A team from Haryana’s BPS Government Medical College for Women in Khanpur Kalan has won the IMU-Ron Harden Innovation in Medical Education (IMU-RHIME) Award 2026 for its student leadership programme, Network of Student Leaders (NEST).
The award was presented at the 19th International Medical Education Conference, held at IMU University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from October 9 to 11. This is the first time the award’s rolling trophy, instituted in 2008, has gone to an Indian institution.
Dr Sumita Sethi, professor of ophthalmology at BPS Government Medical College for Women, received the award and presented the winning work on behalf of the team. Dr Renu Garg and Dr Ruchi Agarwal were also part of the faculty team behind the programme.
NEST was developed to build leadership skills among medical students and help them take up community health initiatives. Under the programme, 278 students from 11 medical colleges across India received leadership training and went on to lead 63 projects.
The projects addressed issues including menstrual hygiene, cervical cancer awareness, child marriage and drug abuse. The programme uses a three-tier framework for experiential leadership development, according to the conference programme.
The IMU-RHIME Award recognises innovations in health professions education that may otherwise receive limited attention. The 2026 competition featured five shortlisted innovations from different countries, assessed by an international panel that included Professor Ronald Harden, after whom the award is named.
Dr Sethi described the achievement in a social media post as the first time the award’s rolling trophy had come to India since its institution in 2008.
The college, located in Khanpur Kalan in Sonipat district, is a government medical institution for women established in 2012. The award recognises its work in extending medical education beyond academic training to student leadership and community health engagement.
