PGI Celebrates Institute's Foundation Day

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 17^th July:- Dr. Girish Sahni, Secretary, Department of Science & Industrial Research, Government of India and Director General, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Delhi, while addressing the new resident doctors joining PGIMER, in the July session for MD/MS/DM/Mch courses.  Dr. Girish Sahni emphasized on the spirit of unity and team work for entrepreneurship, to do research to create a product beneficial for a common man. He said the goal has to be from observation to discovery, from discovery to invention, from invention to innovation and finally value creation. If all the doctors, scientists, researchers and the industry work together we will come out with solutions for various diseases as well as with affordable medical care. While appreciating the contribution of PGIMER to the country, he said that undaunted PGIMER with its high quality medical care had been serving the poorest of poor and millions of lives had been touched saved and transformed. PGIMER and CSIR along with many other institutes together could create value in medicine which can impact the lives of people of India.

Dr. Girish Sahni in his address gave various examples of innovations done over the years that had impacted the common man’s life. Solar Power Tree, Ksheer Scanner to detect milk adulteration, Anti Diabetes Herbal Formulation- BGR 34 and Divya Nayan a personal reading machine for visually impaired. He also informed about the cutting edge research projects going on under CSIR. According to him translational research was the key word for today’s scientists and researchers which would bring drastic change in how our future generations would live.    

Earlier Prof Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER informed the audience about the latest developments in the Institute.  Regarding the infrastructure he said that the Institute has many state-of-the-art facilities for patient care which are comparable with any best medical Institutes in the world. Our transplant program has taken a giant leap in recent years. A few days ago, a team of over doctors and support staff comprising cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons, Anaesthetists, Pulmonologists, Neurosurgeons, Transplant Coordinators, Technical and Nursing staff conducted the country’s 1^st lung transplant in the public sector in a complex operation spanning over 12 hours. It is an indicator of PGI's accessibility to the lowest strata of society that this maiden lung transplant was performed in a lady belonging to a very underprivileged family. Eye, Renal, Bone Marrow and liver transplants are well established in PGI. Many families have generously donated various organs of their deceased loved ones. Till date PGI conducted 4 Heart transplants and 11 Pancreas kidney combined Transplants, largest in the country.

The Institute has several hi-tech equipments for enhancing patient care. These include the state-of-the-art da Vinci Si HD system for Robot assisted minimally invasive treatment for kidney, urinary bladder and prostate cancers. The robotic surgery facility is now extended to ENT and gynecological surgeries as well. A high-precision linear accelerator Trilogy has been recently introduced in the Institute, providing Image Guided Radio Therapy (IGRT) and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) to patients with cancer. The Radiotherapy Department is recently designated as a center for Integrated Oncology and Palliative care for the period 2016-2018, by European Society for Medical Oncology.

While speaking about research in PGIMER Prof Jagat Ram said that the Institute has conducted cutting-edge research in both clinical and basic sciences.  Our focus of research looks for finding practical solutions applicable to our population.  Many of our research outputs have become national programs.

The Institute has upgraded its Central Sophisticated Instruments Cell, where diverse high-tech equipment are available under one roof, accessible to all Departments of the Institute. This has resulted in tremendous cost-saving by avoiding duplication, and provided state of the art services and facilities. The Institute has acquired a Liquid Nitrogen Facility- this is also a first of its kind initiative in a health-care institution.  This will help in development of bio-bank, culture collection facilities and research in many areas.

The PGI faculty has attracted around 29.30 crores as extra-mural grant last year and published about 1100 research papers.  We now have international collaborations with Universities of Virginia, John Hopkins, Harvard, Utah, Karolinska University (Sweden), University of Oxford and School of Tropical Medicine (London), George Institute and many national collaborations like Chandigarh Regional Innovation and Knowledge Cluster Council which includes Panjab University, Institute of Microbial Technology, IIT Ropar, IISER Mohali, Institute of Nano-science and technology, and with other collaborating Institutes like IMTECH, IIT Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorke, Mandi, Institute of Bioinformatics, Bangalore and National Academy of Medical Sciences. 

To show-case our research, we celebrate PGI Research Day every year for our young faculty and students.

We have around 500 faculty members, nearly 1400 resident doctors, 2663 nurses and 464 nursing students, 420 PhD and paramedical students. With their sincerity and hard work they all contribute in making PGI one of the best in the country”. 

The following PGI employees were honoured on this occasion by the Chief Guest Dr. Girish Sahni in the presence of Prof Jagat Ram for outstanding work in their field with devotion and dedication:

·         Mrs. Jagjit Malhotra, Dy. Nursing Supdt. ; Advanced Eye Centre ·         Ms. Prem Lata Arora, Senior Nursing Officer ; Robotic OT ·         Sh. Som Nath Rana, Administrative Officer ; Establishment Branch-I ·         Sh. Sanjeev Gupta, Technical Assistant ; Medical Microbiology ·         Sh. Kamaljeet Singh, Technical Assistant ; Radiodiagnosis ·         Sh. Inderjit Singh, Junior Engineer (Electrical) ; Engg. Deptt. ·         Sh. Rajender Kumar Sharma, Store Keeper ; Central Store ·         Mrs. Suman, Personal Assistant ; Biochemistry ·         Sh. Manish Kumar, Lower Division Clerk ; Establishment Branch-II ·         Sh. Raj Kumar, Driver Ordinary Grade ; Transport Deptt. ·         Sh. Karnail Singh, Hospital Attendant Gr-II ; General Branch ·         Sh. Aalok Tewari, Hospital Attendant Gr-II ; General Branch ·         Mrs. Rajni, Hospital Attendant Gr-II ; NINE ·         Sh. Roop Lal, Hospital Attendant Gr-II ; Establishment Branch-I Prof. Subhash Varma, Dean PGIMER delivered the vote of thanks. Dignitaries from various Institutes of Chandigarh, former PGI directors and professors, heads of departments, faculty and other staff were present on the occasion.