Thiruvananthapuram: Union minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan will launch four new projects at Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology on Saturday.Swasthya Suraksha Block under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, new data centre in the hospital campus funded by the Union ministry of electronics and information technology and the combinational devices block in the biomedical technology campus of the institute at Poojappura are the new projects to be launched. The minister will also inaugurate a regional technical resource centre for health technology assessment at the Achutha Menon Centre in the institute.The Swasthya Suraksha block of the institute is coming up in 83.4 cents and will have bed strength of 170. This new block is expected to be completed by March 2020 and it will have modern operation theatres, ICUs and wards. The installation and commissioning of medical equipment will be completed by June 2020.With the completion of the new block, super-specialty services in cardiac and neurological disorders will be available here. The institute expects to serve an additional 10,000 in-patients, 15,000 out-patients and 1,05,000 review out-patient cases a year. Additionally, the expansion will also augment the super-specialty post-graduate and nursing programmes as well as its research and technology development initiatives. The estimated cost of construction and equipment for the new block is approximately Rs 300 crore.A new Combinational Devices Block will be set up to boost biomedical device development and devices testing in the institute.The new data centre has been set up at the institute to host a group of servers, storage and networking units for providing round-the-clock IT services to meet the institute’s needs.The Union ministry of health has sanctioned a 3-year project to the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies for developing a regional technical resource centre for health technology assessment to cover Kerala and neighbouring states. Its prime mandate is to undertake health technology assessment to assist the state and Union governments, and to inculcate skills in this emerging discipline.

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