July 6, 2009
Healthcare Campus, Kochi

Amrita has become a Nodal Center for clinical research in Southern India with the inauguration of the Amrita-Pfizer Preferred Clinical Research Centre Secretariat at Amrita’s healthcare campus on Saturday, June 27.
 

“The Secretariat will serve as the central point for coordination of all clinical research activities,” stated Dr. Shanti Nair, Dean of Research and Director of Centre of Nanosciences at Amrita. “This is where all administrative, financial, legal as well as supportive research components such as protocol development will take place.”
 

Nearly one hundred clinical trials are currently ongoing in the different departments of the Amrita School of Medicine including Endocrinology, Cardiology, CVTS, Paediatric Cardiology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Oncology, Nephrology, Urology, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology, GI Surgery, Head & Neck, ENT and Pulmonary. The Secretariat will coordinate all aspects of not only these but also trials at other hospitals in South India.
 

“We are very happy to have this collaboration with Amrita,” stated Dr. Sanish Davis, Clinical Research Manager of Pfizer. “We are committed to improving the quality of clinical research in India and Amrita has one of the very few healthcare institutions in India that gives equal importance to both healthcare and research.”
 

“Our Chancellor, Amma, has given the highest priority to developing research programs at Amrita,” stated Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director. “The inauguration of the Secretariat is definitely a significant step forward in providing an impetus to clinical research.” The Prefered Clinical Research Centre had already been inaugurated earlier, this was the second stage where the Secretariat was also inaugurated. Financial support for the Secretariat will be provided by Pfizer
 

Amrita welcomes this opportunity to serve the country and looks forward to working with various satellite facilities to enhance clinical research activities in Southern India. On Sunday, June 28, the newly-inaugurated Secretariat conducted a one-day conclave for clinical researchers from several area hospitals in Kerala. 16 participants representing senior and junior doctors from Trivandrum, Thrissur and Coimbatore participated in addition to another 16 senior physicians from Amrita’s several super-specialty disciplines. Through talks and breakout sessions, barriers to conducting clinical research and possible solutions were discussed. Ways to promote collaborations were also highlighted.