KOCHI: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recognised Amrita Hospital, Kochi, as a collaborative centre of excellence in the domain of venomous snakebite.
The hospital also got the Centre of Excellence award from the ICMR director general for the whole paediatric heart programme.
Collaborative centre of Excellence for snakebite aims to address several aspects related to snakebite envenoming, including developing information, education, and communication (IEC) material to create awareness on prevention and first aid for snakebites, capacity building of the public health care system for prevention, first aid, diagnosis, and management of snakebite envenoming, conducting high-priority research on snakebite envenomation, networking with stakeholders involved in addressing issues related to snakebite envenoming envenomation and its mitigation, and providing policy inputs to the state and Central government to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with snakebite envenomation.
The ICMR award for the whole paediatric heart was based on a competitive application process that was open to academic medical and research institutions across the country.