A delegation from Japan’s Osaka University visited the All India Institute of medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi to discuss the establishment of a National Centre for Medical Device Development, Validation and Skill Training at the premier institute.

The Japanese delegation was accompanied by officials from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). This visit is a continuation of the collaborative efforts initiated nearly a decade ago following the joint statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, during their summit in Tokyo on 1st September , 2014.

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As a result of that summit, the AIIMS and Osaka University, Japan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 13th October, 2014, aimed at the development of novel and affordable surgical instruments, marking the first such R&D collaboration between medical institutions in India and Japan.

The visit was marked by a high-level meeting chaired by AIIMS Director M Srinivas which discussed the establishment of a National Centre for Medical Device Development, Validation and Skill Training at the AIIMS, an ambitious project in line with India’s “Make in India” initiative for medical devices, on Monday.

Leading the Japanese delegation was Kiyokazu Nakajima, Professor in the Department of Next Generation Endoscopic Intervention at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine.

The discussions revolved around the technical aspects and proposals for creating a state-of-the-art, publicly-funded research centre for medical device development, validation and skill training.

The delegation also visited the proposed site for the centre at AIIMS Delhi’s Jhajjar campus.

“This visit builds on the foundation laid by earlier collaborative efforts, including the onsite training of delegations from AIIMS to Japan, where they visited prominent facilities such as the Fukushima Medical Device Development Support Centre at Fukushima, Medical Device Development Centre (MEDDEC) at Kobe and medical device manufacturing company CASTEM Co. Limited at Hiroshima,” the AIIMS said.

Additionally, they had meetings with Overseas Medical Equipment Technical Assistants (OMETA) at Tokyo in order to understand and learn the self-sustainability of the proposed centre in India, it said.