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi campus on Friday.

Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Secretary, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and Sr. Advisor, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, was the chief guest on this occasion.

The DST has funded this joint facility to be operated by iHub Anubhuti and IHFC under the NMICPS mission.

The Medical Cobotics Centre is aimed at being India’s first state-of-the-art technology-enabled medical simulation and training facility for doctors, paramedics, technicians, engineers, biomedical researchers, and entrepreneurs. The Centre is also equipped to offer hands-on simulation training to the medical fraternity across the country.

The training programs, ranging from basics to advanced, will be designed in consultation with leading doctors and experts, mainly drawn from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The Centre is also aimed at having cutting-edge technologies that will enable advanced medical research and development in the areas of healthcare robotics and digital healthcare.

The Centre will also act as a test bed for many young start-ups in the medical field that are developing innovations in medical technology in digital medical healthcare and healthcare using AR/VR, AI, cobotics, robotoics, cognitive sciences, and such. The MCC launched its first Call for Proposal for young start-ups, with funding up to Rs 1 crore available in digital healthcare and medical healthcare using the above application areas.

Speaking on this occasion, Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Secretary, SERB and Sr. Advisor, DST, said,” This inauguration marks a unique convergence of engineers and doctors, symbolizing the deep collaboration within this MCC and the importance of simulation in testing various medical technologies. In general, most people believe that doctors have unlimited abilities. However, it is important to understand that doctors are also humans who rely on technology to deliver effective treatments.”

“In a historic collaboration, two of the Technology Innovation Hubs under NM-ICPS, i.e., I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), the IIT Delhi’s Technology Innovation Hub (TIH), and iHub Anubhuti at IIIT Delhi have joined hands to establish India’s pioneering Medical Cobotics Centre (MCC) on IIIT Delhi campus in Okhla, New Delhi. This ground breaking initiative promises to usher a new era of medical innovations and technology advancements in the areas of Assistive Technology, Medical Simulation, Digital Health, Cobotics, and Cognitive Computing & Social Sensing”, said Dr. Ekta Kapoor, Scientist F at Govt. of India; Head, Frontier and Futuristic Technologies Division; and Head, National GLP Compliance Monitoring.

“IIT Delhi is delighted to announce the opening of the Medical Cobotics Centre. Healthcare and engineering combine to provide the next frontier. We believe the medical simulator will add on to our existing initiatives on medical devices like mPRAGATI to create an innovation ecosystem to provide modern healthcare and create partnerships between IIT Delhi, IIIT, AIIMS and other hospitals. We look forward to our Innovation Hub in Cobotics creating new cobotics based interventions and innovations for affordable healthcare”, said Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion of MCC’s inauguration, Prof. Ranjan Bose, Director, IIIT Delhi, said, “This is indeed a momentous occasion that the Technology Innovation Hubs of two top institutes have come together and are collaborating on a very important area – medical cobotics. There are some well-known advantages of medical cobotics where humans work alongside intelligent and automated technology to improve accuracy and efficiency without losing the human touch. I believe there is a natural synergy, as well as complementarity, in this partnership. Besides translational research leading to product development and startups, the Centre would also facilitate the training of healthcare professionals. This Centre would strive to develop smart solutions to improve the quality of patient care, augment operational efficiencies and create safer work environments for our healthcare practitioners.”
Government officials, top medical practitioners, and industry partners from TCS, AIIMS, Apollo, Max Healthcare and many more illustrious people related to the medical fraternity graced the opening ceremony and explored the various offerings of this one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art facility.