Monday, February 27, 2017

JSS University: Providing The Healing Touch To India's Health Sector Woes


JSS University today attracts research scientists from overseas countries, while its faculty and students often get international travel grants. The university has also witnessed a recent spike in the intake of foreign students, who also double up as its country ambassadors. JSS has hosted several national level conferences and its students are often coming first in attracting noted scholarships. Many of its research papers have garnered the achievement of being the best paper in conferences. JSS University is surely growing along the fine international tradition of being much more than a university that just grants degrees. The university was chosen as the location for the upcoming Rs.15 crore Central-Government funded research center. JSS University students often land themselves competitive job packages from well-known recruiters and the current year record has been no different. A deemed university in Karnataka from the private or self-financed sector, it is accredited by NAAC at A Grade and comes at leading positions in the NIRF ranking by MHRD. JSS stands for Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara, and is promoted by JSS Mahavidyapeetha, one of Asia’s largest educational groups. Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji serves as the Chancellor of the University, while BN Betkerur is Pro Chancellor, and Dr. B Suresh is the Vice Chancellor.

JSS University headquartered at Mysuru continues to push the limits of innovations and achievements to emerge as a leader in its core areas of competence. During the recently held international medical conference, ASICON at Mysuru, the highlight was the telecast of live surgeries. While six hospitals participated for the 60 live surgeries including high-profile ones like Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, the star of the conference was Mysuru-based JSS Hospital, which in its five operation theatres, performed nearly 30 surgeries including those to treat breast cancer and thyroid.

The feat was impressive as on attendance at the conference were over 5,000 experts and post graduate students, with presentation of around 1,100 scientific papers.

The university recently held its 7th annual convocation ceremony, in the presence of chief guest NITI Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat, where 1,096 graduates were conferred with degrees. Forty-one graduates shared 59 medals and PhD degrees were awarded to 18 students. Certificates were also handed over to students of M Phil (Medicine), 152 students of PG in Pharmacy (M. Pharm) and 20 students of MBA (Hospital Administration).

JSS University is also a leading institution in India when it comes to meaningful academic tie-ups with prestigious overseas institutions.

The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's (SIUE) School of Pharmacy has partnered with JSS College of Pharmacy since 2 years to offer a student exchange program. Two students in their final year of pharmacy education have the opportunity to complete an elective rotation at each respective institution. SIUE students spend five weeks in India, while JSS students spend eight weeks in USA. Two students from the JSS College of Pharmacy, Nickita Benny and Bhagya Sree, are currently shadowing SIUE’s Kelly Gable, PharmD, BCPP, in the department of psychiatry in a St. Louis family healthcare center.

Now, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is exploring the expansion of this already successful pharmacy exchange program to include the University’s breadth of health sciences. This was the main topic of discussion when JSS VC B Suresh, visited the SIUE campus in US recently.

The university or its constituent colleges have tie-ups with La Trobe University, Australia; Khon Kaen University, Thailand; University of Southern Nevada, USA; Long Island University, USA; AIMST University, Malaysia; Howard University, USA; University of Illinois, USA; National Institutes of Health, USA; and Oman Medical College, Oman.

In the previous year alone, two lecturers and four interns from JSS have undergone specialized training in USA and Australia by utilizing these kind of tie-ups, whereas many overseas institutes have send their faculty, research scholars, and students to JSS University for training.

When it comes to academic performance too, JSS Pharmacy College is a national leader. The new initiative by Central Government, NIRF, has ranked JSS College of Pharmacy, Ooty, at 9th nationally, under pharmacy colleges.

The top performance and focus of JSS on pharmacy courses is also thanks to the expertise of Dr B Suresh, who is a noted authority in the pharmacy field. Dr Suresh holds distinguished degrees in pharmacy like MPharm, PhD, & Sc.D., and is currently President, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI).

JSS Hospital in Mysuru has been providing quality healthcare at affordable prices in the vicinity and has been enhancing its medical facilities for the benefit of patients. Their hard work at negligible costs to patients have not gone unnoticed by even the corporate sector.

State Bank of Mysore has recently donated new dialysis machines to JSS Hospital. Five new dialysis machines worth Rs 20 lakh to help patients in need were donated to JSS Hospital by the bank under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Presently JSS Hospital has 22 dialysis machines functioning 24X7 providing treatment to average 50-60 patients per day. With the recent CSR aid from SBM, the hospital has purchased five new machines to facilitate additional patients to avail this facility.

