PGI Receive FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards

BY 121 News Reporter

Chandigarh 02^nd September:-PGIMER, Chandigarh has been conferred two Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) Healthcare Excellence Awards for the year 2014 under the categories of Medical Technology and Diagnostics, Pathology Laboratories. The Director, PGIMER with Head of Medical Microbiology department and Prof. G D Puri, Department of Anaesthesia received the awards from Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, Deptt of Biotechnology & Secretary - DST during the function organized at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi on 1st Sept, 2014. These awards were evaluated on the basis of problems faced, innovative solutions and benefits to patients and other stakeholders, operational metrics including patient satisfaction and turnaround time for services provided, academic research and training, status of accreditation and contribution to the nation.

PGIMER, Chandigarh was awarded FICCI Health Care excellence award in the field of Excellence in Medical Technology for the "Closed Loop Anaesthesia Delivery System (CLADS)" design and developed by Prof. G.D. Puri, Department of Anesthesia & Intensive Care, PGIMER, Chandigarh, and his team. CLADS of PGIMER, was one of the seven shortlisted entries out of total of more than 50 entries for this award. The other shortlisted competitors nominees like Vysin Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Manipal Hospital, Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Boston Scientific India Pvt Ltd., Eye - Q Vision Pvt. Ltd., Wipro GE Healthcare. It is a matter of pride for PGIMER Chandigarh for the innovative system developed for safe and efficient anesthesia care.

 

The Department of Medical Microbiology, PGIMER, Chandigarh has been conferred the award under the category of Diagnostics, Pathology Laboratories. The department was accorded accreditation by NABL in February 2014 and is the single largest facility in the public sector in the country awarded full accreditation. Though PGI is plagued by overcrowding and general apathy of the people of the government sector, it is a rare honor and recognition conferred by FICCI to the department which handles nearly 800 specimens a day and offer state of art diagnostic, consultative and referral services to PGIMER and other healthcare organizations in the country and abroad. 

 

The department faced a real challenge in the area of fungal infections. There is a phenomenal rise of the disease in last two decades in India and certain infections are estimated at 8-10 times more compared to western world. But there were very few diagnostic mycology laboratories in this country.  Over the years the department trained nearly 200 health personnel and helped in the development of 50 well equipped mycology laboratories across India. Besides fungal infection areas, the department conducted many research projects in different bacterial diseases and published over 700 papers. Most importantly the department has two patents in the field of molecular diagnosis of diarrhea and tuberculosis.