Duke Medicine partners with Indian research institute

Medical students at Duke University will soon be able to travel to India and practice in a different country.

A partnership between Duke Medicine and Medanta — the Medicity, a for-profit collection of specialty institutes located near New Delhi, was recently established. The initiative is called the Medanta-Duke Research Institute.

According to a press release by Medanta, the institution will occupy a 27,000-square-foot space. It will have 60 beds and is expected to open in April 2011.

The new research institute will work, using new technologies, to develop therapies and drugs to treat diseases.

The institute’s goal is to transform the global framework for clinical development and evaluation of human biology, diseases, drugs and devices.

Rebecca Wells, an associate professor of health policy and management at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said the new facility will offer Duke students the chance to understand medicinal practices in a foreign country.

“For Indians, the Medanta Duke Research Institute offers new opportunities to test the relevance of emerging clinical findings to people in their country,” Wells said in an e-mail.

“How much this benefits the people of India of course depends on how well leadership at Mendata accounts for differing needs within and across the very diverse states of that nation.”

Gov. Bev Perdue stated in a press release that international collaboration is vital for the future of medicine.

“Today’s agreement is a giant step forward for the health of our people and it holds the promise of future economic benefits and jobs,” Perdue said.

Lisa Chensvold, spokeswoman for the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, said the University also has partnerships with largely nonprofit organizations or governments in different parts of the world.

For example, there is a program, known as the UNC Project-Malawi, with the Malawi Ministry of Health in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Myron Cohen, the director for the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, said the University was not moving toward a joint-business structure, but that it would not rule out such partnerships in the future.

“As a state institution, our primary goals are teaching, service and research that benefits the people of North Carolina and the world. If we were to establish a joint business structure, we would reinvest money into these goals,” he said.

Wells said such relationships stand to benefit both the people of India and Duke students.

“I see great potential in such partnerships as ways of developing treatments that meet diverse human needs across the globe,” Wells said in an e-mail. “Part of what appeals to me about the Medanta-Duke Research Institute is the extent to which it is Indian driven.”

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