New Delhi: On Tuesday i.e. February 16, 2010, the medical expert committee declined the proposal of the Union Health Ministry to establish medical colleges and to initiate medical and surgical courses in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
Health Secretary Sujatha Rao, who supervises the expert committee meeting, said the IITs should not be treating diarrhea and tuberculosis, because they are known for their technical expertise in areas like biomedical engineering. The President of the Medical Council of India (MCI), Dr. Ketan Desai, said that IITs should be used to increase health care facilities, but not in the expense of weakening its core recognition.
However, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras were in support of establishing medical colleges within a Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach with major hospitals. Moreover, the top professionals in charge gave their approval to commence PhD programmes in the field of technology related streams of medicine, for example, e-health, tele-medicine and biomedical engineering imparted in eminent engineering and technology institutes of India.
