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BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital & Rural Medical College,

Sawarde, Ratnagiri

 BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY PROGRESS REPORT

 

The B.K.L Walakwalkar Rural Hospital was set up in 1996 by Shri Vithalrao Joshi Charities Trust. The 500-bed multispecialty hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment providing comprehensive treatment and quality care for rural patients in Konkan area at highly subsidised rates. It has Arthroscopy & Joint Replacement, Assisted Reproduction, Diabetes, Neonatology, Gastroenterology, Hematology and Head & Neck Oncology. Their medical college started in Sep 2015 with 100 students. It is well-equipped with an anatomy museum, central library, lecture halls with AV facility, clinical labs, blood bank, hostel facilities, and an Olympic standard sports complex.

BKL Walawalkar Rural Hospital in Dervan

  Dr. Suvarna Patil and Mr. Vikas Walawalkar in BETiC lab

 

Dr. Suvarna Patil, Director and her team helped BETiC in organizing a medical device exhibition in December 2015. The hospital joined the Healthcare Consortium of IITB in 2016, paving the way for setting up a BETiC Rural Centre in Dervan. BETiC-COEP team provided their 3D modelling software and 3D printer, along with the required training, for medical model fabrication. Clinical studies for a few medical devices developed by BETiC team are planned at the Hospital.

 

Key People involved:

 

  1. Co-ordinator – Mr. Rohan Gupte
  2. Visiting Specialty – Neha Deshpande, Associate Professor
  3. Medical Specialties – Dr. Sunil Nadkarni, Spine Surgeon

 

Dr. Suvarna Patil, Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine Dr. Pawan Kohli, Professor, Dept. of Orthopedics

 

 

Strategic Research Initiatives at Dervan (2015) –

  1. Formation of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC):

B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital, Diagnostic & Research Center (BKLWH) has been working towards initiation of innovative projects in medical field for the betterment of rural people. In order to take the hospital to the next level, it is necessary for us to get ourselves involved in integrated, locally relevant research in healthcare, which will not only benefit people of Konkan, but also people from all other Low & Middle income countries . For this, fresh and new ideas from the experts in the field, who genuinely want to contribute to the upliftment of mankind, are needed. We want the brightest stars in the field to guide us, and to show us the right path for our future journey.

 

With these aims in mind Scientific Advisory Committee of our hospital has been formed. The constitution of the committee is as follows –

 

  •  Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Member, Atomic Energy Commission, Former Chairman AEC & Secretary to Govt. of India, Department of Atomic Energy
  •  Dr. Thirumalachari Ramasami, Former Secretary to Govt. of India, Ministry of Science & Technology
  •  Prof. B. Ravi, Institute Chair Prof., IIT Mumbai.
  •  Dr. Rita Mulherkar, Former Chairman & Prof., ACTREC, Navi Mumbai
  •  Mr. Chandrashekahar Garde, Professor, LMISTE, Dept. of Engg. VIIT, Pune  Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia, Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
  •  Dr. Shripad Banavali, Oncologist, Professor & HOD, Medical Oncology, TMC

 

Our Scientific Advisory Committee comprising of all above external eminent persons, renders advice on research related affairs.

  1. National University of Si ngapore – The students from NSU visited BKL Walawalkar Hospital and introduced and implemented two medical devices – (16th Octo ber 2015)

 a. Dental Tab Software:

 The workshop on information about dental software was arranged in B.K.L. Walawalkar Hosptal, Dervan. The Ta b with a advanced software is designed by NUS Engineers for dental check up program me. The history and treatment details of th e patients can be stored in the software w hich therein can be used during follow up visit s of same patient. This digital data about de ntition help doctor to know the past history and status of teeth in a single click and the imp act of the treatment during the each followup visits. We screened around 19635 school children under this school dental health program by using this advanced Tab and we a nalyzed data of around 10567 school children which showed tremendous results while treatment during each follow-up visit.

 

b. Non-invasive Jaundice detection in neonates using mobile phone camera: 

The jaundice in neonates can be detected by capturing images of skin and an eye by mobile phone camera and thes e images are compared with the abnormal color change. The accuracy of detection me asured is 90.2%.

 

  1. Introducing ‘Digital St ethoscope’

 

By Dr. Nambiraj Konar, Anesthetist, BKLWH at MEDIC 2015, IIT Mumbai:

Medical device Innovation conclave (MEDIC) 2015 was organized by BETiC – IITB between 11th to 15th September. BETiC (Biomedical engineering technology inc ubation centre) in a collaboration with IIT Bom bay, COE Pune and VNIT Nagpur for innovations in healthcare. There were 60 participants in the conclave. Dr. Konar introduced his invention ‘Digital Stethoscope’ during this conclave.

 

  1. Visits Of IIT, Mumbai Engineers to B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital & Community Visit:

B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital focuses on its awareness that Quality has a primary role in providing quality medical devices to the patients and healthcare professionals.

