Dr. Pravin Thomas, Final year DNB Trainee, Dept of Neurology has won the first prize in a National Level competition for his original article -Multiple Sclerosis-"Reductionism vs Holism- Striking the right balance". This article dealt with the emerging trends in the diagnosis and treatment of Multiple Sclerosis in India.

He also won the best paper award at the Kerala Association of Neurologist( KAN ) Mid term meet in Trissur, Dec 2009. His study -"Multiple Sclerosis in Kerala ''won the first prize and a cash award of Rs 5000.

Dr. Pravin was also a part of the four-member team, which represented INDIA in the World Congress of Neurology (WCN) at Bangkok, Thailand. The team achieved, 4th place among 112 participating countries in the Quiz programme" Tournament of Minds".

Dr. Pravin recently won the best paper award in Neurology for his presentation "Opthalmoplegic Migraine-a clinico- radiological study". He also won cash award of Rs 10,000 and a certificate of appreciation at the annual meet of Neurological society of India (NSI), Kerala Chapter at Kozhikode, Feb 2010.

In 2009 at the annual meeting of NSI, Kerala chapter, held at Trissur, Dr. Pravin had won the best paper award for his paper "Neurogenic Dysphagia in acute stroke -a prognostic study". He has won this award in successive years now.

Dr Alice Kurian, lecturer, Amrita School of Dentistry has bagged the Special Performance Award at the National Level for the Local Branch Editor . This award, instituted by Indian Dental Association was presented on 28th February 2010 in a colorful Award giving ceremony held at Mumbai. BIDA (Bulletin of Indian Dental Association Kochi branch) for which Dr Alice is the editor, had also won the best journal award of IDA Kerala state at the recently concluded Annual State Dental Conference at Calicut. Editorials, scientific content and overall quality of her journals were widely appreciated among the dental fraternity.

She joined Amrita after completing BDS from Calicut University. She was honored with the best outgoing student award as well as four gold medals for scholastic achievements. At Amrita, she placed first in the Medical Informatics class.

An excellent orator, Dr. Alice is actively involved with mentoring several student extra-curricular initiatives.

A Homeopathic OPD is functional under the department of Holistic Medicine. Lamp lighting was performed by Dr. Mattakkara Ramachandran Nair, Chief Consultant, Holistic Medicine on 04/03/2010.

Dr. Bhavya Sabarish, BHMS, has joined the department and the OP services will be available on every Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at Holistic Medicine OPD.

MBBS GRADUATION CEREMONY (2004 BATCH)

The Graduation Ceremony of the 2004 batch of MBBS students was held on 4th March, 2010 at the AIMS Kochi Campus. Padma Vibhushan Dr.G.Madhavan Nair, Former Chairman of ISRO and Secretary to the Department of Space, Govt. of India, was the Chief Guest and inaugurated the glittering ceremony. The graduation procession of the outgoing students was a colorful and glittering event.

The function was also blessed with the presence of Sampoojya Swami Poornamritananda Puri, General Secretary, Mata Amritanandamayi Matt, Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director, Dr. Krishna Moorthy, Registrar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Dr. Prathapan Nair, Principal, Amrita School of Medicine administered the Oath of Geneva Declaration. In addition to the distinguished faculty and staff of AMRITA, the proud parents of the graduated students also participated the function, which was a memorable event.

Dr. SANJEEV K SINGH (Sr. Medical Administrator & Associate Professor) has been selected as a SHEA ( Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America) Ambassador from India. The honour of Ambassadorship is conferred to the10 best professionals in infection control in the world. Four of his abstracts has been accepted for presentation in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) meeting on 18th March’ 2010 at Atlanta. He will also be attending a Health Care Epidemiology workshop in May at Missouri and would be responsible to establish Health Care Epidemiology course in the country.

He graduated from SMS Medical College, Jaipur in 1994 and completed his post graduation in pediatrics from SMS Medical College, Jaipur in 1998. He also did M.Phil in Hospital & Health System Management from BITS, Pilani and Postgraduate Diploma in Medico Legal Systems from Symbiosis University, Pune. Dr. Sanjeev did his fellowship in Patient and Healthcare Worker Safety from University of Virginia in 2008 and is a member of National Consultative Group on Health Care Worker Safety and member of National Initiative on Patient Safety. He is also Secy of Federation of Hospital Administrators and Regional Director of Indian Society of Health Administrators.

