The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) Cuttack for academic, research and comprehensive rehabilitation care.

SVNIRTAR, being India’s largest locomotor rehabilitation care, has been providing a wide range of rehabilitative care like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, prosthetics and orthotics.

AIIMS Bhubaneswar executive director Dr Ashutosh Biswas and SVNIRTAR director Dr P.P. Mohanty signed the MoU on Wednesday to jointly work on several aspects of holistic rehabilitation care.

Dr Biswas said: “The two prominent national institutes will work on the referral of patients (like Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Burn and Plastic Surgery, Pediatrics, Medicine) and departments of SVNIRTAR like Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Orthopedics etc) to improve health care and research in specialized areas.”

Dr Biswas emphasised on the scope of expansion for rehabilitation care to other patient groups such as cardiovascular, mental, cancer etc. “This MoU has also aimed to design various short-term academic programmes in the form of fellowship, collaborative research, conduct symposia, colloquium, workshops, seminars and conferences on chosen topics and areas to train students in both the institutions,” he said.

The collaboration aims for human resource development in the area of rehabilitation, tertiary prevention, biomedical engineering and technology.

Director, SVNIRTAR, Dr P.P. Mohanty said: “The collaboration will give an opportunity for exposure to acute care at AIIMS Bhubaneswar so that the rehabilitation facility can be programmed and initiated at a very early stage.”

AIIMS dean (academic) Dr P.R. Mohapatra, dean (research) Dr Satyajit Mishra, medical superintendent Dr D.K. Parida and other senior officials were present on the occasion.