The Medical School is expanding its collaboration with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, one of India’s top academic medical programs, officials said.
The new agreement includes the research of cancer, immunology, genetics, and trauma and disaster medicine. It was signed by President Mary Sue Coleman and Mahesh Misra, director of AIIMS.
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“Universities are at the forefront of globalization and cooperation,” said Coleman, who is visiting India this week. “Collaborations among our universities draw on the strengths of diverse perspectives to encourage the sort of cross-fertilization that is the basis of creativity and innovation.”
The expanded alliance with AIIMS will help fulfill U-M’s mission to facilitate health research, education and collaboration with global partners for the benefit of communities worldwide.
Misra added that the new agreement, or memorandum of understanding, would have great impact for his institute.
“AIIMS will benefit immensely from our collaboration in gastroenterology, liver, pediatric surgery, acute care surgery, and organ transplantation,” he said. “Our efforts are to jointly attract national and international funding.”
The first memorandum of understanding between the two institutions was signed in March 2012 for trauma care, and marked the beginning of the partnership. India has grown rapidly in recent decades, but its medical infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with its increasingly packed highways and byways. Motor vehicle crashes kill more than 150,000 people each year.
According to the Indian trauma center’s website, someone dies in a traffic accident every two minutes — with two out of five patients perishing because treatment could not be provided in time.
“We’re aiming to develop a robust platform for collaboration that will facilitate research on diseases common to both our countries and the education that will strengthen our abilities to improve health,” said Dr. Joesph Kolars, the Medical School’s senior associate dean for education and global initiatives.
The Medical School is part of the U-M Health System, which is verified as a Level 1 Pediatric and Adult Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons, meaning it provides the highest level of surgical care. It is also a verified burn center by the ACS and the American Burn Association.
“We bring a lot of experience and proven protocols to the table, along with a very robust program of basic and clinical science research,” said Dr. Krishnan Raghavendran, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Acute Care Surgery at the Medical School.
