From the Director’s Desk

On this 82 nd Foundation Day of Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, I would like to share with the readers the progress made by these prestigious twin institutions in the year that has gone by. The renovation of the heritage buildings of the institute is on full swing and is on time. There have been new levels reached in patient care, medical education and research.

Patient Care

The Department of Endocrinology has started two new out-patient departments namely, . Gestational Diabetes Mellitus OPD, which will look after the health needs of pregnant women who develop diabetes and Type 1 Diabetes OPD which is geared towards providing comprehensive care for patient with type 1 Diabetes patients. The department of Clinical Pharmacology has started DNA extraction services for the institution free of cost for rare disease and banks the samples pending analysis. The Department of Chest Medicine and EPRC have continued their participation in a community-based asthma awareness and education study targeting secondary school children. Over three hundred surgeries on patients with congenital heart diseases were conducted by the department of Cardiothoracic Surgery this year. The comprehensive Hemophilia Care Center run by the Haematology department once a week in collaboration with the Mumbai Chapter of Hemophilia Federation of India helps in counseling the hemophilia patients, advising them regarding their various problems and offering them both diagnostic as well as therapeutic options at the same time. The number of complex angioplasties and complex pediatric interventions carried out in the Cardiology department have been rising. Even, difficult electrophysiology studies and RF ablation procedures and implantation of permanent pacemakers, ICDs and CRT-D are being done regularly by this department. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has been introduced by the department of Nephrology and the year 2007 was remarkable as a 100% patient and graft survivalwas achieved by the department. Innovative techniques have been developed by the Neurosurgery department for treatment of complex craniovertebral anomalies including basilar invagination, Chiari malformations and atlantoaxial dislocations. The department of Paediatrics has started offering free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to HIV-infected children under the Government of India / National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) Program. The project “EDUSAT” was initiated as a part of IDSP to facilitate disease surveillance, data management and on line global training in Community Medicine and is managed by the department of Preventive and Social Medicine. The Urology department is the only department in the whole state of Maharashtra which has started and has been regularly performing laparoscopic donor nephrectomy which is considered to be the most difficult and complex urological laparoscopic operation.

Education

The department of Anatomy has initiated audio-visual demonstration of dissection for the first MBBS students. This isa pioneering step towards teaching and learning gross anatomy. Steps in cadaveric dissection are recorded using a digital camera and these are then projected on a screen for the students using an LCD projector. This allows all the students to view the dissection at the same time. This initiative has been appreciated by students and staff alike. T he department of Clinical Pharmacology in collaboration with the American College of Clinical Pharmacology organized the First South Asia chapter Conference on “Contemporary issues and challenges in drug development.” The department of Medicine has conducted training courses for Specialists from different anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centers in India. This department also organized Training Workshop on Emergency Medicine & Disaster Preparedness in collaboration with Flyingdoc Inc. USA & University of Southern California, Los Angeles County Medical Centre, USA. The department of Microbiology’s Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre conducted workshops and training programs for laboratory technicians, nurses, post graduate students and medical officers from different health care facilities of Mumbai and the State of Maharashtra on various aspects of HIV care, counseling and testing. The Nursing School has implemented the 3½ years-new syllabus for Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery including 6 months internship.

Research

Under a grant from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, a Specialized Centre for Cell-based Therapy [SCCT] has been established to carry out basic research and clinical trials using stem cells. With reference to this research the department of Cardiothoracic Surgery has proposed a project for the use of autologous bone morrow mononuclear cells for use in patients with coronary artery disease with depressed ejection fraction. There is another research project which has already started on isolating and culturing umbilical cord matrix stem cells. Around 230 research publications have been done from the institute.

As the renovation of the heritage buildings get completed, the Pathology and Anatomy museums will have a complete revamping done