About the Department

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.

 

Adjunct faculty

Dr. Monika Arora

Executive Director, HRIDAY, New Delhi and Professor of Health Promotion, PHFI. Tobacco Control Project.

Dr. Madhukar Pai

Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health Associate Director, McGill International TB Centre McGill University Dept of Epidemiology & Biostatistics Montreal, Canada Research & Academics

Dr. Nitika Pant Pai,

Associate Professor.Department of Medicine. Divisions of Clinical Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases & Experimental Medicine.McGill University & McGill University Health Center Research Institute.Montreal. Canada, Research & Academics

Dr. Unni Krishnan Karunakara

Senior Fellow – Global Health Justice Partnership, Yale Law School Fellow – Conflict, Resilience, and Health Program, Macmillan Center Faculty – Yale Institute for Global Health Assistant Clinical Professor – Yale School of Public Health Fellow – Morse College, Academics

Ph.D Awarded/Ongoing

List of current PhD students in the department

Sl no

Candidate name

Year of PhD Registration

1.    

Ms. Thejas K.R.

2014

2.    

Ms. Shradha Parsekar

2016

3.    

Ms.Somya Mullapudi

2018

4.    

Mr. Hithaish Kumar

2019

5.    

Ms. Jayasree

2019

6.    

Mr. Biju

2019

 

List of students - PhD awarded

Sl no

Candidate name

Year PhD Awarded

1.    

Mr. Kallol Roy

2016

 

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

 

 

Services Offered

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.  

 

Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sl No

Title of the grant

Granting agency

Principal Investigator

Duration of the project

 
 

1

Preventing Smoking Uptake among adolscents- A primary prevention initiative for Chronic lung disease in India

University of Nottingham- MRC-UK

Dr. Muralidhar Kulkarni

01-02-2017 to 31-07-2021

 

2

GCRF-TCCP Project
Title: Building Capacity for applied research to reduce tobacco related harm in low- & middle-income countries

Research Council (RC)-United Kingdom (UK)

Dr. Muralidhar Kulkarni

1-10-2017 to 31-Dec-2021

 

3

Socio-cultural and environmental drivers of antibiotic resistance in the community: people, physicians and pharmacists’ perspective – a mixed methods approach

ICMR

Dr Chythra R Rao

2019-2022

 

4

Multicentre, Phase II/III Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of VPM1002 in the Prevention of Tuberculosis (TB) Recurrence in Pulmonary TB Patients after successful TB treatment in India

SIIL

Dr Veena G Kamath

Started 2017; 2 years (Extended 2 years more)

 

5

A phase IV, Randomized, Controlled Study of the Safety and Immunogenicity of Rabishield+Rabivax-S Post-Exposure Prophylaxis regimen in Patients with Potential Rabies

SIIL

Dr Veena G Kamath

Started 2019

 

6

A Phase-II/III, Partially Double-blind, Randomized, Active-controlled, Multicentric Study to Assess the Immunogenicity and Safety of SIIPL’s qHPV Vaccine Administered Intramuscularly in Healthy Volunteers According to a Two-dose Schedule to Cohort 1 (Girls and Boys Aged 9-14 years) and a Three-dose Schedule to Cohort 2 (Women and Men Aged 15-26 years) as Compared to Merck’s HPV6/11/16/18 vaccine (Gardasil®)

SIIL

Dr Veena G Kamath

Started 2018; 5 years

 

7

An open label, randomized, active controlled, multi-centric Phase II/III, study in Indian toddlers and infants to assess the immunogenicity and safety of SIIPL HEXASIIL™ 

SIIL

Dr Veena G Kamath

Started 2020; 3 years

 

8

Effectiveness of a Healthcare Governance Model on the utilization of healthcare   services among a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Udupi district – A cluster randomized controlled trial (Ref ID: Tribal/121/2020-ECD-II) 

Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India 

Dr Ranjitha S Shetty

2021- 2023 (2 years)

 

9

Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC impacts). A Smart app-based rapid multiplex screening of HIV associated co-infections of at-risk populations at the point-of-care: A demonstration study in India in collaboration with McGill University.

 

India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate  

Dr Suma

2019 – 2021

 

 

 

Publications

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

 

 

Achievements

·        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

 

Gallery

Faculty

Contact us

Address

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

Phone Number: +91 (0)820-22324