IIT Madras is planning to set up a medical school offering MBBS and MD programmes, marking the institute's move into formal medical education.

The proposed school builds on IIT Madras' Department of Medical Sciences and Technology, established in 2023 to bring medicine and engineering together. The department currently offers a four-year BS in Medical Sciences and Engineering, along with MS and PhD programmes.

The BS programme combines medical sciences with engineering, with students studying areas including physiological systems, machine learning and medical imaging. Its specialisations include AI in healthcare, medical image analysis, medical device development, quantitative pharmacology and drug design.

The proposed medical school would take the institute's scope into medical education into clinical training, with MBBS at the undergraduate level and MD programmes at the postgraduate level.

IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti has previously linked the institute's expansion into medicine to its larger academic ambitions, telling The Times of India, “If you really want to come to the top 50 in global rankings, you must have a medical school.”

The institute has also outlined a model that seeks closer interaction between engineers and doctors. Kamakoti said the focus would be on being “close to clinical practice”, adding that the easier approach would be to train doctors in engineering rather than turn engineers into doctors.

IIT Madras is not the only technical institution moving in this direction. Other leading engineering and science institutions, including IISc Bengaluru and IIT Kanpur, have also been working on plans to establish medical schools, reflecting a broader push to combine medical education with engineering and technology.

For IIT Madras, the proposed medical school would add a new layer to an initiative that began with interdisciplinary medical research and education. The department says its broader objective is to develop “Physician Scientists and Engineering Physiologists of the future” and create closer collaboration between engineering teams and medical professionals.

Details such as the proposed medical school's intake, admission route, launch date and the MD specialisations have not yet been announced publicly by IIT Madras.