Kharagpur: IIT Kharagpur will hold its entrance test for the MSc-PhD programmes in molecular medical microbiology, medical physics and nuclear medicine on June 17.

The courses, being offered along with Tata Medical Center, start in July.

The eligibility criteria, which the IIT has finalised in consultation with the New Town hospital, has been posted on the institute's website www.iitkgp.ac.in.

The eligibility criteria for the medical physics and nuclear medicine courses have been prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, said Suman Charkarbarti, head of the School of Medical Science and Technology at the IIT.

The names of the successful candidates will be published on June 24. The admission is scheduled for July 13.

All MSc courses are of two years. After the completion of MSc, candidates may be admitted to the PhD programme following the IIT norms.

Medical physics students, after doing their master's, can do a one-year paid internship at Tata Medical Center.

An MoU for the collaborative courses was signed by Tata Medical Center director Mammen Chandy and IIT Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakraborty in January.

The courses are aimed at producing "medical physicists" who will put their skills to use in "real clinical application" in advanced cancer treatment facilities, Charkarbarti said.

Explaining the significance of the courses, he said: "In case of radiation therapy, you need a medical physicist who knows the exact dose of radiation to be applied to a patient. And for this one has to have knowledge about calculation of physics.... For medical image analysis, too, you need experts in medical physics who can explain to a doctor what physical situation an image corresponds to."

The unavailability of trained personnel prevents several health-care units from investing in expensive diagnostic machineries.