Following the establishment of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal as a private enterprise in 1953, the department of Preventive and Social Medicine (PSM) started functioning from the academic year 1971–72. Based on the recommendations of the Medical Council of India, the department was renamed as Community Medicine in the year 1981. Postgraduate training programme leading to MD in Community Medicine was introduced in January 1986. The Manipal Health Project sponsored by the USAID and the Medical Relief Society of South Kanara was largely responsible for strengthening the Rural Maternal and Child Welfare (RMCW) homes in Udupi taluk thereby creating a first-rate field practice area. The department has since grown in stature and strength and assumed greater responsibilities of managing health care projects funded by several national and International agencies such as the ICMR, DST, NIPPCD, PATH, MRC-UK, ICIMPACTS to name a few.

Faculty in the department are qualified doctorates in medicine in the field of community health. Each faculty has further diversified in an area that interests them and this has enabled the varying research profile of the department. Trained to be primary care physicians, researchers and administrators with the necessary clinical skills, knowledge of epidemiological and management principles, faculty have the ability to apply this knowledge for the betterment of the community. They bring about policy reforms and are on the forefront in times of disasters and largescale pandemics. Over the years it has found a prominent place in the strengthening of the health system, policies and programs in India.

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List of current PhD students in the department

List of students - PhD awarded

https://manipal.edu/mu/academics/phd.html

Primary healthcare to the rural population is provided through a network of family health centres that also functions as places that the community gathers for information about better health. Screening for communicable and non-communicable diseases forms an integral component besides elderly, women and child health. Services offered at these centres are as listed below:

·        General OPD services

·        Antenatal & Postnatal Care, Gynecological services

·        Under 5 clinic & vaccination

·        Physiotherapy Clinic

·        Eye check-up

·        Clinical psychology

·        Occupational therapy

·        Dental clinic 

·        ECG

·        Routine Lab investigations

·        Cancer Screening

Apart from the healthcare, regular health education camps are organized in the respective field practice areas to increase the awareness among the people regarding various aspects of health promotion and disease prevention.

The Rural Health Training Centre under the department is located at - Dr. TMA Pai Rotary Hospital, Karkala. The hospital has a dedicated team of full-time consultant doctors, resident doctors, paramedical, nursing and other support staff working round the clock for delivering compassionate care. The hospital has state-of-the-art facilities across every department, it provides sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care at an affordable cost. The policy of the Hospital is to provide high quality health care to people of all strata of the society at affordable cost. Hostel and mess facilities are available to medical interns posted here.

The Urban Health Training Centre is located at Malpe. The centre provides all the services offered by the RMCHW Homes. Dedicated transportation for doctors and interns is provided on daily basis to these centres to ensure uninterrupted care.  

2020

·        Parsekar, SS, Bailey, A, V. S., Binu, Nair, S. Exploring perceptions and practices of cancer care among caregivers and care recipients of breast cancer in India. Psycho-Oncology. 2020; 29: 737– 742. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.5326

·        Ghosh S, Mallya SD, Shetty RS, Pattanshetty SM, Pandey D, Kabekkodu SP, Satyamoorthy K, Kamath VG. Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Cervical Cancer and its Screening Among Women from Tribal Population: a Community-Based Study from Southern India. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2021 Feb;8(1):88-93. doi: 10.1007/s40615-020-00760-4.

·        James B, Shetty R, Kamath A, Shetty A. Household cooking fuel use and its health effects among rural women in southern India—A cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE. 2020;15(4):e0231757.

·        Kulkarni M, Kamath V, Kamath A, Lewis S, Bogdanovica I, Bains M et al. Exposure to tobacco imagery in popular films and the risk of ever smoking among children in southern India. Tobacco Control. 2020;:tobaccocontrol-2019-055353.

·        Kathrikolly T, Nair S, Poobalan A, Shetty R, Tripathee S, Mac Lennan S. Increasing Engagement for Breast Cancer Screening and Treatment: The “ICANTREAT” Community of Expertise Initiative. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention. 2020;21(12):3655-3659.

2021

·        Lewis S, Rao C, Shenoy P, Salins N, Viveganandan R, Shanbhag A et al. Is hackathon in oncology a plausible way to foster innovation? An experiential narrative account of conducting Hacking Cancer. BMJ Innovations. 2020;7(1):164-174..

·        Mullapudi S, Kulkarni M, Kamath V, Britton J, Moodie C, Kamath A. Regulatory Compliance of Health Warnings on Tobacco Packs in Karnataka, India. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2020;23(8):1415-1419.

·        Doddamani A, Ballala A, Madhyastha S, Kamath A, Kulkarni M. A cross-sectional study to identify the determinants of non-communicable diseases among fishermen in Southern India. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1).

·        Ghosh S, Pattanshetty SM, Mallya SD, Pandey D, Guddattu V, Kamath VG, Kabekkodu SP, Satyamoorthy K, Shetty RS. Cervical cytology and associated factors among tribal women of Karnataka, India. PLos One 2021; 16(3): e0248963. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248963

·        Mehrotra S, Pundir P, Shetty RS. Healthy ageing and occupational therapy in South Asian countries: a scoping review protocol.BMJ Open 2021;11:e044657. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044657

https://eprints.manipal.edu/view/subjects/CM.html

·        Recognition by Manipal Academy for higher education for Covid management in the campus

·        Establishment of Centers for Travel Medicine, Vaccination, Tribal Health and Preventive Oncology

·        Global virtual health electives with King’s College, London, England

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Health Camps by Community Medicine

Address

Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/DU3EYVQM9gXDjEZPA
Email: communitymed@manipal.edu

Phone Number: +91 (0)820-22324