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Christian Medical College in Vellore marks its centenary year
Started in 1918, the college, located in Vellore, has gained a reputation among common man for its emphasis on training doctors with a humane touch
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Vellore
Even as the famed Christian Medical College in Vellore marks its centenary year, the institution looks forward to continuing its legacy of providing quality medical education and attracting the best of talents, especially those having the urge to serve the underprivileged in the far flung and remote corners of the country.
Though the hospital, situated on Arcot Road, and the medical college at Bagayam are separated by around 8 kilometres, both are together referred as CMC. This private, minority-run educational and research institute today includes a network of primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals in and around Vellore and is considered one of the most respected medical destinations in India and internationally. The college itself figures in the list of top-ranked medical colleges in India.
“However, the college tries to improve and upgrade itself continually, as it does not believe in resting on its laurels,” said college principal Dr Anna Pulimood. From January 2017, the college has undertaken a review of its undergraduate and post graduate curriculum. This is expected to be completed in about a year’s time, she stated.
Similarly, the college is also trying to increase its research output by adopting various strategies. “There are plans to strengthen our human resource by enabling juniors to be mentored by seniors,” she averred.
Speaking on the same lines, CMC’s director Dr JV Peter said, “The focus in the coming years would be to ensure that treatment for patients is both relevant and contemporary, given the fact that medicine has made rapid strides in the 21st century.” CMC’s new unit at Chittoor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh will provide more courses in allied health sciences, he added.
But Peter’s aim will be to bring to fruition the ongoing new hospital project at Kannigapuram, 12 kilometres from Vellore on the Chennai national highway taken up at a cost of nearly Rs 500 crore. Once completed, CMC will shift 1700 of its 2700 beds to the new and spacious location. The remaining 1000 beds on the Arcot road campus will be used to primarily serve locals. “The new location will have all facilities including staff quarters and will not face space constraints the present hospital has,” Peter added. The project is expected to be completed in four or five phases in around 15 years.
Cherished history: The hospital was started by Ida Sophia Scudder in 1900 to ensure total medical care for women as the then social and religious taboos prevented them from being treated by male doctors resulting in increasing fatalities.
The present medical college was initially started as the Union Mission Medical School in 1918 to train women physicians to meet the above-mentioned need. Scudder had earlier started road side dispensaries in rural villages in 1906, when life expectancy was only a mere 25 years.
When the government, due to a changed policy in 1938, declared that medical degrees could be granted only by universities, Scudder upgraded her medical school to a medical college, named as the Christian Medical College. It started the MBBS course in 1942 after being affiliated to the Madras University.
From such a humble beginning, the college today offers multiple Post Graduate courses. Besides, the institution also provides 19 allied health science programmes at the undergraduate and seven at the post graduate levels. Nearly 9000 outpatients visit the hospital daily, while the bed occupancy rate of 80.28% shows its public patronage. However, what sets this institution in a class by itself are its innovative community oriented programmes. While there is a degree of agitation in some quarters over the proposed move to make doctors serve in rural areas for a specific duration, the practice has been in vogue in CMC for nearly three decades.
Medical students compulsorily have to participate in a three-week residential village programme in nearby Kaniyambadi block under the COM (community oriented medicine) programme organised by CMC’s outreach unit, the Bagayam based CHAD (Community Health And Development) Hospital. Similarly, the institute’s RUHSA (Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs) at KV Kuppam, 22 kilometres from Vellore, runs a community college offering various vocational courses for local youth, said Rita Isaac, who heads RUHSA.
NOTABLE ALUMNI
Binayak Sen: Paediatrician, human rights leader and recipient of the Jonathan Mann award
KA Abraham: Interventional cardiologist and Padma Shri awardee
Suresh David: Pioneer of emergency medicine in India
Ajit Varki: Medical researcher and Director, Glycobiology institute, UCSD
Nagarur Gopinath: Cardiothoracic surgeon and Padma Shri awardee
MILESTONES
- Establishing India’s first college of nursing in 1946
- The first reconstructive surgery on leprosy patients in the world in 1948
- Creating the first Neurological Sciences Department in South Asia in 1948
- Performing the first successful open-heart surgery in India in 1961
- Performing the first middle-ear Microsurgery in India in 1961
- Establishing the first Rehabilitation Institute in India in 1966
- Performing India’s first kidney transplant in 1971
- Performing India’s first bone marrow transplant in 1986
- Performing the first carotid bifurcation stenting procedure in India in 1996
- Performing the first transseptal carotid stenting procedure in the world in 1996
- Performing the first transjugular mitral valvuloplasty procedure in the world in 1996
- Performing the first successful ABO Incompatible Renal Transplant in India in 2009
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