Prestigious ICMR ‘Centre for Excellence’ Award In Cardiac Care Research Won By Kerala’s Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute

The Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) has been awarded the prestigious ‘Centre for Advanced Research, and Excellence (CARE)’ status by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) reports The Times of India (TOI).

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.

ICMR plans to set up ten centres of advanced research and excellence in the country in areas like cancer, diabetology, cardiology, mental health, air pollution and has given its approval to SCTIMST for setting up a ‘CARE centre for cardiology in heart failure’ at the institute.

The mortality rate for cardiac diseases is greater than cancer at 45 per cent. says S Hari Krishnan Professor of Department of Cardiology.

ICMR is reported to have provided Rs 5 crore to set up a CARE at SCTIMST which under Dr Harikrishnan has established a database for heart failure. Such a registry is first of its kind in India.

The SCTIMST will establish heart-failure registry, create bio-bank of heart failure patients to study genetics, metabolomics, proteomic markers of health outcomes in heart failure patients, said Dr Harikrishnan.

The centre would also research on the macroeconomic and psychological impact of heart-failures and would develop task sharing and m-health (mobile- health) interventions for training nurses and health-care givers to manage heart-failure events better he said. Development of point-of-care (POC) device systems to aid management of heart-failure patients is also in the cards he added.

The CARE award came as a recognition of the efforts of SCTIMST in the field of cardiology said Asha Kishore, Director of SCTIMST.