Education and Research

International multicenter randomized clinical trials have chosen GGSM Hospital for its reputation in maintaining the guidelines and expected standards for conducting clinical trials. Given its non-profitable institution affiliation, it attracts local and international donors for un-funded research projects in organophosphate poisoning. National and international students have involved themselves in organophosphate poisoning studies in GGSM Hospital which is the only reputed hospital in Mysore treating this condition.

Some double blinded multicenter randomized controlled Trails completed by GGSM Hospitals:

Rezatriptan Pediatric migraine sponsored by MERCK Phase III trial
BURNS trail Sulsomylon in thermal burn sponsored by MYLON
STICH Trial sponsored by New Castle University, UK
Zostovaxe in Herpes sponsored by MERK Phase III trial
Clinical utility in the treatment of type 2 diabetes with the saxagliptin/metformin fixed combination

Ongoing Research Projects:

Ventilator support in OP poisoning;

Outcome measures in Organophosphate poisoning;

Outcome research project approved by IRB from GGSM Hospital and University of Florida,USA,

UF IB ID: IRB201300345
Title: The Impact of Socioeconomic Hardship in Organo-phosphorous poisoning (OPP) in Rural India University of Florida (UF): Global Health Equity Track (GHET) Project Proposal Partnering Institution or Organization: Gopala Gowda Shanthaveri Memorial Hospital, Mysore, India. Local Project Mentor: Dr. H. V. Santhrupth MS, Dr. Raghunath MBBS, DA, IDCCM, EDIC (UK) UF Project Mentor: Dr. Vishnumurthy. S. Hedna MD
Specific Aims: The focus of this project is to assess the impact of socio-economic factors in OP poisoning (OPP) in rural India. This project can identify the factors leading to OPP and guide future projects to reduce the incidence of OPP. This in turn can help local government to enlist various support programs which include (but not limited to) mass education, addressing financial obligations, stress coping techniques, developing social networking and other measures to help the social situation.
Background and Significance: As per published 1990 World Health Organization data, 3 million cases of pesticide poisonings occurred world-wide annually with 220,000 deaths. Poisoning is the commonest form of fatal self-harm in rural Asia, accounting for over 60% of all deaths. Furthermore, a review of poisoning studies reveals that organophosphate pesticides are the commonest means of self-poisoning in many rural areas in India which is associated with a high mortality rate. Most of them are intentional due to Socio-economic hardship. Most of the rural India depends on the agriculture as their main source of income. There can be various factors like poverty, failure of the expected agriculture crop turnover, failure to pay back the agriculture loans, lack of government support, lack of social services, driving a person to commit suicide.
Preliminary Work in the Area: Dr. Santhrupth and Dr. Raghunath treat many OPP on a daily basis. They have vast experience in managing these cases effectively. They are working in a hospital/institution based in Mysore, India which has a reputation to have the highest annual OPP admission and high successful cure rate (low mortality).
Project Design and Methods
Design:
Aim 1: Assess local socio-economic situation.
Aim 2: Develop a culturally relevant simple questionnaire to identify the trigger/reason for the suicidal act.
Aim 3: To categorize those into social, economic or other reasons.
Aim 4: To document them and publish in the local medical journals and social networks which might help educate people and assist local government to take appropriate measures and programs to prevent OPP.
Setting/Participants: Patients who are admitted in that institution with history of OPP will be the target cohort. Only surviving patients who are able to recollect events and communicate will be included.
Specific procedures: Consent from patient for the interview, Documentation of the interview, involvement of the family of the patient after consent from patient, and periodic review and group discussion of the involved parties to improve the questionnaire or the methodology.
Project Evaluation: Since this is a socio-economic project, short term impact might not be obvious. We need to assess the long term benefit by redoing this project in 1 year time after publication of this project in local media and journals to see the actual impact.
Project Timeline:
March-June 2013: Develop survey, develop educational materials, and write educational questionnaire. June-August 2013: Travel to Mysore (South India), present the project to the hospital staff, conduct patient survey using above questionnaire, present educational materials; train local physicians to continue with this educational project. June-August 2014: evaluate the impact of intervention by redoing the survey; to assess if there is a drop in incidence of OPP by our measures.

3. Intracranial hypotension in ICU

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