KMCH joined hands with National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP), Bangalore, India in the year 2013. We are collecting data in conjunction with the NCRP and its HBCR programme. The principle idea is to identify the burden of cancer in the locality and also to understand the pattern of the illness in this geography. The hospital has enrolled more than 1000 cancer patients under this project and we are evaluating the data for improving care for the Cancer patients and to serve as a only nodal organization to send such data to NCRP in the whole of Western Tamilnadu.

Depression in Diabetes is a forgotten association. There have been very few studies in India looking at the prevalence of depression in diabetes. There have been associations between depression in diabetes and onset of coronary artery disease. We aim to assess the prevalence of depression in 1000 patients with diabetes using the validated PHQ-9 depression questionnaire.

A high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in men with T2 diabetes has been reported in studies. Erectile dysfunction (ED) is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality, independent of conventional cardiovascular risk factors. Coronary endothelial dysfunction is independently associated with ED in men with early coronary atherosclerosis. Early diagnosis of ED could help prevent emotional and physical discomfort in men and aid in identifying reversible cardiovascular risk factors.

There has been an alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes over the last decade. Efforts to understand the pathophysiology and prevention have largely been directed at lifestyle and genetics. However, there is a growing body of evidence for the role of environmental pollutants, especially pesticides in the etiology of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. There seems to be an association between organophosphate pesticide exposure and hyperglycemia through a wide variety of molecular mechanisms.

Thyroid disease prevalence is much higher in our population than what we presume. There are minimal data regarding thyroid dysfunction in pregnancy and maternal/fetal outcomes. We aim to explore both the prevalence and outcomes of subclinical and overt thyroid dysfunction in pregnant women. We aim to screen 1000 pregnant women in this project for evidence of thyroid dysfunction.

Risk scorings for outcomes after coronary bypass surgery are based on Western population. However, Indian population may behave totally differently while assessing for risk pre-surgery. Considering the burden of coronary artery disease in our population, we aim to develop risk scoring for an Indian population based on studies done here. This would be the first step in creating novel risk scores for Indian population that would be helpful in predicting outcomes.

There is a huge need for epidemiological research in rural parts of India for non communicable diseases, especially diabetes, hypertension and renal impairment. Intuitively, one would expect a lower prevalence of such diseases in the rural population, who traditionally lead a more active lifestyle than urban population. However our own pilot project in farming villages around Madurai have shown prevalence of diabetes and hypertension to be as high as 25 % &

A treatment plan for the acute care of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) has been launched within a large rural district of Tamil Nadu, India. Taking advantage of recent changes, such as the GVK EMRI ambulance system and the government insurance program in Tamil Nadu, the program’s early data demonstrate an improvement in the quality of acute STEMI care by dramatically decreasing the time from symptom onset to hospital arrival and subsequent receipt of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI).