The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) is an educational and research institute affiliated to the
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...
, India. Founded in 2001, the School of Medical Science and Technology brings together doctors, scientists and engineers to work collaboratively on projects for better healthcare.
The school offers the following courses: Master of Medical Science & Technology (MMST), M.Tech in Medical Imaging and Informatics, M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering, M.Sc.in Medical Physics, M.Sc. in Nuclear Medicine, M.Sc in Medical Molecular Microbiology and PhD Programs. Former Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
has described SMST as an innovative model which integrates the two diverse disciplines of engineering and medicine and signals new directions in medical education and
healthcare
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
delivery.
Location
The school is residing in third and fourth floor of Life Science Building, IIT Kharagpur. The institute is about 5 km from the Kharagpur railway station.
History
The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST), IIT Kharagpur, was started in 2001 to provide a platform of interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of
medical science
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...
and technology. The school began with a 3-year program to train doctors in the engineering aspects of medicine followed by a year of hands-on training. This was followed by a PhD program for research in
medical technology
Health technology is defined by the World Health Organization as the "application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of liv ...
. Later addressing the needs of graduate students, the school introduced masters progmams in
Medical Imaging
Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...
& Informatics and
Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic). BME is also traditionally logical sciences ...
.
While addressing the 57th Annual Convocation and Launching of Diamond Jubilee of IIT, Kharagpur in August 2011, Prime Minister Singh said that
Academics
The courses offered by the institute are:
Masters in Medical Science and Technology (MMST)
The school runs a master's degree in Medical Science and Technology, a three-year postgraduate course specially designed for
M.B.B.S
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United Kin ...
. graduates to train them in
clinical research
Clinical research is a branch of healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness ( efficacy) of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatm ...
and medicine. The aim is to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medicine and clinical research which can lead to a better integrated healthcare delivery system. Students spend first two years in doing various course works in medicine and clinical research etc.). The last year of course is reserved for internal or external training either in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
or abroad on actual research projects.
The students of MMST also serve as hospitalists at BC Roy Technology Hospital, a hospital with Intensive Care Unit and housing research labs for Medical Imaging, Instrumentation and
Telemedicine, clinical exposure provides in the clinical acumen the student for interdisciplinary research.
The students are exposed to all kinds of imaging modalities – microscopic and macroscopic – and will work on advanced image processing systems.
This programme imparts engineering
skills
A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of wo ...
to medical professionals and train them for the state-of-the-art medical research in frontier areas of Medical Imaging,
Molecular Imaging
Molecular imaging is a field of medical imaging that focuses on imaging molecules of medical interest within living patients. This is in contrast to conventional methods for obtaining molecular information from preserved tissue samples, such as ...
and
Image Analysis
Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading bar coded tags or as sophi ...
,
Biomaterials
A biomaterial is a substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose, either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair, or replace a tissue function of the body) or a diagnostic one. As a science, biomateria ...
and Implants,
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
,
Medical Statistics
Medical statistics deals with applications of statistics to medicine and the health sciences, including epidemiology, public health, forensic medicine, and clinical research. Medical statistics has been a recognized branch of statistics in the U ...
, Telemedicine, Biomedical Instrumentation, Early Detection of
Cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
, Immuno-technology, Recombinant
DNA Technology, Biomedical Simulation, Wound research and so on.
MTech in Medical Imaging and Informatics
The school offers a master's degree in Medical Imaging and Informatics, a two-year postgraduate course specially designed for BTech/B.E (Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation). From 2022, the M.Tech program in Medical Imaging and Informatics is offered jointly with the department of
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
, IIT Kharagpur. The aim of the course is to provide knowledge to design
CAD (computer aided diagnostics) system. During their first year students undergo course work, to name a few; PIMI (Physics and Instrumentation in Medical Imaging instruments like
ultra-sound
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...
,
C.T,
MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...
, etc.), Digital
Image processing
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
,
BioStatistics
Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experime ...
,
MEMS
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also written as micro-electro-mechanical systems (or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) and the related micromechatronics and microsystems constitute the technology of microscopic devices, ...
,
Pattern Recognition
Pattern recognition is the automated recognition of patterns and regularities in data. It has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphi ...
and
Machine Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech rec ...
in Medicine,
Computer vision
Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...
, Medical Image Analysis.
Second-year students have options to do projects such a
DAAD IIT Master Sandwich internship in MNC, be a part of selective ongoing projects, etc.
This programme helps students to apply their technical skills to assist repetitive work, reduce time requirement and improve the efficiency in the line of
diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...
under multiple medical imaging modalities.
The MTech students will be exposed to different aspects of translational health research which will include medical imaging and advanced image processing systems, biomedical signal processing BioMEMS and
sensors
A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...
, Biomedical Instrumentation,
Embedded systems
An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' as ...
,
Microfluidics
Microfluidics refers to the behavior, precise control, and manipulation of fluids that are geometrically constrained to a small scale (typically sub-millimeter) at which surface forces dominate volumetric forces. It is a multidisciplinary field tha ...
and point-of-care diagnostics, Biostatistics, Biomaterials, Regenerative Medicine, Cancer research,
Cardiovascular
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
research,
Immunology
Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see there ...
and
Immunotherapeutics, Biomarker Discovery,
Herbal medicine
Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...
, Clinical and
Epidemiological
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.
It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...
research and
Molecular virology
Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their ...
research.
MTech in Biomedical Engineering
The school recently introduced masters degree in
Biomedical Engineering.
PhD in Medical Science and Technology
The school offers PhD programs in the areas of core medical science, interdisciplinary medical science fusing engineering methodologies.