Before joining Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr. Sanjeev worked as Junior Consultant and Hospital Administrator at Paediatric Hospital at Jaipur and subsequently he was the Sub Regional Coordinator for Disease Eradication program of WHO from 2000 to 2003.

He has joined Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) as Medical Administrator in July 2003 and now continuing as the Senior Medical Administrator from October 2004 till date.

Amrita School of Medicine is one of the premier private medical colleges in India that has succeeded in implementing the PG Entrance Examination coaching classes.The students who attended our coaching classes have secured higher ranks in All India and Kerala Medical entrance examination.

This coaching programme has been prepared based on the experience and the skills of Faculty who have decades of experience in successfully training students for PG entrance exams. The well researched course material ensures comprehensive coverage of all basic concepts, with solved examples, short cuts and strategies for improvement of performance.

This programme offers

• Expertise of excellent & eminent Faculty members
• Well researched course material, most exhaustive and up to date
• Extensive & Exclusive theory & MCQ coverage
• Separate Harrison’s session
• Mock Test for AIPGEE/AIIMS/CET monthly
• Regular class test / assignments for students

Classes will be from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm from Monday to Friday and 9.00 am to 5.00 pm on Sundays.

Download application form

Documents to be enclosed with the application form

Two Passport size photographs
MBBS Degree certificate, if not received Provisional certificate
MBBS Registration certificate with any state Medical Council
Demand Draft of Rs.12,000/ - drawn in the name of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, payable at Kochi.

The completed application form may be send to

The Course Co – ordinator
PG Medical Entrance Coaching – 2010
Office of Principal
Amrita School of Medicine
AIMS Ponekkara (PO)
Kochi – 682 041

The application form can also be collected from the office of Principal, Amrita School of Medicine, AIMS Ponekkara, Kochi.

For any enquiries, please contact:
The Course Co – ordinator
PG Medical Entrance Coaching – 2010
Amrita School of Medicine
AIMS Ponekkara (PO)
Kochi – 682 041

E mail: medprincipalsecretary(at)aims.amrita.edu

Media brief covered in the Times of India Chennai website on UGC evaluation status of existing Deemed Universities in India in three major categories as outlined in the margin is attached.
                                                                                           (click here to Download attachment)

The information interesting reading and above all may feel proud that "Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham" stands out in category "a" among the 38 Deemed Universities, assessed as "found fit" in all aspects per the UGC Guidelines.

It may be noted that this is not an official confirmation from the UGC, but may be considered as authentic, for our understanding. Together, the narration and list under "b" and "c" categories to have an overall feel on status of contemporary institutions in the Academic field.

Kerala Plastic Surgeons Association and The Centre for Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, AIMS organised the 16th instructional course in plastic surgery on 16th and 17th January 2010 at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences Kochi.

Senior Plastic Surgeon Dr. Sam C Bose inaugurated the two-day workshop at Amriteswari hall at 8.40 am on 16th Jan.2010. The topic was ‘facial clefts and craniofacial Anomalies’.

The aim of the workshop was to impart training on reconstruction of inner tongue, congenital deformities and cosmetic surgery.

The Kerala Plastic Surgeons Association has been conducting regular CME programmes for postgraduates, designed to cover the entire spectrum of plastic surgery topics in a period of 3 years.

From Chennai Dr. Jyotsna Moorthy, Dr. Karun Agarwal and Prof. Sreedhar presented various plastic surgery techniques of cleft lip and cranio facial anomalies.

Dr. Subramanya Iyer, Dr. Jimmy Mathew, Dr. Kishore, Dr.Sundeep, Dr. Nandakumar, Dr. Sherry Peter and Dr. Maria Kuriakose also participated .

AIMS is organizing its 18th Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) training prog in association with Critical Care Education Foundation (CCEF) -India
The prog is being scheduled on Saturday, 16^th Jan’ 2010 (Full day). A certificate will be given to all trained faculty.
One senior & experienced critical care expert from Mumbai, along with our internal expert faculty, will be conducting the programme.

