Dear Colleagues,
I am very pleased to share that, on my recent visit to India, I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Pratima Murthy, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, in order to renew the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NIMHANS and the UBC Department of Psychiatry for a further five-year period.
The previous agreement, signed in August 2017 by Dr. Dermot Kelleher, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, established an understanding of a mutual desire to strengthen collaboration and cooperation between UBC and NIMHANS. This partnership has been extremely fruitful with research collaboration resulting in high impact publications and exchange of several fellows between our institutions. With the renewal of the agreement, we will continue to strengthen these collaborations with NIMHANS in regards to research projects, exchange of visiting faculty and trainees between institutions, joint organization of symposia, seminars and CPD events, and other related activities.
The Department is very fortunate to maintain a formal and ongoing partnership with NIMHANS, one of India’s premier centres for research, clinical services and training in mental health, neurosciences and allied fields. In renewing our pact with a fellow leader in mental health, the Department is fulfilling a key strategic priority outlined in the 2020-2025 UBC Psychiatry Strategic Plan, which is to build and leverage our partnerships around the world in order to expand our research capacity, welcome talented researchers and trainees from outside of Canada, foster knowledge exchange, and enhance the global presence and profile of the Department.
As we pursue new and exciting collaborative opportunities with NIMHANS, I look forward to sharing these updates with you in the near future.
Sincerely,
Dr. Lakshmi N. Yatham, MBBS, FRCPC, MRCPsych (UK), MBA (Exec)
Professor and Head, UBC Department of Psychiatry
Director, Institute of Mental Health, UBC
Regional Head and Program Medical Director, VCH/PHC
The UBC Department of Psychiatry Administration Office respectfully acknowledges the land on which we live, work and play is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh).