The iHub Anubhuti-IIITD Foundation and the iHub Foundation for Cobotics have collaborated to open the 'MCC-Medical Cobotics Centre' on the IIIT Delhi campus.

This facility, which is funded by the Government of India's Department of Science and Technology (DST), serves as India's premier technology-driven medical simulation and training center. It serves doctors, paramedics, technicians, engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs all over the country. To design comprehensive training programs, the center collaborates with leading experts, particularly from AIIMS. It also houses cutting-edge technology for advanced medical research, with an emphasis on healthcare robotics and digital healthcare.

The MCC offers up to Rs 1 crore in funding to medical startups for innovations in digital healthcare, medical technology, and applications like AR/VR, AI, cobotics, robotics, and cognitive sciences.

Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Secretary, SERB and Senior Advisor, DST, GOI was invited as a chief guest for the inauguration ceremony.

He said “This inauguration marks a unique convergence of engineers and doctors, symbolising the deep collaboration within this MCC and the importance of simulation in testing various medical technologies. In general, most people believe that doctors have unlimited abilities. However, it is important to understand that doctors are also humans who rely on technology to deliver effective treatments.”

“In a historic collaboration, two of the Technology Innovation Hubs under NM-ICPS, i.e., I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), the IIT Delhi’s Technology Innovation Hub (TIH), and iHub Anubhuti at IIIT Delhi have joined hands to establish India’s pioneering Medical Cobotics Centre (MCC) on IIIT Delhi campus in Okhla, New Delhi. This ground breaking initiative promises to usher a new era of medical innovations and technology advancements in the areas of Assistive Technology, Medical Simulation, Digital Health, Cobotics, and Cognitive Computing & Social Sensing”, said

Dr Ekta Kapoor, Scientist F at Government of India; Head, Frontier and Futuristic Technologies Division; and Head, National GLP Compliance Monitoring.

IIT Delhi has opened the Medical Cobotics Centre, combining healthcare and engineering to provide modern healthcare. The medical simulator will enhance existing initiatives like mPRAGATI, creating an innovation ecosystem for modern healthcare. The centre will also foster partnerships between IIT Delhi, IIIT, AIIMS, and other hospitals. Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi, looks forward to creating new cobotics-based interventions and innovations for affordable healthcare.

Speaking on the occasion of MCC’s inauguration, Prof. Ranjan Bose, Director, IIIT Delhi, said,

“This is indeed a momentous occasion that the Technology Innovation Hubs of two top institutes have come together and are collaborating on a very important area – medical cobotics. There are some well-known advantages of medical cobotics where humans work alongside intelligent and automated technology to improve accuracy and efficiency without losing the human touch.

I believe there is a natural synergy, as well as complementarity, in this partnership. Besides translational research leading to product development and startups, the Centre would also facilitate the training of healthcare professionals. This Centre would strive to develop smart solutions to improve the quality of patient care, augment operational efficiencies and create safer work environments for our healthcare practitioners.”