Expanding Business, with Charity

Set up in September 1991, Chennai based Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre (DMDSC) has carved a niche to become one of the most modern diabetes centres in Asia. It provides world class care for diabetes and its related complications through its unit, finds Manjusha Morgaonkar

"With rising costs it becomes difficult to take on more and more patients for lifelong free treatment as we are already spending lakhs of rupees every year on charity" - Dr V Mohan Diabetologist and Chairman Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre (DMDSC)

The Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre (DMDSC) has certainly worked its way up from its inception in 1991, when it started from a single floor in a rented building at Royapettah High Road in Chennai, Gopalapuram, DMDSC was then known as MV Diabetes Specialities Centre. Within a span of 16 years, DMDSC has blossomed into a centre of excellence in diabetes and has registered over 1,75,000 diabetic patients since inception.

To provide quality healthcare to the exploding diabetic population it established branches at Anna Nagar (2003) and Tambaram (2006), Chennai and Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad (2005). Today DMDSC is a 75-bedded hospital at a six-storey building with outpatient, in-patient and intensive care facilities for diabetes and its associated complications. And the Hyderabad branch comprises 25 bedded inpatient facilities in a three-storey building with a diabetes unit.

They aim to provide efficient and world-class diabetes treatment at affordable prices to the larger section of the diabetes community. Moreover, the focus is on total diabetes care, which means not only routine treatment of diabetes but also its various complications affecting eyes, kidneys, heart, feet and nerves.

Achievements

The Centre is reportedly the first ISO 9001 certified diabetes centre in the world. Adds Dr V Mohan, Diabetologist and Chairman, DMDSC, "DMDSC was also the first diabetes centre in Asia to introduce Electronic Diabetes Record System for every patient with information on clinical and biochemical characteristics interlinked by a Local Area Network (LAN)." The company also established Indira Eye Institute for Diabetes which is an exclusive Diabetic Eye Unit in India for treating diabetic retinopathy.

CSR

In addition to research and diabetes care, charity forms an important activity at the DMDSC, which is carried out under the non-profitable charitable trust: Diabetes International Research, Education and Charitable Trust (DIRECT). "Through DIRECT, we sponsor free treatment to poor and needy diabetic patients, supply free insulin and medicine and organise free screening camps for diabetes and related complications on large scale," says Dr Rema Mohan, Ophthalmologist and Managing Director of DMDSC.

They run three free diabetes clinics, two in association with Sathya Sai Organisation.

Research on Diabetes

In order to undertake world-class research on diabetes and its complications (health problems caused by diabetes), there was a need for an exclusive Diabetes Research Foundation with excellent infrastructural facilities to do original research work. Therefore, DMDSC set up Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) in 1996 as a non-profit research foundation in Chennai. According to Dr Mohan, they have developed an Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) to identify high risk for developing diabetes. Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy and its risk factors were assessed using retinal photography and international grading system. Dr Rema says, "We have been designated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi as 'MDRF-ICMR Advanced Centre for Genomics of Type 2 Diabetes'. We have also initiated a research project on diabetes for rural outreach using telemedicine facility for screening for diabetes and associated complications including diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, coronary heart disease and peripheral vascular disease in Chunampet cluster of villages in Kancheepuram district, supported by the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Denmark and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Bangalore."

Challenges

Escalating cost of treatment remains the organisation's major challenge as they focus mainly on charity causes besides diabetes treatment. "With rising costs it becomes difficult to take on more and more patients for lifelong free treatment as we are already spending lakhs of rupees every year on charity," expressed Dr Mohan.

Hi-Tech

According to Dr Mohan, DMDSC is the first diabetes centre in Asia to have fully computerised diabetes services that provide high quality and efficient laboratory services with latest available equipments. "We are now using telemedicine services to render diabetes healthcare to over 40 villages in Chunampet in Kanchipuram District of Tamilnadu," says Dr Rema. DMDSC has plans to set up its own branches to maintain their speciality, that is providing specialised treatment for diabetes and its complications under one roof.

Projects for Rural Diabetes

With the view to spread awareness in large scale and screening programmes for diabetes, DMDSC and MDRF initiated a massive diabetes awareness and screening project called Prevention Awareness Counselling Evaluation (PACE) Diabetes Project in Chennai. Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation, an NGO in Chennai, funded this project.

"To track the burden of diabetes in rural India and to make healthcare available, accessible, and affordable to the rural population through telemedicine facility, MRDF has launched 'MDRF-WDF Rural Diabetes Project' with the support of the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Denmark in 2006.

This aims to address prevention of diabetes at all three levels (primary, secondary and tertiary diabetes) through telemedicine facility," Dr Mohan says. It is a four-year project, which is conducted in a cluster of villages at Chunampet in Kancheepuram District, Tamilnadu about 100 Kms from Chennai, Dr Rema further adds.

manjusha.morgaonkar@expressindia.com