The Koita Centre for Digital Health is focused on driving academic programs, research in healthcare and industry collaborations in digital health
Digital health offers immense potential to transform India’s healthcare landscape by increasing accessibility, lowering costs and enabling personalised, data-driven approaches in the entire healthcare value chain. IIT Bombay has announced the establishment of Koita Centre for Digital Health (KCDH) in June 2021. The Centre is focused on driving academic programs, research, and industry collaborations in this space. Overcoming pandemic-induced hurdles, the Institute unveiled the Centre in an inaugural event held on April 17, 2023.
The KCDH has been funded by the Koita Foundation, formed by IIT Bombay’s alumnus and Co-founder of CitiusTech, Rizwan Koita (B.Tech., Electrical Engineering, 1992) and Rekha Koita (B.Tech., Metallurgical Engineering & Material Science, 1992).
The inaugural event also witnessed a symposium that brought together thought leaders and researchers in technology and healthcare from the hospitals, government, academia and industry. The panelists presented their views on how digital solutions can transform healthcare in India, with some of the dominant themes being: managing large healthcare data sets, use of advance technologies like AI/ML in personalised medicine, disease modeling for public health, importance of local innovation in digital health, and the need for nation-wide capacity building in digital health.
Speaking about her vision for the Centre, Rekha Koita said, “Our vision is for KCDH to become a globally-renowned Centre in Digital Health informatics. It will drive research and entrepreneurship and hone some of the best minds, creating a cadre of professionals who can truly create an impact in terms of improving healthcare quality, accessibility and affordability”.
Echoing her sentiment, Rizwan Koita said, “Use of digital tools and technologies are critical for a large country like India to support its vast and distributed population, with limited resources and qualified healthcare professionals. IIT Bombay and KCDH can provide a strong impetus in driving digital health innovation in India. Moreover, IIT Bombay and KCDH can create a successful blueprint of collaboration between technology institutions and healthcare organisations, which can be replicated across the country”.
Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Professor-in-Charge, KCDH said, “Improving healthcare is one of the biggest priority areas for all countries worldwide, including India. Improving healthcare has several dimensions: increasing the number of healthcare professionals, enhancing healthcare infrastructure, improving the quality of healthcare service and overall, advancing the science and engineering that underlie healthcare informatics. It is globally recognised that the availability of high-quality healthcare information and the ability to provide clinical intelligence to healthcare professionals at the point of care can have a profound impact on the quality of care and the efficiency of healthcare delivery. KCDH is uniquely positioned to contribute to interdisciplinary research that brings together clinical domain expertise and engineering expertise across hospitals and research institutions in India and abroad. We are also aligned closely with the national disease modeling ecosystem and playing a leadership role in this endeavour”.
The Centre envisions playing a leading role in digital health and informatics and is aligned with India’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) which aims to “develop the backbone necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country”.
The Centre is pursuing research in areas of healthcare applications, data management, analysis and AI/ML, consumer health and telemedicine, computational biology and bioinformatics, and population health and public health policy.
Over the past two years, KCDH has established partnerships with several entities including the National Health Authority (NHA), Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, Johns Hopkins University, AIIMS, Bajaj Health, ICICI Lombard, Tata Memorial Hospital and many other healthcare organisations.
Speaking about the Centre, Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay said, “India continues to face unique disease patterns and challenges related to healthcare delivery. Our country is in dire need of smart, effective, and affordable healthcare solutions. With the establishment of the Koita Centre for Digital Health, IIT Bombay has taken a monumental leap in its resolve to create a robust ecosystem for digital healthcare in India. I am confident that our students and faculty will leverage this Centre to create a profound impact in the healthcare space. I am deeply grateful to our alumni Mr. Rizwan and Ms. Rekha Koita and the Koita Foundation, for their generous contribution towards this Centre”.