NEWSLETTER 2017 Dear Friends, In this Alumni Newsletter we summarize key events involving alumni in 2017 and we also provide information about future alumni events. Several intramural alumni, including Prathap Tharyan our immediate past-President, retired in 2017, after many decades of dedicated and inspiring service to their Alma Mater. They worked with passion, skill, commitment, and compassion. Many departments in CMC, as well as its extramural and intramural alumni, made notable achievements in 2017. At the end of the year, it is good to review these accolades and celebrate our successes. This newsletter also lists alumni who passed away in 2017 and whose lives, work, and friendship we honour and cherish. We hope to carry obituaries for them in our website (http://cmcvellorealumni.org/). We will be grateful if alumni could provide pictures, reflections, or obituaries for inclusion in the website. There have been leadership changes both in CMC as well as the Alumni Association. Systems and traditions will ensure that there is continuity and the transition so far has been smooth. In 2018, CMC will be celebrating 100 years of medical education. As part of the celebrations, all batches are invited to the Alumni Reunion on 9-11 August, 2018. We want to compile the stories and achievements of our alumni so please do send information and write-ups to the Alumni Office.

All of us are anxious about the student selections. CMC still hopes to have the

final say in selecting students but this matter is still sub-judice. Changes have happened at the national and state level and it remains to be seen how this plays out. The Alumni Association serves as a channel to “preserve and promote all that is of enduring value in the relationship of the alumni of the Christian Medical College, Vellore, among themselves and with their College”. It is important that we have updated contact details so please do use the website and fill in the form available online or sending in details to the Alumni Office by post or email. We look forward to your suggestions on how the Alumni Association and the Alumni Office can be more relevant and useful to you in connecting and strengthening bonds between alumni and in furthering the mission and vision of our Alma Mater. We live in difficult times. Intolerance and polarisation the world over are challenging who we are and what we want for society. Christmas is a season of hope, peace and goodwill so let us all see the good in each other. Three cheers for the “Silver and Blue”. With warm regards and best wishes, Abraham Peedicayil

(1975) Vinod Abraham

(1989) President Secretary

On behalf of the Office Bearers and staff at the Alumni Office

The following CMC faculty retired in 2017 after years of dedicated service to the institution:

Dr. Anna Tharyan MBBS batch of 1974 June 2017

Dr. Victoria Job PG alumnus – Biochemistry June 2017

Dr. Prathap Tharyan MBBS batch of 1974 August 2017

Dr. John C. Muthusami MBBS Batch of 1974 September 2017

CONGRATULATIONS

Dr. Premila Nalini Webster (nee Thangaraj) (Batch of 1971) was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Public Health (Oxfordshire) in the Queen’s honors list.

Dr. Nitin Kekre (PG alumnus, Urology) was elected Council Member (South India) of the Urological Society of India at the Annual Urological Society of India Conference.

Drs. Sudhindra J (Batch of 2003), Rohan Nautiyal (PG alumnus, Urology) and Kapil

Chaudhary won the IPCA National Intercollegiate Urology Quiz at the Annual Urological Society of India Conference.

The Brij Kishore Patna prize for the Best Paper was received by Dr. Sudhindra J (Batch of 2003) for the work titled “Does Mannitol affect short term allograft function in living donor renal transplantation?” Dr. Sudhindra was also awarded the USI travelling fellowship, ‘EUREP 2017.’

Dr. George Koshy Chiramel (Batch of 1993) has been selected as Distinguished Reviewer for 2016 by the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology JVIR at the Indian Association for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Conference (IAPMRCON) 2017 held at Kolkata.

Dr. Samuel Barnabas Sikha (PG alumnus, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) was

awarded the Dr. Bindeshwari Sudarshan Gold Medal for presenting the best PG paper titled “The Role of Ultrasonography in the Non-Invasive Assessment of Upper Airway for Decannulating Tracheostomy in Patients with Acquired Brain Injury – A Pilot Study” at the Indian Association for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Conference (IAPMRCON) 2017 held at Kolkata.

