Christian Medical College & Hospital

Christian Medical College & Hospital, known simply as "CMC Vellore", was founded by Ida S. Scudder, and located in the city of Vellore in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, South India.

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History

The idea to start a hospital came in the late 1800's, when Ida visited her medical missionary father, John Scudder, at his post in Tamil Nadu. One night, Ida was asked to help three women from different families struggling in difficult childbirth. Custom prevented their husbands from accepting the help of a male doctor and being without training at that time, Ida herself could do nothing. The next morning she was shocked to learn that each of the three women had died. She believed that it was a calling and a challenge set before her by God to begin a ministry dedicated to the health needs of the people of India, particularly women and children. Consequently, Ida went back to America, entered medical training (practically unheard of for women at that time) and, in 1899, was one of the first women graduates of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University;

Shortly thereafter, she returned to India and opened a one-bed clinic in Vellore in 1900. Two years later, in 1902, she built a 40-bed hospital, the forerunner of today's 2234-bed medical center. In 1909, she started the School of Nursing, and in 1918, a medical school for women was opened. (Men were admitted in 1947). With the training of these women as doctors and nurses, Indian women would now begin to have access to health care professionals.

In addition to the care of women, Ida Scudder saw the need for bringing health care to the poor, the disabled, and the neglected of India. She traveled regularly to outlying villages, bringing medical care to the doorstep of poor villagers, starting CMC's first "roadside" dispensary in 1916. Over the years, these roadside dispensaries have developed into extensive rural health and development programs that have become internationally acclaimed in the Community health field. These dispensaries have attracted members of the medical community from around the world, from young medical students to nurses to highly skilled surgeons, to study and contribute their skills.

The 100 years since Ida Scudder opened the first small clinic have seen considerable growth. Today, there are 3,000 outpatients per day, 1,000 inpatients, 55 operations, 22 clinics, and over 30 births every day. Ten bible classes are held each day and 380 patients are visited by a chaplain. In addition, there is the work of CHAD, CONCH, and RUHSA, which go out to the villages and rural areas bringing methods of disease prevention, health care and community empowerment to tens of thousands more. CMC employs over 4300 people today, and is widely acknowledged to be one of the top Medical schools in India.

Christian Medical College

The Christian Medical College has come to occupy a prominent place among the medical institutions in India. CMC is unique in being both, a centre attending to the needs of the disadvantaged, and a leading referral tertiary care hospital. CMC fosters wholeness of healing and integrates physical and spiritual care. The combination of technical competence and the urge to be relevant to the needs of people and their environment influence the research and development activities. CMC’s principal achievement is creation of hundreds of health care personnel who having studied and worked here, have imbibed the spirit of compassionate care and self giving culture. Our present team of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, engineers, chaplains and others are engaged in making health care relevant to the changing times. Today, CMC’s graduates form a large number of trained health care personnel for the Christian medical network in our country. CMC is a healing arm of the church in India.

The College is the parent organisation in the legal and organisational sense. The CMC Hospital and all its related clinical and health care facilities are teaching facilities of the College. The College is owned and administered by the Christian Medical College Vellore Association which is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act of India. The Association is made up of 54 churches and other Christian organisations engaged in medical/health care activities. The governance is vested in the Christian Medical College Council which in made of all the members of the Association plus a number of other organisations in India and abroad with similar interests.

In 1918 Dr.Ida Scudder established a Medical School for women, which was upgraded to a College in 1942 and became coeducational in 1947. Each year 60 students, of which at least 25 are women, are admitted for undergraduate medical course. The churches who are members of the Association sponsor students for different courses. The sponsorship arrangement is currently in transition.

The student body is a wholesome mix of various regions, religions and communities of India and other Asian countries. Twenty five percent of the seats are offered to students from open merit and for those from low income families. Some students receive scholarships for their training. Students and faculty live together like a family in a residential campus. A major emphasis in the curriculum is training in Community Medicine, a part of which includes living in a village for several weeks and participating in activities designed to provide practical knowledge and experience related to the life and health of rural people. After graduation the sponsored students serve for at least two years in a hospital run by their church before beginning their higher studies. Trainees who join for postgraduate courses are fulltime members of the staff, actively working in the wards and laboratories while learning under the guidance of senior colleagues.

CMC has been given a five star rating by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission, in recognition of its quality of medical education and health care. CMC has been categorized as a superspeciality teaching hospital of the highest quality and assigned the H1 grading by the Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) Ltd. The H1 grading implies that the institution has resources and processes consistent with those required to deliver the highest quality of care. The grading reflects the institution’s broadly adequate infrastructure and equipment, its committed medical and nursing staff, its wellstructured governance and management processes and its track record in medical techniques and procedures. The span of ICRA’s health care grading service broadly covers primary, secondary, tertiary healthcare providers and teaching hospitals.

CMC has been consistently ranked among the best medical colleges in India . Independent surveys published in 2006 by both India today-ORG MARG and Outlook-Cfore ranks CMC second in the overall survey of the best medical colleges in India next only to AIIMS Delhi.

Some of the Department Heads.

Nephrology  : Dr. George T John
Urology  : Dr. Ganesh Gopalakrishnan
Obstetrics & Gynecology  : Dr. Abraham Peedicayil
Neurological Sciences  : Dr. Mathew Alexander

Notable firsts

• Established India's first department of neurosurgery
• Established India's first department of cardiothoracic surgery

Prominent alumni

• Binayak Sen paediatrician, public health specialist, human rights leader, Chhattisgarh, India
• Rajnikanth Arole public health specialist, Jamkhed, India - Magsaysay Award winner
• Ajit Varki medical researcher
• P. Zachariah professor of physiology (retired), CMC Vellore
• Thomas Thomas, the first Indian cardio-thoracic surgeon.
• Ashok Venkitaraman, Ursula Zoellner Professor of Cancer Research, University of Cambridge
• Sudi Devanesen, physician and health educator in Canada
• Harry Thangaraj, Assistant Director of the MIHR http://www.mihr.org/index.php/?q=node/view/2 Oxford
• Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH Global Foundation for Transparency and Accountability

Students' Organizations

• Students' Association (CMC Vellore)
• Pegasus (CMC Vellore fest)
• OPTSA (CMC Vellore Occupational and Physical Therapy Students Association)

See also

• Council of Christian Hospitals