KIHT named WHO Collaborating Centre for Innovations

Visakhapatnam: Kalam Institute of Health Technology (KIHT) located at the AP MedTech Zone (AMTZ) has now become the world's first WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO-CC) for Innovations.

In a letter WHO told Jitendar Kumar Sharma, the CEO of AMTZ, India's first integrated medical devices manufacturing park in the city, that WHO has designated the Department of Innovations, KIHT as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Innovation (WHO CC IND-167).

Now the facility in the city will act as the head of the centre. The institutions designated as the Collaborating Centres are expected to implement the agreed work plan in a timely manner and to the highest possible standards of quality. The WHO-CC at AMTZ will work directly with WHO Headquarters in Geneva to further health innovations and innovative technologies towards rapid development and global deployment.

"This is a first of its kind recognition and we are proud of it," O. Naresh Kumar, CEO of Symbiosys Technologies, on whose campus KIHT functioned initially for 18 months, told Bizz Buzz on Wednesday.

AMTZ is also recognised as the world's largest medical technology park with over 100 companies at various stages of operation in the field of research, development and production of life saving medical devices.

India's medical devices industry is worth Rs 80,000 crore and mostly it is dependent on imports for high-end medical devices.

KIHT is set up by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, to facilitate research on critical components connecting to medical devices by supporting institutes taking up R&D, industry policy-makers and knowledge repositories. Transfer of technology knowhow and collaborations/strategic alliances are also part of KIHT's mandate.