Dr. Gourav Gomez (PG alumnus, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) was awarded the Dr. P. Hanumantha Rao Gold Medal for the 2nd Best PG Paper Presentation titled “Ambulation Augmentation in Low Level Paraplegics Using Resistance Bands – A Pilot Randomised Control Trial” at the Indian Association for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Conference (IAPMRCON) 2017 held at Kolkata.

Dr. Prithviraj Bose, (Batch of 2010), was awarded the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R Medical University Gold Medal in Ophthalmology at the recently held university convocation.

Dr. George Srampakil, (PG alumnus, Orthopaedics), won the 2017 Arthroplasty Gold Medal at the Tamil Nadu Orthopaedic State Conference for his presentation titled Pain relief in hip replacement.

Dr. Ebor Jacob J (PG alumnus, Paediatrics) has been nominated the South Zonal co-ordinator of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics-Advance Life Support (IAP-PALS) courses.

Dr. T. Abiramalatha (PG alumnus, Neonatology) won the Young Researcher Award at the National IAP Pedicon for her study done at CMC titled Neutrophil VCS parameters in Neonatal Sepsis.

Dr. Benjamin Jeyanth Ross (Batch of 1994) won the Best Poster Award for his poster

titled Prevalence of Group B Streptococal Colonisation among Pregnant Women and Neonates in a Tertiary Hospital in India at the CALNEOCON held at Calicut.

Dr. Shajin T (PG alumnus, Paediatrics) was awarded the “Dr.V. Balagopal Raju Award

for Best Paper in Child Health” at the National Conference of Paediatrics (PEDICON-2017) held in Bengaluru, for his MD dissertation “Comparison of PF Ratio and SF Ratio in Critically Ill Children Requiring Respiratory Support” done with support from the PICU team of Drs. Ebor Jacob, Pragathesh, Kala and Jolly.

Dr. Prajna Bhargavi Kota (PG alumnus, General Surgery) won the Dr. CMK Reddy

Gold Medal Prize Exam in Vascular surgery conducted by the Vascular Surgery Department of the Madras Medical College, Chennai.

Dr. Ferzine Mohamed (Batch of 2001) and Dr. Koushik Herle were placed 1st in the

Paediatric Surgery Update Quiz conducted at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, as an educational update.

Dr. Atif Shaikh I.A (PG Alumnus, General Medicine), and Dr. Gideon L. Rynjah (Batch

of 2002) won the first prize in the Neuro Quiz held during SHINE 2017- 7th Annual Conference of Clinical Neurology held at Chennai.

Dr. Dheepak Selvaraj (Batch of 1989) has been elected as Treasurer of the Venous Association of India on his election held at Varanasi VAICON 2017 Conference.

Dr. Ludia John (Batch of 2006) received the 2nd prize at the recently held Venous Associations of India Conference at Varanasi.

Dr. Sahana Shetty, (PG alumnus, Endocrinology), participated in Endocrine Society of India - AV Gandhi Award 2016 and won the Best Thesis award under the Clinical Category for the study - Bone turnover markers in healthy postmenopausal women and their daughters from South India.

Dr. Edmond Jonath Gendham, (PG alumnus, Neurosurgery), won the ISNO Best Poster Award at the 9th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Neuro Oncology (ISNOCON 2017) held at Bengaluru.

Dr. Anika Amritanand (Batch of 1990) won the Best Paper Award in the Non-communicable Diseases section for the presentation titled Incorporating Primary Eye Care into Primary Health Care: Modelling a Synergistic Partnership at the 61st Annual Conference of the Indian Public Health Association, held at Jodhpur.

Dr. Rini Mary Thomas (Batch of 2006) claimed the first prize at the SRMC

MEDICLINICS 2017 conference held at Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai for her presentation titled Unusual presentation of Systemic Sarcoidosis – A case report.

Dr. Vrisha Madhuri (Batch of 1975) and team from CMC and Dr. Dinish NS and Team

from IISc, Bangalore have been awarded the NRDC (National Research Development Corporation) Meritorious Invention Award of the Year 2015 for Padma Pada – A Compliance Monitoring Club Foot Brace.

