Department of Community Medicine

The birth of the department took place along with other departments in 1956-57. The department was nurtured by pioneers like Dr Prahlada Rao and Dr Vallabha Rao, Dr Y. Subramanyam MPH (Johns Hopkins), Dr Mohammed Ali, Dr I.L. Narasaiah, Dr T.M.V. Prasada Rao and Dr K. Janardhan Reddy. Post Graduate courses were introduced in 1982 with Dr G.B. Saranganath registering for PG Diploma and Dr C. Niranjan Paul, registering in 1983 as the first candidate for M.D. course.

Dr.T.M.V Prasada Rao was succeeded by Dr C. Niranjan Paul as the Head of the department from 1998 till May 2008. Structurally, the department has enlarged in terms of space and quality as shown by an impressive museum, seminar room and an undergraduate laboratory. The department library is the second one in our state, to get recognition by MCI, for both M.D. and DPH courses. In 2008, the present Professor and HOD, Dr A. Sreedevi took charge of the department. In the academic year 2010-11, the number of MD seats was enhanced from one to three seats per year, which was recognised by MCI in 2016.

Our department was the first one to acquire computers and other modern equipment in 1994-95. Dr C. Niranjan Paul is one of the CCT members for safe injection practices in the country. Dr C.N.Paul’s report of the annual evaluation survey of ICDS project for the year 1994 was selected as one of the best six papers for presentation at the national conference of ICDS consultants at New Delhi in February 1995. Ahead of entering the new millennium, the department acquired internet facility also. In November 2001, State conference and State Level CME were successfully hosted for three days.

With active support from PATH, PSBH, India CLEN and other international agencies, the department has actively participated in implementing critical national policy initiatives like safe injection practices, AFP control, neo-natal tetanus elimination, district supportive supervising activities for strengthening PHCs and tribal health care, amongst others.A sero surveillance diagnostic laboratory with all modern facilities was established with partnership of PATH–Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We are proud to declare that this laboratory is mentioned in WHO Monogram.In the year 2003, Dr Niranjan Paul was given WHO fellowship and invited to Khonkaen University, Thailand. Dr A. Sreedevi, the present HOD, was invited during her tenure as an associate professor to participate in GTN/WHO on AEFI at Colombo in June 2003. Dr S. Cynthia Subhaprada, the present Associate Professor, participated in the international conference of Bhutan-Bangladesh-India-Nepal network (WHO-PATH-BBIN) at Pune, in the year 2003, as a PostGraduate student, where she presented a paper on Japanese Encephalitis. The department had an international student, Dr Sylvia delSel from the University of Liverpool, who worked for 3 months on JE vaccine efficacy in 2003.

Dr Venu Gopal Sharma, Dr Muralidhar, Dr Ravi Babu, Dr V. Venu Gopal Reddy, Dr Ashok Kumar Reddy, Dr C. Usha Rani and Dr M. L. Surya Prabha have served as second professors in the department. Dr M. L. Surya Prabha, a member of the Ethical Committee of NIN, has been appointed as Director of Research & Development, Dr.NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada, on foreign deputation. Dr Y. Padmasri served the department as associate professor from 2011 to 2016.

RHTC Parla and UHC Sriram Nagar are under administrative control of our Department.

During the last few years, our department has participated in the following important projects and activities:

AEFI committee was formed involving Kurnool SPM faculty for Rayalaseema region as per G.O.Ms.No.196.

Department faculty served as facilitators to other medical colleges in the state and also other states for PSBH student’s research project in collaboration with Dreyfus Health Foundation, New York. They are also facilitators for IMNCI, FIMNCI, NSSK, HMIS, Medical Education, and Industrial Inspector course and participated in evaluation of MICS, RCH, ICDS and various other National Health Programmes.

• Investigation of cause of death among insured persons with the help of SERP and DRDI in Kurnool and Anantapur districts;

• RMNCH PLUS A - gap analysis in Kurnool district along with DM&HO staff, organised by UNICEF;

• Safe child birth checklist survey in Kurnool and Anantapur districts – JHPIEGO;

• WHO External Monitor for Pulse polio immunisation and for SWITCH from t-OPV to b-OPV; and

• WHO External Monitoring for MR Campaign in Kurnool District.

Dr A. Sreedevi, Dr M.L. Surya Prabha, Dr S. Cynthia Subhaprada, Dr S. Vijaya Kumari, have undergone training in T2T programme (2017) in collaboration with Dr NTR UHS and Harvard Medical School. Dr S. Cynthia Subhaprada secured the second place in the awards of Excellence for Capstone project under T2T programme.

Dr. S. Cynthia Subhaprada has also successfully completed Revised Basic Course Workshop with AETCOM at Gandhi Medical College, MCI Regional Centre for Faculty Development, Secunderabad and Advanced Course in Medical Education (ACME)/Fellowship in Medical Education, 2015 B batch at MCI Nodal Centre for Faculty Development, DoME, JNMC, Belagavi. She has participated in competency-based medical education workshop conducted by Edinburgh Medical College, University of Edinburgh at Osmania Medical College. She is also the Nodal Officer, World Health Day 2017; World Breastfeeding Week under IAPSM; UGC Hotline for Anti Ragging (MHRD); OFAMOS-DMMP-MCI-MoHFW; AISHE (MHRD); NIRF (MHRD); ARIIA (MHRD); PGNEET and UGNEET. She is FAIMER Fellow 2019 (Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, FAIMER), currently pursuing the course at PSG-FAIMER Regional Institute, Coimbatore.

In the year 2016, Assistant professors — Dr S. Vijaya Kumari, Dr M. S. Aruna and Dr T. Siva Kala successfully completed their training in ICD-10 coding at CBHI, Bangalore and conducted training sessions for faculty, Post Graduates, Interns of KMC and staff of Medical records section in Superintendent office, GGH during 2017 and 2018.

Dr M. S. Aruna was Nodal Person for IAPSM World TB Day 2018 and presented a study on Educational intervention on life style modification of government bus drivers at State IAPSM conference, Dec 2017. Dr G. Hema Nalini and Dr K. Shantha Kumari were among the best PG papers selected during this conference at Vizag.

Swasthya Vidya Vahini was inaugurated and launched in December 2016 by Sri K. E. Krishna Murthy, the honourable Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

In the year 2017, our Department received Best Participation Award from the Principal, KMC for making Excellent Medical Exhibits with the aim of spreading the message of health awareness among the public.

Active research is being conducted at the undergraduate (ICMR-STS projects), intern, post-graduate and faculty levels. The work is being presented in many international and national conferences and published in indexed international and national journals of repute.