Admissions
Masters in Medical Science and Technology (MMST)
The eligibility criterion for admission to MMST course is the MBBS degree from a medical college recognised by
Medical Council of India
The Medical Council of India (MCI) was a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards of medical education in India until its dissolution on 25 September 2020 when it was replaced by National Medical Commission. The Council grante ...
(MCI) with a minimum of 55% marks in aggregate and having studied mathematics at +2 level (even as additional subject) or from any recognised Open University. Seats are reserved for backward class candidates and persons with
disability
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...
as per Govt. of India rules. Few seats are also reserved for Armed forces personnel.
![Night view lsb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Night_view_lsb.jpg)
The final selection is strictly based on an objective type of entrance test conducted by the Gate, IIT. The test includes objective questions from medical domain as well as from +2 level
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
,
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
and
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
. The entrance test is conducted annually, in the month of April at
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
(IIT Kharagpur extension campus). Candidates qualifying in the admission test are called for counselling at IIT Kharagpur before final selection.
MTech in Medical Imaging and Informatics
Admission for Medical Imaging and Informatics is through GATE (EE, EC, IN, BM, CS) score and happens in summer of every year.
MTech in Biomedical Engineering
Admission for Biomedical Engineering is through GATE (BM) score and happens in summer of every year.
Laboratories and facilities
The students at SMST have access to some of the finest infrastructure available in the country for interdisciplinary research and development activities, some of which are:
Names of the Laboratories:
* Bio-MEMS Lab
* Biomaterials and
Tissue Engineering
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...
Lab
* Biostatistics and Medical
Informatics
Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' ''Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which ...
Lab
* Cancer
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
Lab
* Epidemiology and
Public Health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
Lab
* Herbal Medicine lab
* Medical Instrumentation and Embedded Systems Lab
* Multimodal Imaging and Computing for
Theranostics
Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is a medical model that separates people into different groups—with medical decisions, practices, interventions and/or products being tailored to the individual patient based on thei ...
*
Reproductive Health
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, healthcare, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual wellbeing during all stages of their life.
The term can also be further de ...
Lab
Apart from these facilities, students have access to research labs of other departments and shared facilities at Central Research Facility (CRF) centre of IIT Kharagpur.
Collaborations and associated laboratories
The School of Medical Science and Technology is an
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
research department. Hence it works in close association with other departments at IIT, Kharagpur such as the Department of BioTechnology, and the Departments of
Material Sciences, Physics and
Meteorology
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
, Mathematics and
Statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
,
Electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
and
Communication
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
,
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
and
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
. SMST is also in close association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of BioTechnology (DBT) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for research activities.
The school has collaborations with many institutions and centres of excellence throughout the globe. Some of these international collaborations are:
*
Brain Science Institute, RIKEN,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
Corporate collaborations include
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
(USA),
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
(India) and
Phillips Electronics India Ltd, Bosch India etc.
Products and patents
The research team in the SMST is working on development of a low cost
total artificial heart (TAH) since last 4 years. The initial experiments on
goats
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of Caprinae, goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a membe ...
have shown promising results. The research team is waiting for the
Indian Council of Medical Research
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.
The ICMR is funded by the Gove ...
(ICMR) approval for human trials, which will be conducted at the
Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata
Calcutta Medical College, officially Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, is a public medical school and hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is the oldest existing hospital in Asia. The institute was established on 28 January 1835 by L ...
. This artificial heart will have significant cost advantages over the USA-made artificial hearts.
A notable example of a successful research project in collaboration with other universities is the
Reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance (RISUG) — a novel reversible
male contraceptive
Male contraceptives, also known as male birth control, are methods of preventing pregnancy that solely involve the male physiology. The most common kinds of male contraception include condoms, outercourse, and vasectomy. In domestic animals, cas ...
developed at SMST.
Future plans
The Institute is planning to set up a 400-bedded state-of-the-art medical hospital and research centre at the campus with a vision of becoming a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary research in medical domain. A foundation stone for this medical research centre was laid in 2007 by the then President
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...
.
The institute signed a $50-million MoU with the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
, San Diego in 2009 for this purpose.
This project got delayed because of the provisions of IIT act 1961, which prohibits IITs from entering into fields like medicine and tussle between different government ministries.
The institute was in constant touch with the
Ministry of Human Resource Development
The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...
and
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.
The Minister of Health and Family Welfare ...
to amend the IIT Act to give IITs autonomy to offer medical courses as well.
Finally, the Parliament passed the Institute of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2010, in April 2012. IIT is also in discussion with the
Medical Council of India
The Medical Council of India (MCI) was a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards of medical education in India until its dissolution on 25 September 2020 when it was replaced by National Medical Commission. The Council grante ...
for this project. In June 2012, IIT received fund of Rs 230 crore through a central grant for establishing the
medical college.
A 45-acre plot has been earmarked by IIT Kharagpur for what promises to be a modern green building with minimal
energy consumption
Energy consumption is the amount of energy used.
Biology
In the body, energy consumption is part of energy homeostasis. It derived from food energy. Energy consumption in the body is a product of the basal metabolic rate and the physical activity ...
and advance facilities.
Once this medical hospital and teaching institute starts functioning, the institute will offer MCI approved courses for MBBS, MD, MS and DM. The institute, in association with the University of California and
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
, will develop a teaching module which will comprise elements of
modelling, simulation and virtual reality in-addition to conventional medical wisdom to produce a new breed of tech-savvy doctors. In the first phase, the main focus will be on postgraduate courses. The number of beds would later be increased to 750.
See also
*
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...
*
Dr B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research
References
External links
SMST official siteDegree official siteIIT Kharagpur
{{DEFAULTSORT:School Of Medical Science And Technology
Educational institutions established in 2001
Universities and colleges in Paschim Medinipur district
IIT Kharagpur
2001 establishments in West Bengal