Bengaluru’s St John’s Medical College completes 60 years

By Pretesh Kiran

Bengaluru, Aug 12, 2023: St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore is celebrating its 60th year of existence this year. What was conceived as an idea in 1944, and started as a Medical College in 1963, is now known to many as a worldclass Medical College with over 750 undergraduate and 350 post graduate and super-specialty students across various years of medical school each year, state-of-the-art 2,000 plus bed hospital with a multitude of medical, surgical and super-specialty departments.

The Medical College is ably supported by the St John’s College of Nursing and the St John’s Institute of Allied Health Sciences that offer a range of paramedical courses. There is also the St John’s Research Institute (the first in a medical school) – with a biorepository which is involved in cutting edge research in medicine. St John’s has been consistently ranked among the top ten medical colleges across the country in various rankings, among the top 20 institutions in NIRF rankings and has been recognised in consecutive cycles of NABH and NABL accreditation.

Since its inception the institution has been guided by its vision of “A world where quality healthcare is accessible and affordable even to the poorest.” The core values that define the characteristics of this institution are Integrity, Compassion and Excellence.

St. John’s was one of the few institutes which mandated rural service for its MBBS graduates, decades before it became a government policy. Over 50 percent of St. John’s medical graduates have served their two-year Rural Social Obligation Service which started in the ‘70s. Of these, over 600 are Sister Doctor Alumni who continued to serve in remote rural areas of the country.

The St. John’s Research Institute (SJRI) has been responsible for reshaping the agricultural and clinical policy of India in nutrition. The W.H.O. and F.A.O. changed their policy on the amount of protein that was needed for the human body based on the research that came out of this institute. In the month of July- August, 2 key happenings included the WHO approved the introduction of Polypill in the Essential Medicine List based on a recommendation of the multi centric study conducted in SJRI and the approval of the app made in St. John’s to aid in designing supplementary feeding programs of the ICDS program in India.

The Unit of Hope, St. John’s Centre for Children with Special Needs represents how the institution responds to the societal gap in treating the less privileged. The focus is on assessment and management of children with developmental disorders and disabilities from birth to 18 years of age. Several children with disabilities from across India have been helped through this centre.

St John’s Medical Education Unit is one of the 10 nodal centres across India, and is involved in a host of training programmes foredical faculty across Karnataka and India.

Several members of the teaching faculty have taken leadership positions in the State Medical University, state and national advisory boards, including Niti Ayog, that have crafted policy in various fields. Several of them hold patent rights to innovations in the medical field and guide budding researchers in pursuing scientific explorations. Every year, over a thousand national and international publications are produced by various faculty of the institution.

The students of the institution have been consistently securing several University ranks and distinctions every year, as well as winning awards and honours at various National and International conferences. Several students from across the country and world also come to St John’s every year to undertake elective podings and observerships.

The latest expansion of St John’s that will be inaugurated as part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations this year includes th upgraded Department of Oncology, Nuclear Medicine Department, and an Integrated Laboratory System.

Additionally, the St John’s Geriatric Centre is being established which would be one of the first such centre in India to provide comprehensive geriatric and palliative services under one roof. From a daily OPD to training, research and long-term palliative care, this centre will cater to the elderly and vulnerable population of Bangalore, apart from establishing community engagement to promote healthy aging.

As part of its commitment to serving the underprivileged and poor, throughout this Diamond Jubilee year, St John’s Medical College Hospital will be offering these new services in addition to its regular services at rates much below the outside market price. The Unit of Hope would be offering free corrective surgery to select patients and the Department of Cardiology will offer free stents to select and deserving under privileged cases. Free dialysis would be offered to deserving patients, and transplants at subsidised rates.

A Community Ophthalmology Unit for cataract surgeries is being set up, probably the first of its kind in any medical college across India. Assistive devices for disabled and bedbound patients would be provided both in hospital and community settings for deserving underprivileged for free.