CHENNAI: While India has emerged as a major healthcare destination in the recent times, it continues to import 90 per cent of its instruments and equipment from abroad. In a bid to reduce this dependency, the technology development and transfer division of the Department of Science and Technology along with the Anna University came up with the idea of establishing a national hub for healthcare instrumentation development in the university. The hub was inaugurated yesterday at the university campus by T Ramasami, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology. Anna University was also allocated Rs 12.4crore for establishing the facility over the next five years.“The NHHID will be a platform for integration of scientists, engineers, technologists, industrialists, businessmen and clinicians to develop indigenous healthcare products for the country,” said Mannar Jawahar, VC of Anna University. The hub is expected to work in the aspects of calibration standards, and facilities for the nation. “A consortium of Indian healthcare industries and hospitals would join hands with Anna university to promote this venture. Already 30 industry players have joined the forum,” Jawahar added. “In future the hub should develop into something like an All India Institute of Health Technology which will carry out cutting edge research in the field of medical instrumentation,” Jawahar added.“The focus of the hub should be on developing what the industry expects and meet the industry demands,” Ramasami said. “Healthcare instrumentation has so far remained one of the neglected areas of study,” he added.The inauguration was followed by a meeting between the DST officials and the healthcare industry participants to showcase the prototypes developed under the funding. Experts indicated that indigenous instrumentation facilities can bring down the cost of healthcare.
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