Innovations galore, NIMHANS and IIITB in Bengaluru extend MoU for 2 more years

NIMHANS on Monday signed an MoU to extend its existing agreement with IIITB for two more years. The existing MOU was for a three-year period, while the overall collaboration had been for about four years.

"On 26th January 2022, the dream is to have one platoon of paraplegic soldiers wear the exoskeleton developed by Bionic Yantra powered by IIITB and NIMHANS, and salute the national flag on Rajpat," said Karthik Kittu, Chief Innovation Officer, IIITB, about one of the many innovations of both the institutes over the past four years.

NIMHANS on Monday signed an MoU to extend its existing agreement with IIITB for two more years. The existing MoU was for a three-year period, while the overall collaboration had been for about four years.

Over the past four years, robust collaborations have been developed by faculty from both institutes in several areas. These include the development of IT solutions for public health management, mobile apps for depression therapy and wellness assessment, solutions for automation in large hospitals, devices for surgical robotics and rehabilitation therapy, and management and analysis of health care data.

Talking about IT solutions for public health management, TK Srikanth, Professor E-Health Research Center, IIIT Bangalore, said, "We have developed an internet application, an e-monitoring solution, which helps track the patient visits and programme activities of the District Mental Health Program in Karnataka, in collaboration with the state health department. This has been in use for over two years now."

NIMHANS and IIITB, in collaboration with the National Health Mission, Karnataka, are working on a system for managing aspects of mental health care across the state. Called the Karnataka Mental Health Management System, this maintains data on doctor visits by persons with mental illnesses, and also enables compliance to the Mental Healthcare Act 2017. This software solution will be launched in March 2020.

A mobile and desktop app, PUSH-D, was also launched in late 2016. This is intended to be a self-help therapy tool for persons with mild to moderate depression, who are also tech-savvy. This allows them to work with the therapy and other resources in a private setting, and minimise the need for clinic visits. Another app, Wellness Check, helps individuals perform a self-assessment of their psychological and social well-being, and distress levels.

Both these apps are available at echargementalhealth.nimhans.ac.in and on Google Play Store.

"As an example, we have developed a software solution to track the processing of biopsy samples in the Neuropathology lab at NIMHANS. This provides real-time information on the status of processing of each sample, reduces manual activities, and reduces chances of errors," Professor Srikanth added.

The two institutes have also developed assistive devices to help people with neurological and related conditions. For example, exoskeletons for the lower limb and upper limb to assist in post-surgery therapy. "We have also worked on a set of robotic devices that can be of assistance in surgery, including a hyper-flexible robot for cranial surgery," Srikanth said.