 

  1. Serena DeSouza – A biologist currently is doing her post-doc in Prof. Noronha’s lab. She is interested in understanding the diabetes problem from Knokan. She interacted with villagers. She will be working on micro nutrient deficiency & disease biology of DM.

 

  1. Ram Ch – A Chemical Engineer, currently doing his post doc in Tata Centre for Technology and Design. He has expertise in building microfluidic platforms for diagnostics.

 

  1. Ankita Haridwaj – A Masters student in CTARA (Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas). She took interest in understanding cervical cancer screening programs at BKLWH.

 

  1. Heena Shah, A Project Research Engineer from IIT Bombay, she has background in Mechanical

 

Engineering, interest in medical devices and is currently over viewing the cervical cancer screening project at IIT Bombay. She is going to develop nurses training programme for our nursing students.

 

 

  1. “Dervan Biomedic Initiative 2015”- An exhibition on Biomedical innovations held on 5th

– 6th December 2015 is dedicated to the recent accomplishments of all of our efforts being done at B.K.L. Walawalkar Rural Medical College & Hospital to provide platform to young innovators & Students to present their ideas that could become a basis for engineers and doctors and scientist to come together and work in the interest of healthcare particularly for the rural poor.

 

In excess of thousands of visitors visited the ‘Dervan Biomedic Initiative 2015’ to learn about product innovations in the Indian health care sector from 5th to 6th December. However, the ‘Dervan Biomedic Initiative 2015’ not only scored outstanding results in terms of visitor attendance, Exhibitor figures show tremendous response for the event. At this event around

50    exhibitors    presented    a    comprehensive    product    portfolio     on    this    exhibition.

 

The medical equipment exhibition focused the segment “Medical Device & Technology”. Comprising panel discussion offered medical professionals, students, decision-makers from clinics, and industry and healthcare agents an ideal platform to learn about trends and network with experts. This massive exhibition allowed the exhibitors to present themselves to the visitors of the ‘Dervan Biomedic Initiative 2015’. The exhibitors included Students from IIT Bombay, Coep Pune, IIT Kolhapur cell, IIT Nagpur cell, VNIT Nagpur, National University of

 

Singapore, Venture Center Pune etc. The event benefited in all aspects of knowledge and research activities for the benefit of poor people in this rural region.

  1. ATAL TINKERING LAB:

 

Atal tinkering lab was established in July 2018 in SVJCT’s English medium school. The main aim of the government to establish such labs in the schools was to imbibe the culture of innovation and curiosity towards technology.

 

Keeping the same objective, the school has been continuously imparting practical sessions to the school students. The school regularly invites mentors from industry and senior colleges to guide the students on innovative thinking. The school has skilled staff to conduct projects based on ‘Arduino’ and various sensors. Giving back to the society is one of the criteria of this lab. Hence, the school conducts camps for students from other schools. They visit the lab and experience the joy of innovative thinking and technology.

 

One of the projects made by the school student got selected for district level. The project was named as “Smart Irrigation system”. It was an Arduino based project, wherein the system used to “Switch On” the water pump wherever the soil moisture was less. The power source was a solar panel, which adjusted its direction as per the position of the Sun.

 

Apart from this, projects like blind man’s stick, shock absorbing stretcher, smart home systems, etc. were developed by students.

 

List of equipments:

 

Arudino microcontroller, Raspberry Pie

Sensors: Ultrasonic, IR, PH value, flex, Pulse, LDR, etc.

Wireless sensors: Zigbee and nodemcu.

Motors: Servo, DC motors, Stepper motors.

3D printer.

Laptops and Ipad.

Mechanical instruments: Drilling machines, spanners, screw drivers.

Soldering lit

Newtonian telescope.

  1. Sc. Biomedical Instrumentation Course: (Started a 3 years duration course affiliated to Mumbai University)

 

Looking at the revolutionary growth in global health care industry and its scope for development in India, SVJCT’s, Samartha Educational Institute started a 3 year undergraduate course in Biomedical Instrumentation in collaboration with University of Mumbai’s Garware Institute of Career Education and Development (GICED). The course was started in June 2017 under the governance of Garware Institute of career education, Mumbai and is affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The intake capacity of the course is 30 students.

 

The institute is in the vicinity of the ultramodern super specialty BKL Walawalkar Hospital and the first Rural Medical College run by the trust. This provides a live platform for the students for hands-on experiential learning.

 

The course mentioned above is an undergraduate, allied health profession course. It is concerned with the basic understanding of procurement methods, installation and maintenance of the medical instruments. The course also deals with the collection of information needed, supervision of installation commissioning, testing, reporting and documentation of these instruments. The syllabus of the course is divided into three years and is career orienting in nature.

 

The students are scheduled for hospital and field visits from first year of the course. The students are expected to identify unmet needs and create effective solutions in the form of prototypes. The first batch is in final i.e. 6th semester now.

