Center of Excellence in Gastrointestinal SciencesThe flagship super specialty centre of Rajagiri Hospital is the Philip Augustine Associates’ managed advanced Center of Excellence in Gastrointestinal Sciences, which commenced services in the month of April 2021. Situated within the sprawling 40 acre green landscaped 500 bedded hospital, the Center of Excellence in GI Sciences was established with clarity to bring together the strength of clinical medicine, education, skill and research in the field of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Organ Transplant. The Center includes Department of Gastroenterology and Advanced Endoscopy, The Liver Institute and Center for Liver Transplantation. A large multidisciplinary team, including specialists, researchers, basic scientists and clinical, paraclinical and technical staff work together to promote and produce outstanding results in the field of patient care, bench to bedside research and professional training and education and patient as well as public health awareness.
Please Visit www.rajagirihospital.com/Department-Details/Center-of-Excellence-in-Gastrointestinal-Sciences

The Liver InstituteThe Liver Institute at the Center of Excellence in GI Sciences is a premier treatment destination and quaternary care facility for all type of common and rare liver diseases and disorders - from prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Located on the ground floor of the Center of Excellence, the Institute also harbour a state-of-the-art basic sciences Hepatology laboratory (The Monarch Liver Lab) which houses a bioinformatics facility as well as advanced research-oriented test equipment facility. Attached to the Liver Institute is the nation’s first dedicated Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT or stool transplant) wet laboratory and an in-house dedicated stool sample storage facility as well as a devoted area for retrieval, storage and analysis of complementary and alternative medicines that are studied for potential hepatotoxicity.

The Liver Institute is headed by two of the only trained Hepatologists in the State of Kerala, Dr John Menachery (PGI, Chandigarh) and Dr Cyriac Abby Philips (ILBS, New Delhi) and supported by a multidisciplinary team of GI, hepatobiliary and transplant surgeons, nurses, and allied health professionals. The philosophy if the Center of Excellence in GI Sciences and particularly the Liver Institute is patient-centric, family-focussed, evidence-based treatments that are ultimately beneficial. The members of the Liver Institute are also the only to perform healthy donor stool transplants for a variety of liver and GI disorders within and outside of clinical research protocols with. The Liver Institute provides highly specialised treatment for adults as well as children with all forms of liver disease, including acute liver failure, metabolic liver disease and viral hepatitis, drug induced liver injury, alcohol related liver disease, non-alcohol associated liver disease and acute on chronic liver failure due to various causes. We are also the premier tertiary referral center for management of severe drug induced liver injury with state-of-the-art therapies for severe liver injury including extracorporeal liver assist devices (liver dialysis). We also care for adults and children who have both liver and kidney disease and intestinal failure with liver disease. The treatment for liver diseases depends on the type of liver disease and may consist of specific medical therapy, nutritional therapy, application of regenerative medicine, liver surgery or liver transplant surgery. The medical team is specialised in treating liver/kidney diseases and are experts in nutrition. The surgeons specialise in working on the liver and bile duct and in liver transplants. The Liver Institute has a large, specialised team that work alongside specialist nurses, ward nurses, transplant coordinators, dietitians, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, pharmacists, and basic scientists. The unit is highly also supported by radiologists, histopathologists, anaesthetists and other specialists within the hospital. The interventional radiology division of the Liver Institute is one among the premier departments in the world with expertise in basic, advanced, tertiary and salvage level hepatobiliary vascular procedures such as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt placement and shunt embolization for portal hypertension complications and advanced treatment for liver cancer including ablation, chemoembolization and radioembolization and in coordination with the radiotherapy units, advanced and focussed treatments for liver cancers that cannot be cured through surgery or medicines. For more details on the clinical, research and academic activities at the Liver Institute, please visit www.theliverinst.in

Monarch Liver LaboratoryThe Monarch Liver Laboratory is the flagship basic sciences division in hepatology research commenced under Philip Augustine Associates which is currently functional at The Liver Institute. A dedicated state-of-the-art basic sciences and translation medicine facility, the lab is one of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region to study the human gut microbiota (microorganisms residing in the intestines) and it’s associated with various liver disease with the potential for therapeutic modulation. The lab houses advanced analytical infrastructure for the diagnosis and prognosis of various liver disease with specific focus on infections or sepsis in liver disease patients. The dry Lab features computational technology to perform bioinformatics which include metagenomics, metabolomics proteomics and lipidomic based analysis in patients with liver disease that may help in unlocking new treatment targets for difficult to treat conditions such as severe alcohol related hepatitis, drug induced liver injury and acute on chronic liver failure. The wet Lab consists of a dedicated fecal microbiota transplant (FMT or stool transplant) preparation and stool banking facility. The Lab also studies regenerative medicine in liver diseases and is attached to the Department of Cell and Tissue Culture, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (Government of India), Trivandrum, Kerala. The Monarch Liver Laboratory has already confirmed its status in the research and publications field as a premier Lab with high publishing acumen that have the potential for changing clinical practice. For more information regarding the Lab facility, academic and training activity and research and publication output, please visit www.monarchliverlab.com