Building on the last three years’ effort of strengthening Assam’s public health system through world class, indigenous innovation, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, C-CAMP, a DBT-supported biotech innovation hub in Bengaluru, has signed a MoU with the Medical Education & Research Department (ME&RD), Govt of Assam towards focused innovation driven programs for improving technology adoption by healthcare practitioners, infrastructure upgrades and capacity-building.
The MoU was signed today at Dispur, Guwahati by C-CAMP Director and CEO, Dr Taslimarif Saiyed and Shri Siddharth Singh, IAS, Commissioner and Secretary, Medical Education and Research Department on behalf of the Govt of Assam in presence of Hon’ble Health Minister, Shri Keshab Mahanta.
Hon’ble Minister, Shri Mahanta said, “Today is an important day for us. From COVID times, C-CAMP has contributed and supported us in strengthening public health infrastructure. With this MoU both the Government of Assam and C-CAMP are reaffirming our commitment to the health sector and look forward to initiating critical projects in health like Retinopathy of Prematurity.”
Dr Saiyed said, “My thanks to the Govt of Assam for working extensively with us in bringing state-of-the-art healthcare technology to the people. This collaboration with the Department of Medical Education & Research will create impact by fostering meaningful connections between the innovation ecosystem and clinicians and caregivers in the field. This can change the game for technology adoption to impact public health delivery and accessibility in the state of Assam.”
In Assam, C-CAMP has implemented 3 key healthcare programs with funding support from national and international philanthropic organizations targeting important areas such as maternal and child healthcare, hospital infrastructure facility and immunization including COVID-19 drives.
307 units of limited-resource, respiratory support technology have been implemented, to cover 100% infrastructure requirement for newborn and pediatric critical care to all district hospitals and medical colleges in Assam.
A second project deployed 200 electronic temperature-regulated active vaccine carriers across 12 districts to strengthen last mile cold chain facilities for routine immunisation & COVID-19 vaccination.
C-CAMP has also set up an oxygen-supported 54 bedded augmented hospital facility at Uluoni CHC under Simonabasti BPHC, Nagaon. This was inaugurated in the presence of hon’ble minister Keshab Mahanta, with the support from Invest India and Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India.
Shri Siddharth Singh, IAS, Commissioner, Medical Education and Research Department, Govt of Assam said, “Department of Medical Education and Research has made progress in strengthening medical education and healthcare in Assam. With this partnership, we hope to identify solutions for scaling and strengthening our various ambitious healthcare initiatives in areas like Non-Communicable Disease Screening, especially Cancer screening with technological interventions.”
Dr Saiyed indicated that the immediate action point for the collaboration will be to intensify efforts in the above projects and align more emerging solutions with needs on the ground. In the immediate pipeline is a project to improve early screening and detection in Retinopathy of Prematurity, a common eye disease affecting premature babies and newborns through context-specific innovative health solutions.
