: The SCTIMST needs another success story like the iconic Chitra valve to put it back on the top, says Asha Kishore.
The country’s first indigenous artificial heart valve implant was the product of the institution’s biomedical technology (BMT) wing set up in 1976 by its visionary director M.S. Valiathan. It has been implanted successfully in over 1 lakh patients.
The BMT holds 160 patents. The wing has successfully transferred 30 technologies to the industry. Newer technologies from the BMT wing — hormone-releasing intrauterine device and Biograft CPC, which is a calcium phosphate self-setting bone system — have continued to hit the market and a lot more vascular grafts, stents are in the pipeline.
But a fresh, rational approach in choosing projects to work on could yield better results, Dr. Kishore feels.
The BMT wing has been designated by the DST as one of the five nodal Technology Research Centres (TRCs) for biomedical devices. It will help the unit focus and identify feasible projects that can be done in mission mode with strict deadlines, she says.
