Principal-cum-Chief Superintendent of Assam Medical College and Hospital Dr SanjeebKakati was born, brought up and has dedicated his life to Assam Medical college and Hospital, Dibrugarh. His research in Systemic Lupus Erythematous and his findings on diabetes among youths of the north east has created ripples in the global and national medical fraternities.
Recipient of the Assam government's Health Care Excellence Award, Dr Kakati'svisionis to make AMCH atop medical facility in the country viz education, research and treatment of patients.Excerpts from an interview:
My father, Bhairab Chandra Kakatiwas Office Superintendent of AMCH. My elder sister, younger brother and I were born in the same maternity building of the hospital which still exists and we grew up in the campus. You could say that myjourney starts before my birth in Assam Medical College and hospital. My father passed away a few years ago and my mother who is ninety is bedridden. I married MaushumiKakati nee Borah, who is a post graduate in English from Gauhati University. I have two children, a son who is anElectrical engineer and a daughter who graduated in History from St Stephen's College, Delhi and got a fellowship from the Sweden Government to do a course on Human Rights. East Zone and is now preparing for competitive exams. I also have a daughter-in-law who runs a school and a grandson.
I studied in the LP school in the AMCH campus and the school was a top ranking LP school in Dibrugarh, the ranking based on the number of students who got a scholarship/ stipend after passing the BT exam which was quite large in number.An ME School in the campus as the ME School was quite far from AMCH campus, But this school did not get a good response and and after two years I shifted to the Government Higher Secondary School from where I passed Matriculation in 1976 and higher secondary in 1978, the latter in the English medium from DHSK (Kanoi) College Higher Secondary. I got a seat in AMCH based on my marks there was no medical entrance test then, and continued till I graduated.
I was a serious student and topped every year.
I became a Register of Medicine in AMCH that is a faculty of the college as soon as I acquired my MBBS degree in 1984. My teaching career began in 1985. I appeared for an all-India NEET exam in 1987 for post graduate studies. It was started for the first time in India and was an MCQ exam which had a cutoff mark of 60. A correct answer gave you four marks and a wrong answer meant a negative mark of one.
In the north east I was the only candidate to pass the exam and I decided to stay back and do my post graduation from Dibrugarh AMCH itself in Medicine despite getting seats in some medical colleges in the country. That sums up my education and start of my career as a medic.
From a young age we saw doctors and medical students in the campus being born and brought up in the midst of white coats. I was attracted by the personality of the doctors which was different from what it is at present. The founder teachers of the College were Britisheducated. They were very punctual and particular in dress code butnow we are more informal. The students too were in formal wear and this continued till the early seventies.They wore white shirt, tie and black shoes and were never in casual dress. The conductors of city buses never asked medical students for money because they knew that the students would pay as soon as the alighted from the bus. They were accorded a lot of respect. It was this dignity, popularity and respect that attracted me the most. I would also often sit on my father's lap when doctors and other heads visited our residence and would observe their demeanor and mannerisms carefully. All these fascinated and inspired me to become a doctor.
When I speak about achievements, my life is divided in three parts – as a physician, researcher and teacher. As a physician or physician, I make it a point to connect with my patients both at the emotional and professional levels. Even during Bihu I'm in the wards with my patients as I believe that any person away from home will be missing the attendant bonhomie of friends and family apart from the feasting and rituals. If I, as their physician. stay away from them their morale will surely go down. My patients are my friends first and I do not have any other circle of friends apart from them. No patient leaves my chamber crying and ever will.
As a teacher I love teaching. Even now as Chief Superintendent I take classes and do not find it strenuous at all. In fact I can go on and on. Earlier, I used to discuss case studies with my students in the wards after class hours. The sessions used to get so prolonged that I was asked by the authorities to make them shorter so that the students could go back to their hostels at the stipulated hour -- for girls it was 7 pm and for boys, 8pm.
Where research is concerned, it has been made mandatory in medical colleges but I began research work about 20 to 22 years ago.The key areas of my research are on rheumatological disorders on which I have published papers in multiple journals. Another condition on which I have worked and met success is Systemic Lupus Erythematous, an auto immune disease which affects both men and women. I remember my first case where a young girl had got the condition but had remained undetected for long. I made the right diagnosis and treatment began. Despite misgivings of her family that she might not be able to marry and have children, today she is both married and has a son. In another similar case where another young girlhad got deformed in the knees due to non-treatment for long and after proper treatment was also able to conceive. If there is late diagnosos the condition is irreversible. I have presented research papers on the first case in different forums and raised awareness on SLE not only in Assam but also in different parts of the country like Lucknow, Kolkata, Odisha and even Beijing in China where I had been invited to speak on the subject.
In 2012-14 an auto immune lab to detect anti-bodies for the North East in AMCH under the Department of Biotechnology was set up. We are training human resources in this field.
