Activities
Senior Research Fellowship in Assistive Technology
NCAHT will trains 5-10 Seinor Research Fellows each year.
Out of these about half are involved in innovation of novel assistive technologies. These fellows will spend several weeks in a clinical department, closely understanging unmet clinical needs and identifying solution gaps. Thereafter they will invent novel devices in close collaboration with IIT Delhi. The safety and efficacy of these devices will clinically tested at AIIMS, subject to IEC approval. It is hoped that these fellows will then take the entreprenurial route and seek to commercialized these technologies for social benefit through a startup - thus promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and social impact at the same time
Another half of the Fellows will be research fellows. They will undertake research in various aspects pertinent to the assistive tech space. These include landscape research to find out the status of penetration of assistive tech across various parts of the country. The resultant data will help guide the strategy of NCAHT besides serving as valuable reference data for other stakehodlers in the domain. Other domains of resarch include industry support, standards, research, policy and advocacy, clinical integration, ecosystem strengthening and clinical research.
​
Both Innovation and allied activities listed above are critical to make a tangible difference in ensuring access to and utilization of assistive technologies
​
Clinical Research
Clinical research for assessment and validation of assistive products, invented at NCAHT as well as other relevant products represents an area of strength for the center - given its location within AIIMS and a multidisciplinary team of co-investigators spanning disciplines such as Cardiology, Trauma sugery, Orthopedics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Neurology and ENT.
Clinical Integration
It is a national priority to integrate assistive technology services with the regular clinical workflow dealing with persons requiring assistive technology. NCAHT will work with its collaborating investigators to establish a successful model for such integration and the share the same with the wider community for further scale up
Ecosystem strengthening
Multilple stakehodlers such as users, manufacturers, NGOs, Academia, policy makers, governments and administrators are active the AT space, however there is an acute need to bring all stakehodlers on to one table to explore and strengthen synergies. NCAHT being centrally located - geographically as well as functionally intends to play this role of bringing the ecosystem together
Others
Other activities of the center will include policy research, industry support, standards research and training to increase the pool of personnel capable of facilitating the use of assistive technologies