And with this understanding, the residents and the LCECU/UIC team can discuss solutions that would best serve the community‘s needs. Dr. Sunil Abraham, Head of LCECU, reflected, “I don’t want research to be something just for publications. It should make an impact on the community. And we are certainly on that track.” While the analysis of the data is still
DR. SUNIL ABRAHAM‘S CURRENT RESEARCH HAS HAD IMMEDIATE IMPACTS ON C O M M U N I T I E S I N U N D E R S E R V E D A R E A S , E S P E C I A L LY D U R I N G T H E C O V I D -19 PA N D E M I C .
ongoing, the preliminary research
of research. The LCECU’s COPC
to LCECU for treatment, knowing
findings show that of the 10,000
program is research in action,
that patients have to pay only what
residents, 900 have a chronic, silent
and the immediate impact on the
they can afford. That‘s the kind of
disease. The LCECU team realized
community today has been great.
commitment and backing from God
that most individuals are passive when it comes to managing their disease, so they began building a registry to effectively follow and provide care to those individuals.
Recently, a woman living in an urban settlement visited with the LCECU staff, and it was determined that she had a cervical disc issue that required an implant to correct the
and from the administration.“ CMC is a leading institution that offers high tech procedures and necessary, expensive treatment, and at the same time, CMC cares after those patients who are the poorest of the
With the challenges of coronavirus
disc. The cost of the implant was
this past year, the COPC program
250,000 rupees, and the surgery
and its registry have made all the
itself cost 400,000 rupees — an
difference. The COPC team has been
amount outside the means of most
continuously monitoring patients
residents living in the rural areas.
If you were to ask CMC‘s faculty if
with chronic diseases and acute
The neurosurgeons are willing to
they are researchers (and we have),
conditions. Through the efforts of
write off the majority of the costs,
most would say they are not. “I
the COPC community health workers
and the remaining costs will be
am a clinician, not a researcher,”
and community resident volunteers,
covered by the Patient Support Fund
said Dr. Vrisha Madhuri, despite
patients received the medication and
that was part of the Foundation‘s
her hundreds of published papers,
the care they needed prior to and
matching grant raised for LCECU. In
handful of patents, and countless
during the government lockdown,
total, the woman received the care
awards, including an award from the
despite living in some informal
she needed, and with the support
National Research and Development
settlements that were deemed
of the clinicians and this particular
Council Government of India for
“containment areas.”
fund, she only had to pay a fraction
societal innovation. This kind of
of the medical cost.
humility is one that is unique to CMC.
This is an example of research that is making a real impact prior
Dr. Sunil Abraham reflected on CMC‘s
to publication, which is perhaps
philosophy: “I can take a patient
what some believe to be the goal
from the street and bring him or her
poor, and provides treatment to all, regardless of where they come from or what they do or do not have.
Empathy is an institutional culture, and its community first approach is at the heart of its care. 18