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Pandey, (PG alumnus, Neurosurgery) won the Best Poster Award

for his presentation titled Surgical Implications of Migrating Choroid Plexus papilloma, at the 28th Annual Meeting of Indian Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery and 2nd Annual Conference of Asian Australian Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery, held in Mumbai.

Dr. Mathew J Chandy (Batch of 1960) received the Lifetime Achievement Award, for his contribution to Neurosurgery by the newly formed Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Association of Neurosurgeons.

Dr. Sunil J. Holla (Batch of 1977) is the co-editor of Gray's Anatomy for Students - First South Asian Adaptation published by Elsevier and released by S.C. Parija, Director of JIPMER, Puducherry.

Dr. Gaurab Majumdar (PG alumnus, Ophthalmology) won the 3rd prize in the AIOS PG Quiz (H K Tiwari Gold Medal Examination) at the Annual Conference of AIOS held at Jaipur.

Dr. Christina Marie Joseph (Batch of 2007) was awarded the Best Paper Presentation at the 7th Annual Conference of AO Trauma India held at Chennai.

Dr. Sirish Chandra Srinath (PG alumnus, Cardiology) received the second prize at the Heart Rhythm Bowl 2017 held at Chicago.

Dr. Sudipta Dhar Chowdhury (PG alumnus, Gastroenterology) has been elected as

Governing Council Member of Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India from May 2017 to May 2019.

Dr. Rosh Varghese Georgy (Batch of 2009) won the 1st prize in Postgraduate case presentation during the West Zone CME on Fetal Medicine and State IRIA Monthly Meet held at Coimbatore.

Dr. Jacquline Jose (Batch of 2006) was awarded the 1st prize for the paper titled

‘Cutaneous lichen amyloidosis in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A - a common cutaneous manifestation in an common cancer syndrome’ by Jacquline Jose , Renu George , Venkat Raman , Nitin Kapoor , Nihal Thomas , Rekha Pai , Reetu John (Departments of DVL Unit-I, Endocrinology, Molecular Pathology and Radiology) presented at the 4th Dermatology and Allied Specialties Summit at New Delhi.

Dr. Lalee Varghese (PG alumnus, ENT) won the first prize in the Senior Consultant

award category at the 30th Annual Conference of All India Rhinology Society, RHINOCON 2017, held at Amritsar.

Dr. Vijayakumar Lukka (PG alumnus, Post Doctoral Fellow) won the first prize in the Junior Consultant award category at the 30th Annual Conference of All India Rhinology Society, RHINOCON 2017, held at Amritsar.

Dr. Beena Koshy (Batch of 1994) won the first prize in International Conference on "Translational Medicine and Imaging" held at VIT University, Vellore.

Dr. Dheepak Selvaraj (Batch of 1989) has been elected as the Treasurer for the Vascular Society of India for the term of two years.

Dr. Abhilash Cheriyan (Batch of 2005) won the first prize in the Radiology Quiz programme at the TAPSUCON 2017 held at SRM Medical University, Kattankulathur.

Dr. Sam Ponraj (Batch of 1999) and Dr. Albert Abhinay Kota (Batch of 2000) were awarded the 2nd best Postgraduates Team Award in the Quiz at the 24th Annual Vascular Society of India’s meeting. Dr. Albert Abhinay Kota received the 2nd prize in the Oral presentations for his paper titled “Novel strain gauge plethysmography”.

Dr. Abraham Peedicayil (Batch of 1975) has been elected as a president of Asia Oceania Research Organization on Genital Infections and Neoplasia - India (AOGIN - India).

Dr. Rajeevan P.S. (Batch of 2008) won the best oral presentation award during the annual meet of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterologist (IASGCON 2017) held at JIPMER, Puducherry.

Dr. Rohit Srinivas (PG alumnus, Paediatric Surgery) won the 1st prize for the paper titled 'Factors influencing bronchoscopic evaluation of foreign body aspirations - a 5 year retrospective study' at the 43rd National Conference of Indian Association of Paediatric Surgeons held at Kolkata.

