Vol.No.43.No. 06
Vol.No.54
No.40
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY
July 31, 2006
APRIL 03, 2017
It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. II Samuel 22:33
CMC Vellore receives five Skoch Awards for advancing patient care and community services
Special Prayers: April 02 - 08, 2017 Radiotherapy : Dr. Selvamani B. and Staff Dr. Thomas Samuel Ram and Staff Dr. Simon Pradeep Pavamani Mrs. Jasmin Anand and Staff Palliative Care: Dr. Reena Mary George and Staff Mrs. Jasmin Anand and Staff New initiatives in Mission Hospitals through CMC, Vellore Sunday Services : April 09, 2017
Social Affairs (RUHSA Department) presented “A Model Preventive Cervical Cancer ‘Educate, Screen and Treat’ Programme for Rural India: Translating Evidence into Practice in Low Resource Settings”. Cervical cancer kills more women in India than breast cancer, and can usually be cured if detected at an early stage. The low-tech visual inspection methods for screening and a good referral pathway for treatment will certainly decrease the burden of the disease and deaths in young women, though there are many social and practical challenges to overcome. Of the 7000 women screened, 3.3% were detected to have early and advanced disease and could demonstrate down-staging of the disease at the time of detection over the last 10 years. This RUHSA experience proves invaluable to others seeking to implement similar programmes.
Dr. Raji Thomas, Head of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation presented the ‘Rehab Mela’ under the category of Customer Service Improvement. The ‘Rehab Mela’ was started in 1994, as a medicalfollow-up method for persons with spinal cord injury, who have been treated at the Rehabilitation Centre and are residing in places around Vellore within 100 kms Under Preventive Health Care, Dr. Rita of distance.This was to provide a Isaac, Head of the Rural Unit for Health and
: Scudder Auditorium Rev. Giftus Joshua
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: Hospital Chapel Palm Sunday Musicals
Memorandum: Dr. Anu Mary Oommen, Associate Professor of Community Medicine, is appointed Deputy Registrar, Medical College, for a four-year term from 27th March, 2017. Obituaries: Dr. K.M. Shyamprasad (Batch of 1969) on 25th March 2017. Mr. Sundaresan V., father of Dr.Rajan Sundaresan, ENT-I, and father-in-law of Dr. Beulah Subashini P., on 29thMarch, 2017. Our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved members of the families at this time of grief and loss.
comprehensive medical checkup and all necessary services free of cost, within the shortest time, with maximum convenience for the patient. In a few years, this evolved into a unique, efficient, and costeffective follow-up strategy where around 250 patients and their families come together for 3 days and returned educated, enriched and empowered year after year. Activities during these days include medical checkups, refurbishment of equipment, participation in sports and cultural activities, health education, seminars on disability rights and government schemes, network strengthening, talent shows and competitions. Continued on Page 2
CMC Newsline
T
he Christian Medical College Vellore received ‘Order of Merit’ awards for five different programmes at the Skoch Swasth Bharat Awards 2017, held in New Delhi on 17th and18 th March. The Skoch Foundation Awards are among the most respected and authoritative award programmes in India. Its main focus is empowering the marginalized and making inclusive development a reality by undertaking various research and grassroots intervention projects. Through its summits and conclaves, the foundation has been constantly engaging in policy dialogue with various stakeholders from the Government, NGOs, civil society to private sector, so as to create a comprehensive multi-pronged strategy for development of the nation. Leaders of shortlisted nominations were invited to make a presentation on 20th of February at Delhi, to an expert jury. All participants in the jury presentation phase were also asked to vote on their peers’ projects and the results were combined with the jury-awarded marks. An additional 15% weighting was available from votes submitted by the general public through the Skoch Website. All five of CMC’s applications were awarded the Skoch Order-of-Merit at the 47th Skoch Summit in Delhi on 17th March, 2017. The projects nominated by CMC departments were as follows:
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CMC Vellore receives five Skoch Awards for advancing patient care and community Continued from Page 1 services Dr. Rabin Chacko, Head of Dental Department Unit-I, presented under Primary Care Innovation, the Low Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU) based Dental Care Project for upgrading dental services to the urban poor of Vellore town. The project was initially supported by a grant given by a member of the Scudder family, Dr. Robert Fish, who happened to be a dentist himself. Over a period of 3 years, the clinic was able to make patient-centred, high-quality dental care accessible and affordable to a disadvantaged population. Measurable outcomes include improvement in productivity (100%); capacity utilisation (31 to 72%) and return on investment (“social profit” of 206%) apart from an increase in the range of services provided. A key resource for this project was the use of Competence-Based Education as a strategy to achieve the project goals. Since its inception, 36 General Dentistry trainees and 12 trainers have benefitted from the scheme. The project continues to be supported by the department as its outreach and charity initiative. Dr. Santhanam Sridhar, Professor and Head, Department of Neonatology, presented under the category of Improving Care with Technology, a novel piece of equipment developed by their team for saving asphyxiated newborns who have high chance of mortality or in the case of survivors, neuro-developmental disability. Cooling the babies for 72 hours from shortly after birth is the only therapy that has proven beneficial in reducing both mortality and morbidity. However, the commercially available equipment costs between Rs 15,00, 000 to Rs 25,00,000. CMC’s Neonatology team, led by Dr Niranjan Thomas, used Phase Change Materials (PCM) to design a device which would effectively and safely cool the newborn. With the help of the Bio-engineering Department, an effective cradle was thus designed, costing about Rs 3,000! The technology was transferred to PLUSS Polymers, who supplied the PCM; the cradle is currently marketed by them as MIRACRADLE. This is the most widely used cooling device in India today, and is also used in South Africa and Turkey. Dr. Emily Ebenezar from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, presented “Intrapartum initiative for patient and newborn safety in a busy labour room” and received an Order of Merit, as well as the Skoch Gold Award. They were able to show that despite an ever increasing work load and complex referrals coming from other hospitals, the perinatal mortality rate and birth asphyxia rate has steadily and significantly declined over the past eight years with simple initiatives, at no extra cost to the patient. These initiatives included regular perinatal audits, focused obstetric training, policy changes, staffing and infrastructural changes. Such viable, community-oriented programmes by CMC demonstrate that the charitable sector continues to have an important part to play in the development and delivery of health care services in India.
