Exclusive: NIMHANS Signs MoU with IIIT-B to Boost Healthcare & Tech Initiatives

Dr Rao said that the MoU will consolidate existing partnerships, expand the collaborators and partners and get students interested in IT and healthcare.

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS) has signed an MoU with International Institute of Information Technology-Bengaluru for IT-enabled joint initiatives. The MoU marks an extension in partnership between the two organisations.

The MoU was signed between Prof Dr Pratima Murthy, director; NIMHANS, Prof. Debabrata Das, director IIT-B.

IIIT-B has been working on several national, state-level initiatives as well as local initiatives within NIMHANS. As a technology partner, it has been involved in innovative activities including sample tracker, digital psychological interventions, digital histopathology, data privacy and management of healthcare data, etc.

The two organisations have also launched academic activities and exchange programs on a knowledge-sharing basis.

IIIT-B and NIMHANS Partnership

The Institutes entered into a research collaboration agreement in 2016, to accelerate the research efforts in both institutes in areas of mutual interest, by leveraging the information technology related skills from IIIT-B and the medical domain expertise from NIMHANS.

Over the years IIIT-B has developed various IT-enabled solutions for NIMHANS including development of IT solutions for public health management, mobile apps for depression therapy and wellness assessment, solutions for automation in large hospitals, devices for surgical robotics and rehabilitation therapy, and management and analysis of healthcare data.

IIIT-B is also a technical partner for TeleMANAS- an ambitious national program launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2022. The initiative provides free tele-mental health services all over the country round the clock, particularly catering to people in remote or under-served areas. The programme includes a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence and NIMHANS acts as a nodal centre.

What Does the MoU Signify?

Commenting on the long-standing partnership between NIMHANS and IIIT-B, Dr Girish Rao told DHN that the latest MoU marks a renewal of the collaboration between the two to focus and strengthen ongoing activities.

“The MoU will consolidate our existing partnership for ongoing activities. We are looking forward to more formal collaborations, expanding the collaborators and partners in each institution and also getting students interested in doing IT and Healthcare related activities,” said Dr Rao

Since Covid-19 pandemic, IT and Healthcare industry growth has accelerated globally. According to Dr Rao, a greater number of IIIT-B students are interested in pursuing their careers in this field.

IIIT-B is also a technical partner for TeleMANAS- an ambitious program launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2022. The initiative provides free tele-mental health services all over the country round the clock, particularly catering to people in remote or under-served areas. The programme includes a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence and NIMHANS acts as a nodal centre.

“IIIT-B is driving the technology, analytics and also helping us facilitate the entire monitoring of the program,” Dr Rao said.

He also highlighted that IITB serves as a catalyst in redefining network paradigms to ground zero. “We are looking at establishing a research platform and ecosystem aligned with global standards, aimed at enabling organisations to leverage cutting-edge research opportunities in the foreseeable future,” he said.