Dr. Jujju Jacob Kurian (PG alumnus, Paediatric Surgery) won the 1st prize for the Poster presentation titled 'An unusual presentation of a villous papilloma of the gall bladder in association with metachromatic leukodystrophy' at the 43rd National Conference of Indian Association of Paediatric Surgeons held at Kolkata.

Dr. Tarun John Jacob (Batch of 1997) won the 2nd prize for the Poster presentation titled 'Management and emryological basis for a neonate with malrotation with portal aneurysm' at the 43rd National Conference of Indian Association of Paediatric Surgeons held at Kolkata.

Dr. Amit Kumar Dutta (Batch of 1995) received the Shakuntala Amir Chand Prize for Clinical Research in Gastroenterology for the year 2015 at the Indian Council of Medical Research Award function held at New Delhi.

Dr. Thomas V. Paul (PG alumnus, Endocrinology) has been awarded the “PN Shah Memorial Oration” for the year 2017 for his valuable contribution in the field of “Epidemiology of Osteoporosis – a South Indian perspective” during Endocrine Society of India-2017 conference (ESICON), at Thiruvanathapuram.

Dr. Edmond Jonathan (PG alumnus, Neurosurgery) has won the “Best Free Paper Award” at the 19th Annual Conference of Skull Base Surgery Society of India, held at Kochi.

Dr. Sneha E. (PG alumnus, Anaesthesiology) and Dr. Philip Amitav Vikram Kalindi (PG alumnus, Anaesthesiology) were the winners in Anaesthesia Quiz conducted in the World Anaesthesia Day 2017, Continuing Medical Education programme in the Stanley Medical College, Chennai.

Dr. Siddharth Mittal (PG alumnus, Transfusion Medicine) won the Dr. J.G. Jolly award for the best original Research Paper submitted on the topic “Enhancing Quality: Is Cooler Better? A Clinical trial to test the efficacy of Pre-storage leukoreduction of red cells at two different temperatures” during the 6th National Conference of Indian Society of Transfusion Medicine TRANSMEDCON 2017 held at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.

Dr. Pragya Kafley (PG alumnus, Transfusion Medicine), Dr. Jayastu Senapati (Batch of 2007) and Dr. Rachana Shenoy won the First place for the 7th ISHBT National Haematology Quiz for Post Graduates held in Guwahati, Assam as part of the Annual National Conference of the Indian Society of Haematology & Blood Transfusion HAEMATOCON 2017.

Dr. Aditya Vijayakrishnan Nair (PG alumnus, Neurology) has been awarded III prize in the Poster Presentation at the "6th Asian-Oceanian Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology" Conference held at Bengaluru.

Dr. Mithra Ebenezer Vijayasenan (1957) has written and published a book on Psychiatry called “Psychiatry in the service of mankind” a brief introduction to psychiatry and to the help out there for people living with mental illness drug addiction and alcoholism through the publishers “amazon.com

Dr. Krishnankutty (Krish) Sathian (batch of 1973) has been named chair of the Department of Neurology for Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Dr. Varadachary Srinivas (1966) has written and published a book “A Tale of Two Homes”.

Dr. K.G. Kiruthiga (PG alumnus, Pathology) won the trophy at the 1st Annual Update on Lymphomas, held by Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

Dr. Mary Parimala Samuel (1969) was awarded the Medical Excellence Gold Medal & Citation by Indian Solidarity Council at New Delhi.

Dr. Ashok Venkitaraman (1977) has won the 2017 Basser Global Prize by the Penn’s Basser Center for BRCA.

Dr. Nihal Thomas (1982) has been recommended to be awarded the 2018 World India Diabetes Foundation Outstanding Investigator Award by the international committee (Dr. Robert Rizza-Mayo, Edward Horton-Harvard and John Wahren-Karolinska Institute) at the International Symposium on diabetes at Mumbai. This award is in honor of Mr. Raman Kapur (Chair, WIDF Board)

Dr. Sujith Thomas Chandy (2005) was awarded the Prof. Dr. J.C. Kothari Young

Scientist Award at the Annual National Pulmonary Conference (NAPCON 2017).

