GUWAHATI, : Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute - AAHII at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati today, 14th April 2023.
Speaking during the event Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, said, "Today the Northeast region of our country received a boost in the healthcare infrastructure. I am honored to dedicate the first AIIMS of the Northeast and three medical colleges to the people of Assam. I am happy to note the Assam Advanced Healthcare Innovation Institute being set up in collaboration between the Govt. of Assam and IIT Guwahati will foster innovative healthcare solutions. Let us come together and make sure we work in harmony and follow 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Prayas, Sabka Vikas, to achieve our target of Swasth Bharat, Samridh Bharat."
Speaking during the event Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, said, "On the auspicious occasion of Bohag Bihu we welcome Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji to Assam. IIT Guwahati and Assam Government had envisioned a medical college where Engineers and Doctors will work together toward Medical Innovation. Hon'ble Prime Minister has helped us realise Assam's dream. Today he will lay the foundation of AAHII on the IIT Guwahati campus. In this healthcare and innovation Institute, doctors will work towards Medical Innovation and engineers will work to make Healthcare 'Atma Nirbhar'. We believe in the next three years this medical college will establish the synergy between technology and healthcare."
The Assam Advanced Health Innovation Institute (AAHII) is a unique partnership between the Government of Assam and IIT Guwahati to set up a healthcare Research Institution to leverage advanced technologies to transform medical science. The Institute will also offer Advanced Medical Degrees in Diplomate of National Board (DNB), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of philosophy (PhD), Master of Surgery (MS), and MD-PhD programs.
Speaking during the event Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, Officiating Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “AAHII will create a single umbrella under which physicians, scientists, engineers, doctors, design personnel, and regulators will work together to invent and innovate technologies and cater the divergent needs of the people of Assam. AAHII will comprise of three major verticals, (i) an R&D Block, (ii) a 500-bed super-speciality hospital and (iii) a Post-graduate medical college. The R&D Block will initially start with six centres of excellence for cutting-edge research in Stem cell, digital health, Therapeutics (drug design, delivery, informatics), Precision medicine, Robotics and Affordable diagnostics. The super-speciality hospital will fill the current void in Assam and North-east of India by providing advanced Robotic surgery, comprehensive Transplant surgery, Gene therapy, Precision Medicine, Complex Trauma care, cutting-edge Neonatology, Neurosurgery, and complex Cardiac procedures among others.”
AAHII to be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), namely, Assam Government IITG Healthcare Foundation – AGIHF, which is a joint venture between Government of Assam and IIT Guwahati. In the near future, this SPV will invite participation from corporates, business houses, research institutions and philanthropic organizations to collaborate on healthcare research and innovations.
AAHII will be a nationally and internationally ‘Connected’ hospital cum research hub, thus enabling skill and knowledge transfer to the peripheral hospitals empowering them for better patient management through enhanced skills. AAHII will possess a Simulation lab integrated with Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR-VR) facilities that will uplift the skills of the doctors, nurses and other health workers. Through integrated and seamless functioning between these elements, AAHII will provide the foundation for evidence-based healthcare delivery to the State as well as to the country.
Over the years, IIT Guwahati is working tirelessly in collaboration with the central and state authorities toward revolutionizing the health sector in the North-East region by developing a digital highway for the stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem while ensuring accessibility, affordability, inclusivity, and interoperability. The foundation stone to setup AAHII by the Hon’ble Prime Minister is another major step to fulfil this vision.
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ABOUT IIT GUWAHATI
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati established in 1994 has completed 25 years of glorious existence in 2019. At present, the Institute has eleven departments, nine inter-disciplinary academic centres and five schools covering all the major engineering, science, healthcare, management and humanities disciplines, offering BTech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc, MBA and PhD programmes. The institute offers a residential campus to 435 faculty members and more than 8,000 students at present.
IIT Guwahati has retained the 7th position among the best engineering institutions of the country and 8th position in ‘Overall’ Category in the ‘India Rankings 2022’ declared by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.
IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities – under 50 years of age – ranked by London-based Times Higher Education (THE) in 2014 and continues to maintain its superior position even today in various International Rankings. IIT Guwahati gained rank 37 globally in the ‘Research Citations per Faculty’ category and overall 384 rank in the QS World University Rankings 2023 released recently.
Among other frontier areas of research and innovation, IIT Guwahati is working towards augmenting critical science research initiatives in Genomics, Developmental Biology, Health Care and Bioinformatics and Flexible Electronics, among numerous other areas.
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