Healthcare & Nutrition

What We've Accomplished

Amma says that if we cut our left hand, our right hand immediately comes to its attention—applying medicine and a bandage. Why? Because we know both hands to be our own. In the same way, we should reach out to the poor and suffering, seeing our inherent unity.

It is this vision that serves as the inspiration and drive behind the Embracing the World’s vast network of medical services for the poor and needy—an ever growing circle of hospices, care centers and hospitals aimed at providing state-of-the-art compassionate care to one and all. Embracing the World's Healthcare Charities can be broadly divided into Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Kripa Charitable Hospitals, Telemedicine Units apart from the extensive Disaster Relief Operations of the Medical Teams and Research to provide very affordable Healthcare to the poor, for example, the inexpensive insulin pump for the rural diabetic communities. More than 764 crore INR (equivalent to 93 million USD) in free medical care has been provided to more than 5 million patients since 1998.

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS)

The crown jewel of these institutions is the Amrita Institute of Medical Science or AIMS, a 1,300-bed super-specialty hospital with 43 specialty departments in Cochin, Kerala. Born out of Amma’s desire to provide outstanding and affordable medical care to all regardless of one’s ability to pay, Amrita is one of Asia’s premier medical hospitals. Patients come to the hospital from all parts of India and the world.

AIMS has 1,300 beds with an attached medical college with a 400 bed facility, offering free or subsidized care. It's extensive infrastructure offers facilities comprising 25 modern operating theatres. It has 275 equipped intensive-care beds. 

• AIMS: has a fully computerized and networked Hospital Information System (HIS)
• AIMS: has a fully digital radiology department
• AIMS: has NABL accredited clinical laboratories
• AIMS: has equipped 24 / 7 telemedicine service.
• AIMS: supports a daily patient volume of about 3000 outpatients with 95 percent inpatient occupancy.
• AIMS: annual patient turnover touches an incredible figure of over 779,055 outpatients and nearly 47,577 inpatients.
• More than 7.6 Million patients treated - 5.1 Million patients treated for free
• Has provided more than USD 93 million in charitable healthcare since its inception in 1998.

Amritakripa Charitable Hospitals, Hospice and Telemedicine

Embracing the World also runs a Cancer hospice in Mumbai and an AIDS care home in Trivandrum. Teams of doctors regularly make trips to remote villages to conduct eye camps, health-awareness campaigns and checkups. Ambulances and medical teams travel to disaster areas. Free medical dispensaries for the public are located both in Amritapuri (Indian Headquarters) as well as in Amma’s branch M.A.Centers. Amritakripa Charitable hospitals are located in Amritapuri, Mysore, Karnataka as well as in Pampa and Kalpetta, Kerala. All these branch hospitals are connected to AIMS via a telemedicine satellite link provided by the India Space Research Organization [ISRO]. The Charitable Hospitals cater to the healthcare needs of the poor villagers in the surrounding areas including other patients and all treatments are given completely free.

Other services include:

• A Mobile Telemedicine Unit, the size of a city bus, bringing sophisticated medical care to remote areas.
• More than 100 free medical drives in remote, impoverished areas. When necessary, patients go to the hospital for free.
• 25 bed hospital near a remote hilltop temple provides for the hundreds of thousands who make the pilgrimage every year
• Medical dispensary in Mumbai
• HIV/AIDS care center, open daily,  providing anti-retroviral drugs and care services
• Free cataract surgeries: 726 patients in 2010
• Pain and Palliative Home Care: 75,000 impoverished, terminally ill patients treated annually -- all free of charge

Ayurveda

Furthermore, the Embracing the World provides traditional Indian healthcare via its Amrita School of Ayurveda, Hospital & Research Center. Through collaborations between the Ayurveda institution and AIMS, the Embracing the World is encouraging joint research between allopathic medicine and Ayurveda.

Visit the web: http://ayurveda.amrita.edu

Research

Embracing the World is also focused on conducting pioneering research and has departments exclusively dedicated to cell biology, bioinformatics and stem-cell research as well as Nanomedical Science, where biology, medicine and engineering come together