Departments of ENT and Dental –I honoured with Skoch Awards 2016

Department of Ear, Nose & Throat received the Order-of-Merit award for the Hospital-based Neonatal Hearing Screening (NHS) Programme

The Hospital-based Neonatal Hearing Screening (NHS) Programme, run by the Department of Ear, Nose & Throat, received the Order- of- Merit award at the 45th Skoch summit held at Hyderabad on the 7th and 8th of September, 2016.

The NHS programme was started in CMC in 2010, as a project with ICMR support by Dr. Achamma Balraj. Since 2011, it has been offered as a service for all newborns (delivered at CMC as well as otherwise), who require this test. Given the absence of a national neonatal screening programme in place, it was important to establish the feasibility of running this programme in a tertiary care centre with a high patient load. India has a neonatal prevalence of hearing loss estimated to be about 5.8/1000 births – much more than developed countries.

Without early identification of neonatal hearing loss, the situation becomes grave as parents bring their children for treatment only after the age of 4-5 years, when they fail to develop language at school-going age. By this time, the crucial age for treatment of this condition is lost and any intervention after this brings sub-optimum development of language and communication. This translates to poor integration of the individual into society and in turn, loss of productivity of a huge number of Indian citizens.

The NHS programme has managed coverage of 97% of deliveries in CMC (an average of 50 per day) consistently for the last 3 years. To achieve this result, trained dedicated technicians work on all days, including Sundays and holidays. After a baby is detected to have hearing loss, they are called for a retest by these technicians and counselled. Eventually, they are examined in the ENT OPD by a specialist. The goal is to correctly identify and fit babies who require intervention, with hearing aids by the age of 5-6 months, thus maximising their chances for integration into mainstream education.

Dental Unit – I was honoured with a Skoch Award for its Tobacco Cessation Programme.

Tobacco-related diseases are almost an epidemic in India. Our country records the world’s largest incidence of oral cancer, a tobacco-related condition in more than 80% of cases. Since these diseases are preventable, Dental Unit-1 set into motion a Tobacco Cessation Programme, for the prevention and management of oral precancerous conditions in 2010.

The USP of the program, as identified by the Skoch Jury, is that all patients attending the clinic are screened for tobacco use and its oral effects. Tobacco users receive counselling, which may range from OPD chair-side counselling using visual aids, to group counselling over several days (assisted by the lifestyle Medicine Department).

Since its initiation, more than 3400 patients have been counselled. Till date, 2290 patients have made a commitment to stop the habit. However, not all keep their commitment. For this reason, telephonic follow-up for encouragement and review of compliance is carried out by the Unit Dentists, helped by a Chaplain.

Patients with precancerous conditions, like leukoplakia, are followed up clinically and found to respond well to tobacco cessation (which is monitored by Nicotine testing of urine samples).