Dr. Jefferson Daniel J (2007) was awarded the Prof. Dr. S.N. Gaur Young Scientist Award at the Annual National Pulmonary Conference (NAPCON 2017).

Dr. Vikram Mathews (1985) was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by the Indo-American Cancer Association for his outstanding contributions to Haematology.

ANNUAL ALUMNI REUNION 2017 The Medical Alumni Reunion was held from August 10 to 12, 2017. Over 200 alumni from various parts of the world gathered in Vellore to take part in the celebrations. The special batches were 1942, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987 and 1992. The celebrations commenced with the representatives of the special reunion batches shared their experiences with the medical students on August 11, 2017. The alumni who spoke included Dr. Rohan Ganguli (1967), Dr. Christiana Joseph (1972), Dr. Dayalan Clarke (1977), Dr. Prabhakar Thyagarajan (1982), Drs. Rahul Lath and Madhavi Singh (1987) and Drs. Rohit John and Mini Elizabeth George (1992). There were short video clips of interviews with Dr. Rose Satyam (1942) and Dr. Zarina Isaac (1947). This was followed by a CME session. The speakers included Dr. K.S. Joseph (1977), Dr.Liza Jacob (1982), Dr. Sekhar Krishnan (1987) and Dr. Shalini Mishra (1992). The General Reunion on August 12, 2017 began with traditional tree planting and the Alumni meeting in Scudder Auditorium. The Director, Dr. Sunil Chandy and the Principal, Dr. Anna Pulimood presented some of the newer developments in CMC to the alumni. The Medical Superintendent, Dr. C.E. Eapen offered his felicitations. The President of the Student’s Association Mr. Shantanu Nayak welcomed the alumni on behalf of the student body. The citations of the Alumni Award of Distinction for the year 2017 to Drs. Joe & Denny Fleming and Mr. Brian Witchalls & Mrs. Ann Witchalls, in recognition of their immense contribution to CMC, was read. At the General Body Meeting of the Alumni Association, the office bearers who were nominated and elected were: Dr. Abraham Peedicayil (1975) elected as President. Dr. Anne Jennifer Priscilla (1991) elected as Treasurer for a period of 3 years. Dr. Pritish John Korula (1998) elected as Entertainment Secretary for a period of 1 year. The contributions of Dr. Prathap Tharyan (President, Alumni Association, 2012-2017), Dr.B. Selvamani (Treasurer, Alumni Association, 2013-2017) and Dr. Abhay Gahukamble (Entertainment Secretary, Alumni Association, 2015-2017) for the activities of the Alumni Association was appreciated.

This was followed by the special batch introductions and photographs. The special batches proceeded to the Men’s and Women’s Hostels, where the current students, along with the alumni, entertained the crowd. At the Thanksgiving Service in the Scudder Auditorium, Dr. Gee Gee George (1977) gave the message. The newest batch of alumni (the present interns; batch of 2012), were given the charge to serve and not to seek to be served. Drs. Roy Joseph (1967) and Dr. Lenny Markose (1972) passed on the torch of light to the representatives of the batch of 2012. Later that evening, Dr. Nidhi Chaudhary (1992) was honoured with the College Motto Award for their life of faith and commitment, effectively translated to one of service in the spirit of our alma mater. This was followed by the informal entertainment, which had the packed Scudder auditorium in splits of laughter. The alumni left with loads of photographs and memories of happy times spent in Vellore.

Drs. Joe & Denny Fleming received Mr. Brian Witchalls & Mrs. Ann the Alumni Award of Distinction Witchalls received the Alumni Award of Distinction 1

Dr. Nidhi Chaudhary (1992) receiving the College Motto Award – 2017.

