Kozhikode: Moving beyond treating patients, a joint initiative by medical and engineering students has begun breathing new life into defunct hospital machinery. The team has set out to restore discarded and out-of-order equipment at the Government Medical College Hospital, including ventilators, infusion pumps, multi-parameter monitors, ECG machines, and nebulizers.

Five vital devices were successfully revived during a ‘Repair Cafe’ organized jointly by the Medical College unit of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (IEDC)—an initiative under the Kerala Startup Mission—and TinkerSpace, an engineering collective. This marks the first time such an initiative has been carried out at a government medical college in the state.

Organizers aim to scale up the project in the upcoming phase. The drive was spearheaded by Nodal Officers Dr. Rojith K. Balakrishnan and Dr. Trinette D'Couth, Student Nodal Officer Dr. Sidharth Narayanan, Shishir O. Raghavan, and TinkerSpace representative Jassim.“Healthcare workers can conceptualize innovative technological solutions for patient care, but it takes engineering expertise to bring those ideas to fruition. The synergy demonstrated here by medical and engineering students is truly exemplary,”said Dr. M.P. Sreejayan, Superintendent, Government Medical College Hospital.