Highlights of the ACLS training prog includes:

Introduction to BCLS
Interaction with critical care experts
Use of ACLS software and Simulation
Hands on training on AED, Rhythm Recognition, Approach & Management, Algo-rhythm of ACLS 2007 guidelines, CPR etc., Command Stations

Seats are limited to 25 faculty members only.

Most of the urological malignancies are curable when diagnosed and treated early. The Department of urology has a separate section for Urological malignancies. The cancers of Kidney, bladder, prostate, ureter and adrenals are taken care by this section. A sub speciality clinic in Uro oncology is a unique venture in India. Uro oncology Out patient department is operated on Fridays between 11 am to 5 pm. Being a research institute with state of the art infrastructure , we have highly focussed team for the care of urological cancers . In cases where multimodality treatment is required, our institution has medical oncologist, radiation oncologists, state of the art radiology, pathology and nuclear medicine departments, all under one roof. There are facilities for brachytherapy, conformal radiotherapy, IMRT and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures.

The uro oncologists, radiation oncologist , medical oncologists and uro pathologist discuss the cases and take combined decision on the management of all the cases at Tumor board. The follow up and further management are also done as per the current protocols.

Doctor of Medicine (D.M.) Programme in Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurology, Gasroenterology, Endocrinology AND Master Chirurgiae (M.Ch.) Programme in Cardio Vascular Thoracic Surgery, Urology and Neuro Surgery for the Academic Year 2009-2010 was inaugurated by Sampoojya Swami Poornamritananda Puri, General Secretary, Mata Amritananda Mayi Math on 29 the August 2009 in Amrita institute Of Medical Sciences.

"Through dedication and total surrender we can learn everything" Swami told in his benedictory address. Dr.Prathapan Nair, Principal, Amrita School of Medicine delivered the welcome address. Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director, AIMS gave keynote address.

Sri. Ron Gottsegen, Administrative Director, AIMS, Dr. Santhi nair, Head of the Department, Nano Science, Dr. APS Krishnan, Vice President, Amrita Hospital were also present on this occasion.

"The emerging Intelligent biosciences promises a happy world devoid of diseases."
Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam

After inaugural address in connection with the formal inauguration of the PET CT Scanner, Dr. Abdul Kalam interacted with the students and urged the students to ask five questions. 'Ask five smart questions and I will give smart answers", he said.

A student asked, "What can we do for the development of the country?" " Go to villages' was his immediate reply. He requested the future doctors to go to villages and treat at least 20 patients every year, free of charges.

When an MBA student asked about how to insulate India from the effect of global meltdown, Dr. Kalam said that India was not severely affected as the rest of the world because of three things. One, the reforms hadn't been fully implemented due to our social commitments, Two, our banks were more orthodox in giving loans and three, Indians were saving minded. If India has to be fully insulated from the Global meltdowns in future, PURA ( Providing Urban amanities in Rural Areas) concept has to fruitiy with focus on rural development. 700 million people live in 6,00.000 villages.

A final year MBBS student asked how the economic difference between the rich and poor could be decreased. Dr Kalam said "records say that 45% of the population were below the poverty line in 1970. That has now come down to 22%. If we have to improve it further, PURA concept has to really take off where physical, electronic, Knowledge and Economic connectivity between the urban and the rural areas are there."

Another doctor asked what his vision was when he was 30. He replied that he had his vision at 10 years when his teacher, Mr Shiva Subramania Iyer taught him about how birds fly. That prompted him to take us physics, aeronautics and later rocket engineering.

He advised all to have an aim, attain knowledge, work hard and have perseverance to attain the goal.

In view of the above, AIMS is pleased to announce that we are joining with the World Health Organization (WHO), First Global Patient Safety Challenge campaign on the 5th of May 2009, "SAVE LIVES: CLEAN YOUR HANDS". This initiative is to highlight the critical importance of good hand hygiene in patient care as it is the entrance door to better infection control and safer patient care.

More over, Dept.of Infection Control organized a weeklong campaign titled "OUR HANDS TOUCH MANY LIVES", covering the complete spectrum of hospital staff along with lecture series. The activities of the campaign were lecture series, poster & slogan competition cum exhibition, quiz competition, Lucky-draw etc.

It is capable of doing interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, paediatrics interventions as well as general vascular applications

Special IC stent package in this machine enhances the visibility of deployed stent. Another similar lab is also expected to go online in a month's time.