SOA-Bhubaneswar To Set Up Cutting Edge Research Centre For Cancer Treatment

Bhubaneswar: The Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital, a faculty of medical sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University here, is coming up with a state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic and research centre for the treatment of blood cancer.

“It is going to be a major value addition to the diagnostic and prognostic work for the patients of the state,” Head of the department of Clinical Hematology at the hospital Dr. Priyanka Samal said at the inauguration of the 11th annual conference of Odisha Hematology Association and 2nd Sum Annual CME on Laboratory Hematology on Friday.

The Clinical Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation Department as one of its kind which was evolving as a referral centre for all kinds of hematological disorders, she added.

The conference was inaugurated by Odisha’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare Naba Kishore Das who praised the work being pursued at the IMS and SUM Hospital in the field of hematology while assuring the state government’s support for all research endeavours.

Mr. Das said the government was in the process of formulating a new health policy for the people of the state and working on a ‘Vision for 2025’. “We are planning and working on what’s to be done in this regard,” he said adding seven new medical colleges had come up in the state after a gap of 52 years while six more were in the pipeline.

Dr. Samal, who is also the organising secretary for the conference, said the laboratory at IMS and SUM Hospital had increased the scope in diagnostics in 2018-19 by including new procedures like platelet function assays and installing the ROTEM instrument (a global hemostasis module). The year was also remarkable as the department of Stem Cell Transplantation strove to offer Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) in blood cancer patients at a minimal charge to make it reach the common person.

The objective of the hospital was to extend complete, comprehensive and integrated care for Lymphoma, Leukemia, Aplastic Anemia and Thalassemia patients under a single roof without being referred to other centres for management, she said.

Dr. Samal said the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) had supported the hospital by providing factors on compassionate ground for PWH, a type of bleeding disorder. IMS and SUM Hospital, she said, was the only private hospital to get the partnership and support from the WFH.

“This has enabled us to manage complicated surgical cases which could not be dreamt of earlier as the chances of uncontrollable bleeding in these patients is high. There are also communities, philanthropic and mission-aligned organizations which along with our hospital support have helped us cure children with Hematological Cancers without any expenditure on chemotherapy,” she said adding such support had been extended to 16 pediatric cancer patients in the last six months.

Prof. Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, eminent neurosurgeon and SOA’s Director (Medical Programmes) said there was nothing called hematology 50 years ago while BMT began in the mid 1990s.

Stating that there were 84 cancer patients per one lakh population in India against the global figure of 64, he said healthcare could be further bolstered by trying to use the available resources and equipment. “BMTs can be done with an expenditure of Rs. 1.2 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh while corporate hospitals were charging Rs. 15 to 20 lakh for the procedure,” he said.

“We have resources and facilities which we don’t use. We think it’s not possible. Let doctors think that they are competent and can do the job,” Prof. Mohapatra said.

Prof. Gangadhar Sahu, Dean of IMS and SUM Hospital, Dr. Rabindra Kumar Jena, President of the Indian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prof. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital and Dr. Debahuti Mohapatra, Head of department of Pathology at IMS and SUM Hospital also spoke.