CMC College of Nursing marks College Day 2017 with festivities Faculty, staff and students of the College of Nursing celebrated their College Day on March11th, 2017. The theme this year was Euodia, a Greek word meaning “sweet fragrance”. Hoisting of the flag began the celebratory day at the College of Nursing Campus, setting the pace for the rest of the programme at the Ida Scudder Auditorium, Bagayam.
Dr. Deepak Abraham, Associate Director, and Dr. Premila Lee, Nursing Superintendent, offered felicitations at the inaugural ceremony. The student Vice President, Ms. Sneha Elsa Johnson, announced the prize winners of the Zenith Quiz held at Coimbatore in December 2016. Medals and certificates were also awarded to students of Diploma Nursing who stood first, second and third in the respective years of their programme.
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Dr. Elizabeth Rufus, Professor and Dean, School of Electronics Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, was the guest of honour at the occasion. In her address, Dr. Elizabeth quoted the biblical meaning of Euodia, bringing out the three ways of being a sweet aroma: eliminating selfishness, submitting to Christ and serving others in unity. She invited the faculty and students to move towards a trans-disciplinary approach in academia and patient care services. The Dean, Dr. Selva Titus Chacko and her deputies, along with all the faculty and students, reminisced about the achievements of the college over the past year and gave thanks for God's leading, especially in shifting to the New Student Nurses’ Hostel as well as the first International Conference in November 2016.
Besides colourful performances, undergraduate and postgraduate students, along with faculty, enthusiastically participated in the Quiz on CMC and its history and other entertaining events. As in the previous year, College Day once again served as an occasion that strengthened the bond between faculty and students, fostering a spirit 2 of solidarity at the College of Nursing.
CMC's Multi-Specialist Team accomplishes challenging procedure on neonate EXIT (Ex Utero Intrapartum Treatment) is a life-saving procedure, performed on fetuses with airway obstruction due to any cause, such as a large neck mass compressing the trachea or congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and so on. This is technically challenging and requires a skilled multidisciplinary team, comprising various specialties. A woman was referred to CMC’s labour room at 37 weeks of pregnancy with a neck mass on her fetus. Antenatal scans revealed that the fetus had a large, solid neck mass, measuring 7x8 cm, was compressing the esophagus and the trachea. The multidisciplinary team which carried out the procedure, was led by Dr Manisha Beck , Dr Reeta Vijayaselvi (Obstetricians); Dr Ekta Rai , Dr Rahul Pillai (Anaesthetists); Dr Mary John , Dr Naina (Paediatric Otolaryngologists); Dr. Sridhar Santhanam , Dr Manish Kumar and Dr Benjamin Ross (Neonatologists). The team had sessions of meetings and a mock drill before carrying out the original procedure on 17th March, 2017 at the Centenary Building Operating Room (CBOR). The aim of the procedure was to deliver the baby partially and keep the uteroplacental circulation going with the help of special techniques such as uterine relaxation and amnion infusion, so that the baby could continue getting oxygen from the mother while its airway was being secured .The airway was secured by the coordinated efforts of the anaesthetists, otolaryngologists and neonatologists, which took 7 minutes, after which the baby was completely delivered. This technique of advanced perinatal resuscitation has been successfully carried out in limited centres across the country, which thanks to the meticulous coordination of this team, now includes CMC.
Department of Haematology & Oncology Nursing boosts Cancer Awareness among Vellore's College Students The Department of Haematology and Oncology Nursing (Medical Surgical Nursing – Specialty VI) and the Medical Oncology Unit put together an awareness programme in keeping with World Cancer Day, February 2017, for the Arts and Science and Engineering College students in Vellore. Medical and nursing faculty, as well as charge nurses from CMC, visited four colleges (Auxilium College, Voorhees College, Kingston College of Engineering and Thanthai Periyar EVR Government Polytechnic College) to enable a deeper appreciation among students of the risk factors and prevention of cancer. Relevant sessions by the CMC faculty were followed by role plays and poster displays. The programme garnered enthusiastic participation from 1250 college students, who were inquisitive to learn about cancer. The management units of the respective colleges were rather receptive, rendering their full support and co-operation. This helped the department’s initiative achieve its objective of increasing insight into a grave group of diseases.