When it comes to social service too, the university undertakes meaningful work. JSS University recently collaborated with NSS to organize a seven day National Integration Camp. Attendees were from across the country and various activities including planting of saplings, cleanliness projects, flag hosting, yoga, meditation, and other cultural programmes as well as talks by experts on a wide range of topics were the highlights of the event. It was organized at the JSS College of Pharmacy campus at Mysuru.

JSS Hospital has tied up with USA’s famed Mayo Clinic to deploy a software program to reduce human errors in its Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Titled as ‘CERTAIN’, this software takes varied inputs like a critically ill patient's physical findings, history, lab studies, imaging inputs etc and suggests optimum treatments that reduce complications in the ICU. To begin with, this software has been first deployed in the paediatric ICU of JSS Hospital, Mysuru.

When it comes to research initiatives, it is hard to find another health sciences university in the private sector that is as hardworking as JSS.

Recently, Prof. Himanshu Patel, a clinical pharmacist from JSS attracted international attention for a paper he presented in a conference at Singapore which found that India's public cancer care programs were woefully inadequate.

In the recently concluded academic year, faculty and research students of the university have done 307 research publications, which is a feat in itself.

Of these, 51 were noted research articles in various national and international journals with the impact factor range of 0.74 - 3.34 by Thomson Reuters. JSS scholars also made 35 presentations, both oral and posters, in various national and international pharmacy conferences and seminars.

The quality of the research output was also impressive. Three among the JSS fraternity of faculty and research scholars succeeded in filing patents. JSS University’s ambition and diligence in this regard is evident from the formation of a Patent Cell that oversees the dimension of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and a Patent Review Committee that includes external experts from such leading public organizations like CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, and National Research Development Corporation, DSIR, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.

JSS University's industry interaction initiatives also shine with MoUs signed with leading international and national firms like AlfaGene Biosciences, Colgate Palmolive, Alveus Pharmaceuticals, Apex Laborites, Etica Clinpharm, Tablets India, Fourttts India, Waters India etc. Going beyond just MoUs, JSS University has already undertaken research, pre-clinical studies, consultancy, or employee training for these organizations. Leading experts also came in as guest lecturers from reputed organizations including Novartis, Biocon, and Himalaya, to JSS during the year.

Going beyond industry, JSS University has also worked with cutting-edge frontline research organizations like World Health Organization (WHO), Eurasian Federation of Oncology (EAFO), Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) etc, and renowned scientists from these institutes have graced JSS campus as guest lecturers.

JSS postgraduate students have also undertaken their project works in leading corporations like Aurobindo, Biocon, Himalaya, Hindustan Unilever, Lupin, Micro Labs, Mylan Labs, Novo Nordisk, Orchid Healthcare, Philips etc.

JSS University is home to a Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology and Natural Products Research, which is spearheading the university’s efforts in knowledge creation and dissemination of the same to the society around.

To popularize science learning, a knowledge resource center for science and technology was proposed to be set up at the JSS University, Suttur in Mysore district with the support of Rs. 15 crore from the Centre.

JSS University, based on its success in research, is today in a position to attract research funding from various national and international bodies, and is also funding research projects on its own.

JSS students have also excelled in career placements during the past year with students from its various streams getting absorbed by numerous organizations including Dr. Reddys Lab, Micro Labs, Himalaya Drugs, Mylan, Biocon, Cipla, Novartis, Unilever, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca Pharma, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Columbia Asia Hospital, and many more. Around 350 students have received 436 offers from IT giants such as Accenture, Infosys and Wipro. The university offers a host of placement opportunities with many students already having more than one offer letter in hand and 50 more companies expected to conduct recruitment till the end of the cycle.

JSS University offers programs ranging from Undergraduate Diploma to PhD level in various fields including medicine, dental, pharmacy, water & health, health systems management, life sciences etc. The constituent colleges include JSS Medical College, JSS Dental College, and JSS College of Pharmacy, all at Mysore, and JSS College of Pharmacy at Ooty.  Courses offered include diploma, graduate, post graduate, post graduate diploma, MPhil and PhD programs.

JSS is always innovating by launching new courses that are in demand by the industry and society around it. New courses launched recently include PG Diploma in Medical Devices; BPharm (Pharmacy Practice) and Residency Program in Oncology; Oral Health Care Certificate Programme for Nurses; Certificate Course in Maxillofacial Trauma; and Certificate Course in Dental Implantology.

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