Kerala bags honours at BMJ India Awards

The maiden British Medical Journal (BMJ) India Awards have recognised G.Vijayakumar, physician-cum-diabetologist, and his team and the Amrita Institute for Medical Sciences (AIMS), Kochi.

The BMJ India Awards are given in 10 categories. The winners are selected by a panel of eminent medical professionals. AIMS won the award in the category Quality Improvement in Healthcare, and Dr. Vijayakumar in the category Excellence in Preventive Health in India.

The awards, popularly known as the Oscar of Medicine, were announced and presented by Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, accompanied by the BMJ top brass, at a gala ceremony in New Delhi on Friday evening.

Dr. Vijayakumar launched a five-year intervention programme for the primary prevention of diabetes and other lifestyle diseases through a targeted approach in the districts of Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha during 2008-2013.

Dr. Vijayakumar, who is also the medical director of the Medical Trust Hospital and Diabetes Care Centre at Kulanada, near Pandalam, coined the catchword ‘Walk to health and say NO to diabetes’ as part of the campaign. The BMJ adjudged the Paediatric Heart Programme at AIMS the best in the country. The award was given for delivering high quality, affordable cardiac care to children with heart defects.

R. Krishnakumar, who heads the department, told

The Hindu that the team worked towards attaining high- quality outcome to dispel the notion that India could not deliver world-class treatment. For the past three years, the department had outperformed 39 other centres globally under an outcome analysis audit conducted by Harvard University, he said.