IIT Madras incubated start-up creates portable hospitals

CHENNAI: A start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has developed portable hospitals, the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government said on Sunday.

This technology enables building a 100-bed extension facility in three weeks. "MediCAB hospitals are designed with a dedicated zone of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) that can accommodate various life-support equipment and medical devices.

These negative pressure portable hospitals have durability of around 25 years, and they can also be shifted in the future for any disaster response in less than a week," the office of the PSA said. These rapidly deployable hospitals will plug a major health infrastructure gap in India's fight against COVID-19, especially in rural areas and smaller towns, it added.

The office of the PSA has been actively working towards securing funding support to implement these projects in different areas across the nation. The office of the Principal Scientific Adviser has invited private sector companies, donor organisations, and individuals to support various projects of national importance.

Project Extension Hospitals is one such initiative, according to a statement. Start-up Modulus Housing has started deploying MediCAB extension hospitals with the help of the American Indian Foundation (AIF). Mastercard, Texas Instruments, Zscaler, PNB Housing, Goldman Sachs, Lenovo, and NASSCOM Foundation have also extended CSR support, it added.

The first batch of 100-bed hospitals is being commissioned at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh); Amravati, Pune, and Jalna (Maharastra); Mohali (Punjab), and a 20-bed hospital at Raipur (Chhattisgarh). Bengaluru (Karnataka) will have one each of 20, 50 and 100 beds in the first phase.

"The Office of PSA has also collaborated with Tata Projects Ltd to deploy modular hospitals at multiple sites in Punjab and Chhattisgarh. They have initiated work on 48 bedded modular hospitals in Gurdaspur and Faridkot (Punjab)," it added. Expansion of ICU at multiple hospitals in Chhattisgarh including Raipur, Jashpur, Bemetara, Kanker, and Gaurella are also underway, it said.

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