‘Kolkata lacks facilities for latest medical tech’

KOLKATA: An America-based Bengali doctor, who was in Kolkata to take part in a workshop on Saturday, lamented the fact that the city lacked infrastructure for a regenerative medicine centre.
Director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine & Cell-Based Therapies at Ohio State University Chandan Sen expressed his desire to launch regenerative medicine facilities in India.But, he pointed out that Kolkata lacked the infrastructure required for it.
“In Bengal, I have knocked on the door of almost every minister. Perhaps, it was my fault that I could not explain to them the urgent need for having an infrastructure for regenerative medicine,” he said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on regenerative medicine and wound care at a city hospital.
Sen has tied up with AIIMS in Delhi for the regenerative medicine project in India. In Kolkata, however, he has picked Peerless Hospital to set up only a wound care centre.
“This is a new frontier. No wound has a single-pill solution,” said S Kar Purakayastha, medical and joint managing director of Peerless Hospital.
“There are several cases where a surgery is successful but the wound is not cured. At the workshop, doctors of SSKM Hospital showed us that 7.5 million amputations took place in the country every year. Though stem cell therapy is gaining ground and it is possible to extract the cells from someone’s body, its use is restricted and not devoid of risks,” said Sen, adding that regenerative medicine was a step ahead from stem cell treatment.
He added: “One method that has shown result is a chip that is placed on the thigh for 10 milliseconds. Needles will enter the skin and set the stage for nuclear reprogramming on its own.” The treatment will benefit arthritis and acid and burn victims the most, he added.