Batch Group Photos – Reunion 2017

1957 and non special batches

1967

1967

1972

1977

1977

1982

1987

1992

COLLEGE DAY AND GRADUATION 2017 The Graduation Ceremony for the Medical Postgraduates was held on November 6, 2017 in the Scudder Auditorium. The Chief Guest of the occasion was Padma Vibhushan Dr.E.Sreedharan, Principal Advisor, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. A solemn, dignified and celebratory ceremony marked the Medical Graduation for undergraduates held at Scudder Auditorium on November 13, 2017. The Chief Guest for this august function was Professor P.J. Kurien, Hon’ble Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha. The following alumni received awards during the College Day and Graduation Ceremonies: Paul Harrison Award Dr. Fam Siow Leong (Batch of 1979-80) 25 Years Meritorious Service Award Dr. Latha Paul (PG alumnus) Dr. Emmanuel Sunder Raj Memorial Award: Dr. Katumalla Sudheer Kumar (Batch of 1984) Drs. Molly Thomas and Thomas Bhanu award for the best teacher: Dr. Chandra Singh (Batch of 1991)

UPCOMING ANNUAL ALUMNI REUNION MEETINGS- 2018

1. India: August 9, 10 & 11 Special Batches: 1943, ’48, ’53, ’58, ’63, ’68, ’73, ’78, ’83, ’88, ’93 As it is a centenary year of medical education at CMC Vellore, all batches are invited. For further details, contact: CMC Alumni Association: email: alumni@cmcvellore.ac.in 2. North America-USA and Canada (GOTC): Venue: Toronto Hilton Markham Suites 8500 Warden Avenue, Markham L6G 1A5 For further details, contact: contact@vellore-gotc.com Dates: June 21, 22, 23 & 24 3. Australasia Venue: Alice Springs, Australia Dates: September 28, 29 and 30 For further details, contact: ponniahmuthiah@yahoo.co.in; lakshmiisaac@yahoo.co.in

4. United Kingdom Venue: Holiday Inn, Coventry October 5, 6 and 7 For further details, contact: zachariah_sunil@hotmail.com

Condolences and Remembrances Our prayers and condolences to the families of the following alumni who passed away in 2017:

Dr. Prerit Thomas Jacob (PG alumni, MS General Surgery, 2011) on January 29, 2017.

Dr. Viola Sukumar (nee Sudarsanam) (1951) on February 6, 2017.

Dr. Chandraranee Ambalavanaar (nee Kanapathi Pillai) (1949) on February 22, 2017.

Dr. Mariamma Jacob (nee Varghese) (1953) on February 22, 2017.

Dr. Mary Vijaya Sankar (1967) on February 24, 2017.

Dr. K.V. Mathai (1947) on March 7, 2017.

Dr. K.M. Shyamprasad (1969) on March 25, 2017.

Dr. P. Devaprasad (1957) on March 30, 2017.

Dr. Molly Philip (nee Ninan) (1952) on May 11, 2017.

Dr. Sanjeebit Jee Jachuck (1959-60) on May 20, 2017.

Dr. Bankuri Samson (1978) on July 29, 2017.

Dr. Sarojini Devanandan (nee Vedamanickam) (1954) on August 31, 2017.

Dr. Joyce Mammen (nee Mathews( (1958-59) on September 7, 2017.

Dr. John Reynolds Lao (1958) on September 12, 2017.

Dr. Sara Lukose (nee Eapen) (1948) on October 6, 2017.

Dr. Serish Jayashree (PG alumnus, DA; batch of 1972) on October 10, 2017.

Dr. Grace Nirmala Emmanuel (nee David) (1965) on October 26, 2017.

Dr. May D. Manuel (nee Damayanthi) (1946).

Dr. Jawahar Asirvatham (1956) on November 10, 2017.

Dr. George Enoch Thomas (1948) on November 25, 2017

Dr. Ellen Charles (1952) on November 28, 2017.

Dr. Kaundinya Cyril (1954) on December 15, 2017.

Dr. Bhaktharaj P. Chelliah (1964) on December 15, 2017

All of us here in the Alumni Office

trust that you WILL have a

Joyous Christmas

and take this opportunity to

wish you a blessed and hope-filled

New Year 2018!

********