IIT Madras Students to be Taught by renowned surgeons, medical specialists

Chennai: Renowned surgeons and medical specialists will soon teach the students of IIT-Madras, who are pursuing bachelor of science programme in medical sciences and technology department.

The list of such surgeons includes the Director of MIOT Institute of Nephrology Rajan Ravichandran, cardiac surgeon Ajit Mullasari from Madras Medical Mission; cardio-thoracic surgeon K.R. Balakrishnan, chairman of the Institute of Cardiac Sciences and director of Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, MGM Healthcare; Karthik Kailash, head of Spine Surgery department, Sri Ramachandra University; ophthalmologist Rajiv Raman, senior consultant and retinal expert from Sankara Nethralaya.

Students of IIT-Madras will be taught by practising doctors and engineers so that they can become an important link in the future of clinical practice. 

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Commenting on this, the course coordinator R. Krishna Kumar told The Hindu that the treatment advice of these graduating students may prove to be a vital input for the treating physicians or surgeons.

Apart from this, this course will also help in the process of developing a strong research base for the students, medical practitioners have opined. Speaking about this, Director of MIOT Institute of Nephrology Rajan Ravichandran opined that the course would expose the engineers to various medical branches and “medical lines of thinking with an engineering mind.” This would make a great difference and help setting up a new specialty.

Dr Ajit Mullasari from Madras Medical Mission has opined that the students undergoing this course will have exposure to “a lot of medical technology, patient care and adapt it to use it for products and licences.” This would ultimately help in the process of betterment of healthcare infrastructure in India.

Referring to the course, Dr. K.R. Balakrishnan, chairman of the Institute of Cardiac Sciences, added that the course addressed a long-standing need for bringing together two disciplines. This would help in the progress of basic health issues. While commenting on the proposed research programme he opined that it would result in path-breaking work in the field of medical sciences.

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