Yet another finding was that the juvenile and young people who were detected with Type 2 diabetes, which does not need insulin and can be controlled by medication, diet and other factors, did not have the visceral fat present in their belly as is usually the case for Type 2 diabetes even among youth. In fact most of them were found to be lean and thin, I began a registry here based on this finding. The National Institute of Health, USA accepted a paper on this challenge in India and I was among four persons and the only one from the eastern region, who was given the opportunity to present a paper in this top medical science forum. AMCH Dibrugarh was also one among the four institutes of the country to be selected by ICMR for funding of continued research on this aspect of diabetes.
During my tenure as chief superintendent which began two years ago we have begun the super specialty courses Cardiology, Paediatric Surgery and plastic surgery. If we have two DMs we will also start in Neurology and Nephrology. This is a big achievement as MD in AMCH had started in 1960 but nothing had happened in the sphere of education after that We are also implementing the new medical curriculum which is competency based..
The Cancer facility has also been inaugurated by the Prime Minister in April 2022. We have started a super specialty hospital. In angioplasty we have started doing the exercise without catheter. In Dermatology we have developed a technique to remove cholesterol near the eyes. We can now also breakdown kidney stones by sound waves from outside. This is done in very few hospitals in India. The ICU has been upgraded with more beds and the cost is only Rs 1000 per day. In Microbiology, ICMR has set up a multidisciplinary lab, which is doing pioneering work in fungal diseaseresearch. It is the reference lab for all north east states and even Tripura and West Bengal send samples to be tested here. A 10 member team will also go to Andhra Pradesh to conduct a training in this field.
Regarding infrastructure development Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma has promised Rs 300 crore and a master plan is being prepared for construction of the residential complex and hostels, which may take four to five years for completion.
My future plans include the upgradation of the Emergency department which is in a very primitive state. Plans are on to bolster the department with X-Ray, ultrasound and CT scan machines and other required equipment.
Another big achievement was holding e election to students' union, a fisrt by a medical college. The students all cooperated and it was a success.
My vision is to make AMCH one of the topmost medical facilities in the country in teaching, research and treatment of patients.
I have been presented with the Health Care Excellence Award by the government of Assam in 2022. I have also got the IMA's appreciation award for Covid Care and Control. The latter was given because I led the Covid team in AMCH for two years and was the first too take the Covid 19 vaccination.
But the biggest award or reward has been the love and blessings of my patients, staff, colleagues and students.
I came to know how much I was loved and blessed when I contracted the disease and had to be airlifted out and admitted in the ICU of GMCH. When I recovered I was inundated by messages and mails from all sides telling me how they had prayed for me in holy places and wishing me a fast recovery. This is my biggest recognition.
Unlike other milestones of AMCH which were usually brief celebrations of a few days to mark the occasion beit silver, golden or diamond jubilees, the Platinum Jubilee was a year-long celebration which ended in November 2022. We tried to focus on integration, unity culture, heritage and more.
The high point was of course the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Institute, a first for any medical collegewhere a Prime Minister has visited in the 75 years of the country's independence. The Prime Minister inaugurated a state of art cancer facility in AMCH and six others in the state, virtually from here. This was my most memorable day.
We tried to bring about unity and integration by observing Saraswati Puja at one place in the campus instead of theseveral scattered celebrations in hostels and departments. We also held a Bihu programme where all grades of employees and doctors danced on one stage, thereby diluting the class barrier and encouraging integration. We also staged a Bhaona, Gandhirir Krishna Darshan which was streamed live on FB. I also played a part in it.A dramatic representation of the life of Dr John Berry White, a British philamthropist and retired Brigadier of the British Army was staged. He had come to India as a civil surgeonand is considered the pioneer of health care services in Assam. His personal donation of Rs 50000 enabled the setting up of the medical institute in Dibrugarh. Had it not been for him the AMCH might not have been.
There was also an enthusiastic response from the alumni of different batches when I appealed to them to do something for the Institute. This time it was not just a get together of the students who had passed out and then finished once the event is over. The ex-students evinced interest and 24 batches are involved in different projects to better the institute.
During the celebrations I met students who had passed out in the 1960s and 70s who knew my father and could connect to meand I felt proud to introduce myself as BhairabKakati's son.
Most of the projects have to do with uplift of infrastructure, sports and preservation of heritage structures. A state of art volley ball court, an amphitheatre for conducting classes and , open gym, daily equestrian shows, smart classrooms, college gate, beautification and landscaping have been taken up by the different and preservation. An ongoing project is renovation of the medical museum.
I would like to tell doctors to treat their patients with empathy. The movie MunnaBhai MBBS holds within it the central idea that a hug can sometimes cure better and faster than medicines. Doctors should not only be professional but also kind and respectful to their patients and above all else keep the morale of the person high, however critical or debilitating the ailment might be. The relationship should be built on communication, understanding and trust.The truth is that the human touch is as relevant as the medicines prescribed.
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