The Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University here, has been chosen by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for undertaking human clinical trials of India’s first Covid-19 vaccine.
IMS and SUM Hospital, which is the only medical institute in Odisha to be chosen as a clinical trial site for the much awaited vaccine, is also among four such institutions in the state which will undertake convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The ICMR has advised it to fast track all approvals related to the initiation of the clinical trial of the vaccine in view of the public health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Prof. E.Venkat Rao, Professor, Community Medicine, in the hospital will be the Principal Investigator.
This is the first indigenous vaccine being developed by India and is derived from a strain of SARS-CoV-2 isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly working for the preclinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine. It has already received the approval for Phase-I and Phase-II human trials by the Drug Controller General of India.
IMS and SUM Hospital, a 1600-bed teaching hospital with 40 departments, is among 13 medical institutes in the country identified by ICMR to take up the clinical trial. The trial will commence after approval of the Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) of the hospital. Convalescent plasma therapy involves the use of antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to treat other infected persons. Dr. Chandan Das, Professor in Medicine, will be in charge of the convalescent plasma therapy in the hospital.
“We have the required equipment and trained manpower to commence convalescent plasma therapy in our hospital immediately. We have the Post-Graduate Department of Transfusion Medicine recognized by the Medical Council of India,” Dr. Girija Nandini Kanungo, Associate Professor in the Department of Transfusion Medicine, said.
The institute is presently operating three stand-alone Covid-19 hospitals in the state at Bhubaneswar, Kendrapara and Talcher where patients afflicted by coronavirus are being treated. The decision to commence convalescent plasma therapy in the state was taken at a high-level meeting today chaired by Odisha’s minister for health and family welfare, Mr. Naba Kishore Das which was attended, among others, by the SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mohapatra.
Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University’s achievements in a nutshell
Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here jumped four spots to be ranked among the top 20 universities in the country as the rankings in the different categories by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2020 were announced by the Union minister for Human Resource Development Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Thursday.
SOA, as the Deemed to be University is known, has been placed 20th in this year’s ranking in the university category and 38th among overall institutions in the country as per the list released by Dr. Pokhriyal in a video conference.
With this, SOA, which was conferred with the status of a Deemed to be University by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2007, remained the top institution in the university category in Odisha for the fifth consecutive year obtaining a score of 53.10 this year.
In the Engineering category, SOA was ranked 34th while in the category for Medical Colleges it was placed 23rd in the country this year. SOA’s faculty of dental sciences, which entered the ranking process for the first time this year, has been nationally ranked 12th. As per the new ranking for 2020, the faculties of the university’s medical sciences and dental sciences are the top ranked such institutions in Odisha.
After the NIRF rankings were introduced in 2016, SOA has finished among the top 20 universities in the country for the third time.
Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) is SOA’s faculty of engineering and technology while Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital and Institute of Dental Sciences (IDS) are the Deemed to be University’s faculty of medical and dental sciences respectively.
Expressing his happiness over the progress made by the university, SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ashok Kumar Mohapatra said the success was the result of the hard work put in by the faculties, researchers and other stakeholders. “I hope all concerned will strive even harder to help SOA rise in the ranking ladder next year,” he said adding the university has come to be known as one of the finest in the country today.
“The improvement in ranking will certainly motivate all staff members of SOA to achieve greater things in future. I congratulate each of them for this success,” Prof. Manojranjan Nayak, founder President of SOA, said.
The Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, counted among the leading higher education institutions of the country, has been ranked among the top 50 in India in the latest QS India University Rankings 2020. The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings is a UK-based annual publication of university rankings comprising the global overall and subject rankings which rank the world’s top universities.
SOA has also been ranked 15th among the top 50 Deemed to be Universities in the country in the latest Outlook-ICARE India University rankings for 2019, making it the highest ranked such university in Odisha.
The department of Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), of SOA, has now become the 4th institute in the country to get 3 of its programs accredited by the reputed Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), USA. Adding yet another feather to its glowing cap, SOA has been ranked fourth in the country in the Swachh Campus Ranking for 2019 conducted by the HRD ministry.
Nine different institutions function under the SOA umbrella offering 95 academic programmes in engineering and technology, medical sciences, dental sciences, management sciences, hospital administration, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, nursing, hospitality and tourism management, legal studies and agricultural sciences. Around 12,000 students including from six different countries study in the university.
SALIENT FEATURES
- 127 Acres campus
- 4,47,395 sqm. Built-up Area
- 13 Research Centres
- 38 Research Labs
- 197 e-Enabled Classrooms
- State-of-the-art 1400-seat auditorium alongside four other auditoria
- Fully Wi-Fi Campus
- 37 National Collaborations
- 127 International Collaborations
- High-end Multi-disciplinary Research in Emerging Areas
- Adequate e-Resources with e-Databases
- Fellowship for Doctoral & Post-Doctoral Programmes
- Scholarship for Meritorious Students
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