Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated various facilities at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.

The Minister inaugurated National Resource Centre for Oral Health Care of Children & Elderly (OHSC-PGIMER), Advanced PET CT Facility, Advanced Vascular Interventional Lab, 384 Slice Dual Source CT Scan and Refractive Surgery Suite (SMILE) facilities at various departments in the institute.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said PGIMER is one of the premier medical Institutes of India, providing specialized medical services to all the five northern states of the country. He congratulated medical professionals and the scientific community for rising to the challenge and diligently fighting Covid-19 and also bringing out a vaccine in such a short time. The Minister said that PGI should create a successful model for the world to move towards' Health for All' and it should mentor other institutions.

The Union Minister also said that PGI should develop a new journey, new vision for the scientific community. This would make the institution to become bigger.

Talking about the OHSC-PGIMER, he said that the sole purpose of this Resource Centre is to embark upon a model of oral health care delivery to children and the elderly in Chandigarh and thereafter support the National Oral Health Program in replicating this model across the nation.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said the newly installed state-of-the-art robotic arm-assisted PET/CT guided intervention device at Advance PET-CT Facility provides real-time 3D visualization of lesions for biopsies; less needle manipulations, repeat punctures and repeat scans during complex procedures. Regarding the Advanced Vascular Intervention Lab, the minister informed that Cath lab in PGIMER is the first of its kind with hi-tech artificial intelligence software transforming the management of stroke patients.

The Minister said that PGI has acquired 384 Slice, Dual Source which is one of the world's most powerful and fastest state-of-the-art C.T. Scan Machine. This will be extremely beneficial to patients who are critically ill, trauma cases, or children who have difficulty in breath-holding.

The Minister further said that the recently procured state-of-the-art femto-second laser VISUMAX for removal of glasses through SMILE (Small Incision Lenticular Extraction) procedure ensures minimum side effects and best visual outcome for the patients with glasses.