100 years on, Andhra Medical College growing from strength to strength
Andhra Medical College (AMC), established on July 19, 1923, is among the 10 oldest medical colleges in the country. The King George Hospital (KGH), which existed before the establishment of the AMC and the Vizagapatam Medical School, was established in 1902 and is said to be the precursor to AMC.
The threeday centenary celebrations of AMC, to begin on October 27 (Friday), are expected to see the participation of 3,000 alumni .
“The medical college has registered gradual growth, starting with 32 students in 1923. The attached teaching hospital— KGH—became a super speciality hospital by 1950. AMC, the biggest medical college in Andhra Pradesh, offers all courses in all branches of medicine. The alumni of the college have occupied important positions in India and abroad,” says Dr. T. Ravi Raju, chairman of the Centenary Celebrations Committee.
Among the college alumni are some stalwarts in the field of research, including Dr. Vulimiri Ramalingaswamy, a nutrition scientist who had conducted research on liver cirrhosis in children and had served as Director of AIIMS, Delhi, Dr. P. Brahmayya Sastry, who had done extensive research on neurotransmitters in the brain. “Eminent neurosurgeon S. Balaparameswara Rao, noted orthopaedician Dr. C. Vyaghreswarudu and Dr. S.V. Adinarayana Rao, who was recently awarded the Padma Shri also among the college alumni,” says Dr. Ravi Raju, former Director of Medical Education, A.P., who has done pioneering research on Chronic Kidney DiseaseU, also known as Uddanam Nephropathy.
“It gives me great satisfaction that during my fiveyear tenure as the Principal, the college was recognised as one of the top 10 medical colleges in the country in research and was sanctioned 50 additional seats in MBBS, and the M.Ch (Plastic Surgery) course was introduced,” says Dr. P.V. Sudhakar, former Principal of AMC.
“Two of our research papers were published in Nature, one of the best journals in the world. One of the papers was on the ‘Use of AI to detect pulmonary diseases based on cough sequence’. AMC was selected as one of the centres for testing of the Covishield vaccine,” he says.
AMC has been sanctioned 125 new PG seats in 25 branches, taking the total PG seats to 363, says Dr. G. Butchi Raju, Principal.