Assam: IIT Guwahati partners with NHM & Tata MD to establish a Digital Nerve Centre

Guwahati: The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam and Tata Medical & Diagnostics Ltd (Tata MD) to implement the Tata MD’s Healthcare Model for augmenting public healthcare delivery in the Kamrup district by establishing a Digital Nerve Centre.

The MoU was signed on Friday by Dr MS Lakshmi Priya, mission director, NHM Assam, Girish Krishnamurthy, MD & CEO, TATA MD, and Prof Parameswar K. Iyer, dean PRBR, IIT Guwahati.

The event was graced by Assam health minister Keshab Mahanta, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO TATA MD, Prof Rajeev Ahuja, officiating director, IIT Guwahati, and dignitaries from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, TATA MD and IIT Guwahati.

Speaking during the MoU signing event, Keshab Mahanta said, “We are extremely excited that Tata MD, under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, is setting up the transformative Digital Nerve Centre Model in Assam. We are grateful to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and IIT Guwahati for partnering in this initiative. With this MoU, we mark the beginning of a unique transformative journey that holds the promise of better health outcomes, enhanced accessibility and facilitate local employment in this project. We are committed to bringing advanced healthcare to every household with technological interventions. I believe this MoU will cater to the needs of the people in healthcare by providing easy access and better treatment.”

One major highlight of this project will be the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s involvement as the strategic partner to provide inputs and share learnings of adapting and implementing innovative models, as well as taking the learnings from the initiative to other states and globally to ensure more women and children have access to lifesaving care.

Dr. Rajani Ved, director-health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said, “We look forward to working under the guidance of the Ministry of Health, Government of Assam and partnering with Tata MD and IIT Guwahati to help in implementing innovative ideas and accelerating the progress to reach our common vision of health for all.”

To implement this project, a Digital Nerve Centre – Command Centre (Hub) will be established at the IIT Guwahati campus with technical, IT and physical infrastructure setup, and vendor coordination support from Tata MD. Another major initiative of this pilot project will be to set up Digital Nerve Centre (DiNC) components at Healthcare Centres in 30 District Hospital (DH), Community Health Centres (CHC), Primary Health Centres (PHCs), and Sub-centre (SC) in Assam.

Along with this, IIT Guwahati will provide office space to set up this centre at no cost, running and managing the operations at DiNC, and will conduct research and drive technology-led innovation in the healthcare domain.

Speaking about IIT Guwahati’s participation in this pilot project, Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, dean PRBR, IIT Guwahati, said, “We are extremely excited to host the Tata MD’s Digital Nerve Centre at IIT Guwahati campus. This collaboration is a unique example of Industry collaborating with Government and Academic institutes, in the delivery of healthcare to millions of people in the country. This project is an amalgamation of Technology, Processes, Networks and the masses, which serves as a robust ecosystem to deliver efficient healthcare to millions of citizens. We are elated to be the first Academic institute to deploy the pilot project with the support of NHM Assam, TATA MD and the Gates Foundation. This will provide a great opportunity for thousands of students at IIT to learn and practice innovative interventions in healthcare delivery.”

The Tata MD’s Healthcare Model for augmenting public healthcare delivery is a first-of-its-kind model in the North Guwahati block that will focus on enhancing government programmes, and providing continuous, connected, proactive, patient-centric, and closer-to-patient care services. The model will introduce four new layers such as network, platform, process, and people to provide end-to-end care coordination services to patients. Along with this, the existing health programs will also be augmented and delivered with close coordination with the Govt. of Assam - Health & Family Welfare Department, and all its stakeholders for a holistic healthcare transformation.