Hands on Experience                                                  Hospital visits

Engineering College Visit

 

 

Key people involved in this course are:

      1.Rohan Gupte

      2. Sharayu Yashwantroa

  1. Joshi

 

The equipment available in the laboratory for basic testing purpose are:

 

  1. Digital storage oscilloscope(20MHz)
  1. Power supply (0-30V, 1A)
  1. Signal generators
  1. Viscosity meters
  2. pH meters
  1. Travelling microscope

Skill Lab: One more important facility is the skill lab where in students can work with old equipments, repair small equipments and enjoy experiential learning. The facility is well equipped with the ATAL tinkering laboratory setup. It includes testing and measuring equipments, tool kits, sensors, microcontrollers, relays and other components useful for basic development and testing of innovative prototypes. The 3D printer in this setup is a value adds.

 

Some of the projects made by the students are

Live line ultrasonic nebulizer Bubble CPAP,

Fluid warmer,

Digital height measurement. Incubators, etc.

BMI calculator (Undergoing)

 

The college conducts guest lectures and workshops for students from subject matter experts in the related field. Students of the final year are asked to do the maintenance work of medical equipments under the supervision of biomedical engineer.

This course is designed to provide theoretical and practical knowledge about clinical equipments, their installation and troubleshooting. Since, the college is attached with BKL Walawalkar research and diagnostic hospital as well as SVJCT’s Physiotherapy and MBBS College, the students get good exposure to equipment handling and troubleshooting.

 

  1. Workshop on “Learning the art and science of developing medical devices”

 

(24th November 2018) By Dr. Prashant Jha, Professor and Fellowship Director at the School of International Biodesign, Department of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS)

 

  1. Research Project by BIRAC – To demonstrate proof of concept for autologous regenerative therapy using platelet rich fibrin enriched with human herniated intervertebral disc tissue to enhance regeneration of human herniated intervertebral disc.

 

Department – Orthopedics / Microbiology Objectives –

 

  1. To establish a cell culture facility clinical grade.
  1. To establish and standardize protocol for – Culture of human intervertebral disc tissue with PRF in autologous serum blood plasma, Cryo preservation of PRF and disc tissue, Characterization of disc cells in the PRF plug for proliferation and disc specific gene expression.
  1. To characterize PRF for secreted cytokines and growth factors.
  1. To study differentiation potential of human disc cells toward NP and AF lineages.

Derwan plug Biological solution to a biological problem – autologous, cheap, easily made, rich cocktail of healing proteins.

 

 

  1. Few biomedical innovations:

 

  • Dervan Posturight Brace
  • Dervan Brace
  • Dervan wearable posture monitor
  • Dervan Disability score

 

Importance of Head posture Dervan head band

 

 

 

 

Dervan Score as Outcome measure

 

(We analysed 105 patients (46 following Indian life style and remaining 59 following western life style).

 

Both were administered the Dervan questionnaire and modified Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) questionnaire. Both the scores were converted to percent in order to make them comparable.

 

Statistical difference between scores obtained by 2 methods was tested by paired t-test.

 

Dervan and ODI scores were correlated by Pearson’s method

 

The limits of agreement in relation to reference method (ODI) were assessed by Bland-Altman plot.

 

(All statistical analysis was performed in SPSS 16.0.)

 

  1. International Workshop on “Role of Clinical Engineers in Quality Assurance & Safety  of  Medical  Equipment”  was

organized on 27th January 2020 By B.K.L. Walawalkar Hospital & Rurall Medical College. The eminent speakers weree Mr. John Wall, Biomedical Engineer, NHS, United Kingdom

 

and Dr. Niranjan Khamb ete, Biomedical Engineer, Deenanath Manggeshkar Hospital, Pune

 

The aim of this workshop was to teach the correct basic techniqu es to handle equipments and its safety. Also the techniques to improve quali ty measures were discussed with students of paramedical course- Biomedical instru mentation. The programme was coordinated by Neha Deshpande, Ph.D., Associate Professor from Pune.

 

  1. Research Project by BIRAC (February 2020) – Menstruation Prediction Kit during premenstrual (luteal) phase of menstrual cycle on monthly basis

 

  • Premenstrual period for almost two weeks
  • Anxiety about period ons et when socializing or in a professional setting.
  • Prediction will help in planning the day before important events: marriage, cultural gatherings, exams, sport s activities etc.
  • Young women or those w ith irregular patterns might find the kit useful.
  • Does not require medical instruments or medical expertise.
  • Now a days menarche is at younger age
  • No toilet
  • facilitates available for lot of working women

At Post Sawarde, Kasarwadi, Taluka Chiplun, District Ratnagiri,Maharashtra State, 415606

Call – 02355-264149 / 137

 info@walawalkarhospital.com w ww.walawalkarhospital.com