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Mary Ollapally Scholarship Fund (Matching by FOSJMC upto 60K USD)

Write up by Batch of 1963

The Pioneer batch (1963 batch) has decided to honor our beloved batchmate Dr. Mary Ollapally, who passed away on June 26, 2019, by setting up a scholarship fund for one SJMC student (who will receive financial support for the duration of medical undergraduate education) each year. The amount needed to set up this scholarship is $120,000. The FOSJMC will arrange for this amount to be invested in the USA and to utilize the return on investment to fund the student scholarship each year.

Dr. Ollapally, our brilliant batchmate, was a warm, caring and friendly person who had numerous achievements, including many firsts, amongst these are: first in class, first in university, first Pope’s medal winner, first of alumni to become Chairman of Anesthesiology and Dean of SJMC.

The FOSJMC board members were pleased to learn of our decision to establish a scholarship to honor our batchmate Dr. Ollapally and informed us that FOSJMC would provide a matching amount of $60,000 for this scholarship if we were able to raise $60,000 by December 31, 2021. We are glad to get this offer from FOSJMC because we started off as a batch of 50 but about a third have passed on, so we appreciate the help we can get to honor Dr. Ollapally. Besides, the majority of FOSJMC board members are junior batchmates and many were at SJMC while Dr. Ollapally served in different capacities, including Chairman of the Dept of Anesthesiology and finally as Dean of St. John’s. So we look forward to all of you joining us at the fundraiser for the matching fund from FOSJ MC to honor Dr. Mary Ollapally.

Thank you,
The Pioneer batch (1963 batch)

Geriatric Center Fundraiser

Services for the Elderly and the upcoming St John’s Geriatric Centre
St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences

The Elderly are a large, growing, and vulnerable segment of the Indian population. Estimated to comprise 10% the total population, the number of persons aged 60 years and above in India is expected to be around 130 million. This figure is growing, and it is anticipated that in the year 2050, every fifth person in India (19.5% of the population) will be a senior citizen.

In response to this, the Department of Community Health, St John’s Medical College launched the”Senior Citizen Health Service” (SCHS) in the year 2005. The SCHS runs rural Geriatric clinics at village locations in the rural practice area of the college around Mugalur village; a home health service and old-age home visiting program based in the area around St John’s in Bengaluru; and recently, a pilot program of “Village senior centres” or “grama hiriryara kendras” in two villages in the Mugalur area. The SCHS received an award for “Best Community Medicine practice” at the National Conference of the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine in 2020. The Government of Karnataka has also recognized the program as being valuable and has presented a “Certificate of Appreciation” to the Department for the program. The alumni of St John’s, led by Dr Marian Kamath, have supported the establishment of the SCHS and continue to be well wishers of the Geriatric program at St John’s.

In 2013, the Geriatric medicine outpatient service at St John’s Hospital was launched, with a daily outpatient clinic exclusively for persons aged 60 years and above. This was managed by the Department of Medicine initially, under the Division of Geriatric Medicine, and is currently run under the newly formed Department of Family Medicine.
With the experience of running hospital and community-based programs for elders, the institution has now launched the unique ST JOHN’S GERIATRIC CENTRE PROJECT.

Unit of Hope

The Unit of Hope functions as an assessment and referral centre with facility for structured short term therapy sessions including physiotherapy, speech therapy and special education. It is a unique and one-of-a-kind amalgamation of many medical, surgical, therapy, special education and social work services with an outreach component within a medical college hospital set up. Team evaluations and integrated treatment planning balancing parental and clinical concerns is provided for children with neurodevelopmental impairments, disabilities and developmental delay within the age of 18 years

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The 2022 St. John’s North American Chapter Alumni Association Convention and the Friends of St. John’s Medical College Inc Fundraiser Event dates Announced!

The event will take place in Dallas, Texas on October 7,8,9 of 2022. Event and Registration details to be announced soon by the SJMCNA Alumni Chapter Executive Committee.