IIT Jodhpur & AIIMS Jodhpur co-host first Indian conference on Medical Technologies Innovations (ICMI 2023)

New Delhi: The first Indian conference on medical technologies innovations (ICMI 2023) was jointly hosted by Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur and AIIMS Jodhpur from 24th to 26th February 2023. This one-of-a-kind conference was initiated by the students of the medical technologies programs jointly offered by IIT Jodhpur and AIIMS Jodhpur.

The programs in medical technologies are a first-of-its-kind program in the country offering Masters, PhD and Masters-PhD dual degrees. Initiated in 2020, this is a multi-disciplinary program to produce deep-tech innovators in the field of Medical Technologies fuelled by the need for disruptive healthcare technologies, interdisciplinary breakthroughs, the global and national need for healthcare innovation, in the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat, Digital Health Mission and Make in India.

ICMI 2023 brought together leading experts in engineering, medicine, industry and innovators from India and across the world to explore critical topics, share visions for the future, and build together. The conference started with a pre-conference seminar by Dr Vikram Sudarsan (President and CEO, Engrail Therapeutics, Inc. USA) on 19th February 2023. From 23rd to 25th February, ICMI was attended by more than 300 attendees from across the country, including IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, AIIMS Delhi, Datta Meghe University of Health Sciences Wardha and many more from academia, MedTech industry, research organizations and incubation centres. ICMI 2023 was inaugurated at Jodhpur club, IIT Jodhpur.

The Inaugural session included opening remarks by Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director of IIT Jodhpur, emphasizing that the joint MedTech Programs are Innovative programs that lead to a pathway of innovation to start up with Needs from real-life problems with deep-tech solutions. Dr Madhabanand Kar (Executive Director, AIIMS Jodhpur) applauded the coming together of Engineers and Physicians to develop technologies for the benefit of humankind as a unique collaborative effort and congratulated the programs for creating many opportunities for make in India.

Dr Sanjeev Misra, former director of AIIMS Jodhpur, who was involved with Prof Chaudhury from the program’s inception, also joined online. He remarked on the First of its kind program in the country, allowing Doctors and engineers to work together, providing a platform for innovation to translation.

The Plenary talk by Prof Anurag Agrawal (Dean, BioSciences and Health Research, Ashoka University, India) titled Chatbots to robots started with Dr Agarwal sharing poetry created by chatGPT for the MedTech programs at jodhpur. Dr Agarwal reiterated the collaborative problem-solving for future global health and MedTech solutions and added “In Biomedicine, there may be no or many right answers to the same questions”.

Dr Geetha Manjunath (Founder and CEO, of Niramai, Health Analytix) shared her entrepreneurial journey in creating a novel software-based medical device for the early detection of breast cancer. The inaugural session ended with the coordinators of the joint programs, Dr Sushmita Jha, from IIT Jodhpur and Dr Shilpi Gupta Dixit from AIIMS Jodhpur, inviting the attendees to the poster and scientific sessions as well as Avinya, the MedTech Hackathon (more than 80 individuals participated in Avinya).

Day 2 of ICMI-2023 started with Innovator talks by Arun Agarwal, (founder of Janitri and participant getting the biggest investment on Shark Tank India), Dr Raj Doshi (Director, India Program, Stanford University Byers, Center of Biodesign), Dr Amit Jotwani (Oncologist, Co-Founder Director, CMS at Onco.com & Onco Cancer Centers), Dr Gautam Das (Co-Founder and MD Mibiome therapeutics), Dr Bala Pesala (Founder and CEO Ayur.AI), and Ramkrishna Rao (Director R&D GE Healthcare). Talks were followed by an interactive discussion session with all the speakers including Dr Pankaj Chhatrala (CEO, Orthoheal) and Geethanjali Radhakrishnan (CEO and MD Adivuo Diagnostics) discussing the trials and tribulations of the start-up journey.

The poster sessions and Scientific talks by selected participants were judged by an eminent jury while the MedTech exhibition and networking area allowed for unstructured interaction among participants. The Avinya Hackathon was a Student Centric Event, Exploring Unmet Clinical Needs with Clinical Immersion. It allowed teams of doctors and engineers to work together and explore Deep Tech solutions for medtech challenges as Start-up ideas and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges on the valedictory ceremony was conducted at Auditorium of AIIMS, Jodhpur. Awards for different categories were given; 1. Best team for problem Identification: Iron Tablets; 2. Best team for Pitch deck: visual panacea; 3. Best team for business aspect and market research: pulmoheal; 4. Best team for technology application: Neurokit; 5. Best team for social impact: DocTob; 6. Best team efforts: Sabas.

Dr. Santanu Chaudhary, Director IIT Jodhpur and Dr. Kuldeep Singh AIIMS Jodhpur gave the prizes to the Avinya winners. Avinya winners also received cash prizes & will receive mentoring support from both institutes. The event’s grand success concluded with an announcement of the next ICMI from 1-3rd February 2024 at Jodhpur and a vote of thanks by the local chairs of ICMI 2023, Dr Pradeep Dwivedi (AIIMS Jodhpur) and Dr Siddharth Srivastava (IIT Jodhpur).