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TI research collaboration focuses on global health care challenges
An innovative alliance between Texas Instruments (TI) and a leading Indian technical university may provide affordable medical care to millions.
In April 2008, TI agreed to invest a portion of our $15 million medical technology research fund – as well as our expertise in analog and digital signal processing – with India's oldest and most established technology university, where students are developing medical imaging, wireless health care systems and biosensor technology.
The resulting four-year relationship between TI and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur is the first collaboration between a U.S. semiconductor company and an Indian university for medical technology research.
Growing medical need
IIT Kharagpur researchers will focus on low-cost diagnostics for treating breast cancer, oral cancer and cardiac disease, all illnesses that are increasingly prevalent in India.
Breast cancer, for example, is typically associated with the industrial hubs of North America and Western Europe.
But caseloads in Africa, Latin America, China and India are spiking. By 2020, 70 percent of all breast cancer cases worldwide will be in developing countries.
Many suffer from a lack of diagnosis and treatment. In India, when a pretty sizeable population lives on $2 a day and mammography machines are rare, half of those who become ill go entirely without treatment.
"Together, TI and IIT Kharagpur have the opportunity to help improve the quality of life for millions of people around the world," said Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra, Ph.D., managing director of TI India. "In India alone, about 800,000 patients undergo coronary bypass surgery every year; one in every 12 women develops breast cancer."
Business strategy meets corporate philanthropy
The TI/IIT pact is part business strategy, part corporate philanthropy, explained Deepak Bhardwaj, director of corporate relations for TI India. The government, medical service providers and product companies must unite to develop an affordable medical delivery system.
TI is working through the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Indian Semiconductor Association on just such a roadmap. It outlines a path toward expanded access to health care by 2020.
"Everyone realizes that the next big opportunity is the global marketplace," Mitra said. "But the rules of the game are very different here. We believe that our activities are both philanthropic and business-focused in that we are creating new paradigms."
Future innovators
The venture also reflects TI's commitment to developing the next generation of scientific innovators. The university research team will include physicians and students with expertise in image processing, neural networks and pattern recognition, as well as TI digital signal processor-based embedded system design.
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