Sports Sports
CMC hosts Charity Cricket Match
After an opening prayer by Chaplain Rev. Arul Dhas, the Twenty-20 format match (which had to be limited to 16 overs per side owing to sudden rains) was inaugurated by Chief Guests Mr. Jothilingham, representing the District Rehabilitation Officer, and Dr. Solomon Sathishkumar, Vice Principal, Christian Medical College Vellore. Felicitations were given by Mr. U. Mohammed Shareef, founder of the Challengers Cricket Club, and Mr. Anil Kumar, who came along with his daughter, currently undergoing treatment at CMC. Despite 40% disability of all their players, which put the CCC team at a disadvantage while fielding, they sealed a win by the seventh over of their innings. Continued on Page 4
CMC Newsline
CMC’s cricket team found themselves facing stiff opposition in the first Dr. Ida S. Scudder Challengers Trophy match on 18th March, 2017. The challengers, India XI, were a team of physically challenged individuals brought together by the Challengers Cricket Club for the Disabled India (CCC). This match was conducted in support of children with cancer as well as players with physical disabilities.
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Sports
CMC hosts Charity Cricket Match
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Result: CCC CI beat CMC XI.: CMC XI – 86 for four in 16 overs; CCC XI - 87 for two in 7 overs. CCC Captain, Suganesh, who stood at 61 runs (not out), walked away as the Man of the Match. During the half-time break, Mrs. Renita Muthusami, Principal of the Ida Scudder School, presented the organisers with a gift of nearly Rs.64,000/-, which had been collected by the school students for the event. All players were awarded certificates by Mr. Jeyabalan, Deputy Commissioner of Labour (Vellore, Tiruvanammalai and Villuparam), Mrs. Renita Muthusami, and Mr. Ikram of Bawa Pharmaceuticals (sponsor).
The CCC Team
Alongside the cricket, CMC conducted a Blood Donation Camp, and the organ donation team set up a stall to raise awareness, encouraging people to carry a donor card. In addition, handicraft stalls were also put together by Karigiri Hospital, Karunai Illam Trust and the Psychiatry Community Health Unit, for spectators to browse.
Congratulations! • Dr. Sahana Shetty, Assistant Professor, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, participated in Endocrine Society of India - AV Gandhi Award 2016 and won the Best Thesis award under the Clinical Category for the study - Bone turnover markers in healthy postmenopausal women and their daughters from South India. • Dr. Edmond Jonath Gendham, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, won the ISNO Best Poster Award at the 9th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Neuro Oncology (ISNOCON 2017) held in Bengaluru from 10th to 12th March, 2017.
Situations Vacant 1. Registrar (Non PG) with (MBBS / M.D / MS) for the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery ICU Salary: As per institutional rules. Accommodation provided (Partly furnished, depending on availability). Shift duties only, Limited working hours. 2. Assistant Professor Gr.II with MD (Psychiatry) for the Department of Psychiatry Unit-III Salary scale: As per institutional rules. Accommodation provided (Partly furnished, depending on availability). Apply with bio-data, certificates and testimonial copies, contact phone number, email ID & address with pincode to the Principal, Christian Medical College, Bagayam, Vellore-632 002. email: princi@cmcvellore.ac.in on or before April 15, 2017 for Items 1 and 2. 3. Staff II Nuclear Medicine Technician for the Department of Nuclear Medicine Qualifications: B.Sc. Degree with 2 year CMAI Diploma in Nuclear Medicine Technology. Preference will be given to female candidates. Salary scale: As per institutiopnal rules. Age limit: 35 years. Job description: Patients Care, Quality Control, Radio Pharmaceuticals - preparation, Diagnostic Procedures, Radionuclide Therapy, Radiation Safety.
5. Administrative Assistant Gr.V Qualification: Graduate + 5 years in-house experience in CMC. Salary: As per institutional rules. Preference will be given to candidates who have completed Masters in Computer Science with 5 years' experience. Applications to be done only through online application system. Please log on to http://www.cmch-vellore.edu Link: “Vacancies”. Note: Only online applications will be accepted; Hard copies will not be accepted. Applications will close on April 19, 2017 for Item 5. CMC PROMOTIONS OFFICE E-mail ID: cmc.promotionsoffice@cmcvellore.ac.in
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4. Graduate Technician Trainee for the Medical Genetics Unit Qualifications: B.Sc. Science subjects, with Diploma in Medical Lab Technician or B.Sc. MLT. Stipend: As per institutional rules. Age limit: 30 years. Sex: Only male candidates need apply. Job description: DNA Extraction, PCR, RFLP, Sequencing for molecular diagnosis. Applications to be done only through online application system. Please log on to http://www.cmch-vellore.edu Link: “Vacancies”. Note: Only online applications will be accepted; Hard copies will not be accepted. Applications will close on April 17, 2017 for Items 3 and 4.
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