Brief history of hematology care and research in West Bengal, India

THE PIONEER: Dr. Jyoti Bhusan Chatterjea^[3-7]

Dr. Chatterjea, M.D., F.N.A., F.R.C.Path. (Lond.), F.A.C.P.(Cor.), F.A.M.S, was born in Jessore, a district town in undivided Bengal on 16^th February, 1919. He graduated from Medical College, Calcutta in 1942 and joined the CSTM in 1945 as Assistant Research Officer in the hematology Unit of ICMR. He obtained his doctorate degree in 1949, became Professor of Hematology in 1956; appointed as the Director of CSTM in 1966. He had the rare quality of a clinical investigator whose technical skills at the bench was matched by his excellence at the bed side and had chosen hematology for a career at a time when it was still to develop as a specialty in this part of the globe. His contributed a lot in different fields of hematology especially studies on nutritional and iron deficiency anemia, leukemia, red cell enzymes and abnormal hemoglobin disorders. First cases of HbE, HbH and Hb Lepore were reported in India by Prof. J.B. Chatterjea in the years 1956, 1961 and 1971, respectively. He was honored by many prestigious awards, notably the Barclay Medal of the Asiatic Society (1963) and Basanti Devi Amir Chand Prize in 1964 by the Indian Council of Medical Research. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 1966. He was a member of the Governing Body of the International Standardization Committee in Hematology since 1964 and served as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Human Genetics of the World Health Organization (1967–1972).

A Fellow of Indian Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal College of Pathologists, U.K. and a corresponding fellow of the American College of Physician, Dr. Chatterjea was the President of Indian Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (ISHBT), Indian Association of Pathologists, Anthropological Society of India and Medical and Veterinary Section of the Indian Science Congress. On the International Scene, he was Counsellor of the International Society of Haematology (1954–1968), Vice President (1968–1972) and the Asian Representative at the Executive Committee of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (1964).

After three decades of pioneering research in hematology, he undoubtedly established himself as the “father of hematology research” in India. He had excellent knowledge of the subject, unparalleled ideas for research, leadership qualities to convert his ideas into action.

He passed away after a brief illness on 29th February, 1972. The tragic untimely death of Dr. Chatterjea at the age of 53 was an irreparable loss to the development of Hematology in this country.

Establishment of hematology units at the private sector (1970s–90s)^[9]

Assembly of God Church Hospital, Calcutta started a hematology unit under the able leadership of Brig. (Dr.) R.N. Dutta, after his retirement from the Indian Army. The first day care unit for thalassemia patients at Bhoruka Research Center for Hematology and Blood Transfusion (BRCHBT), Calcutta popularly known as Bhoruka Blood Bank was built up by Dr. Dilip Kumar Bhattacharyya: Fondly called DKB, started where he a decent hematology research lab and blood bank. Later, two separate hematology units were developed at Kothari Medical Centre and Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute under the able leadership of Dr. Sharmila Chandra and Dr. R.N. Ghosh, respectively.

Establishment of new hematology units at other Govt. Medical Colleges^[9]

In the late 60s, the then Government of West Bengal probably thought that, time has come when Hematology as a discipline should be spread out of the four walls of “Room. No. 26” – the famous room at CSTM which witnessed the great works and footfalls of all these legendary people. That resulted in setting up two small hematology units under the Department of Medicine at Medical College, Calcutta and the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College. Both these units were formed in the ideal of the Hematology Department of CSTM, each of them had few indoor beds in the medicine wards, a miniature laboratory, and OPD once or twice a week.

It 1968, the first hematology unit at Medical College, Kolkata started with one consultant, a small lab and 10 beds under the Department of Medicine; Dr. Sandhya Ghose was the first in-charge of the unit followed by Dr. R.N. Roy.^[11] Started long back in 1974, the hematology unit established under the Department of Medicine at NRS Medical College was again headed by Dr. Sandhya Ghose followed by Dr. Manju Duttachaudhuri and Dr M.M. Rakshit, all of them were professionally trained at CSTM.^[12]

And, as most of the legendary people were shifted from their original place of work, the Hematology Department of CSTM lacked the pace of clinical excellence and research activity for which it was once famous.

Medical college^[12]

In late 90s, the small hematology unit under Department of Medicine was upgraded to a separate Department of Hematology. The government of West Bengal upgraded the existing department to a center of excellence Institute of Haematology & Transfusion Medicine (IHTM) in October 2002. First postdoctoral course DM (Clinical Hematology) in West Bengal started in 2006 at IHTM and presently the department has three MCI recognized seats. Dr. Utpal Choudhury, after postgraduation from PGIMER (Chandigarh), visited Westminster Hospital, London for (Post-Doctoral Training) Commonwealth Medical Fellowship in Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation in 1986–87. After joining health service and serving for a short tenure, he joined Department of Hematology at CSTM; worked there till 1990 when he was transferred to Hematology Unit, Department of Medicine of Medical College, Kolkata. He is the founder Director of IHTM. He has more than 40 national and international publications and worked as principal investigators in several projects.

NRS Medical College^[11]

Under the able leadership of Dr. Malay Kumar Ghosh, N.R.S. Medical College became the principal center for ICMR sponsored multicentric – ‘JAY VIGYAN MISSION PROJECT’ for assessing the status of thalassemia burden in the country. DM course in Clinical Hematology started from 2009 and presently the department has three MCI recognized seats for DM (Clinical Hematology) each year. Dr. Malay Ghosh after passing MBBS and MD (medicine) from Medical College, Calcutta, after serving in rural Bengal for a short tenure in health service, joined CSTM; then joined NRS Medical College in mid 90s who with his untiring efforts transformed the existing unit into a comprehensive independent department sometime at the end of 2001. He led N.R.S. Medical college to be the first Govt. Medical College in West Bengal to start hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (BMT) in 2009. He was an hard task master and worked persistently to elevate hematology care in West Bengal to the present level. He had several research projects to his credits especially on hemoglobinopathies and as a co-investigator with the NIIH team he described a deletional variant of alpha thal gene called “alpha Kol del”.^[13]

Both the centers are now having, in addition to all basic hematological investigations, facilities for tests of hemostasis and thrombosis, leukemia Cytochemistries, immunophenotyping, hemoglobinopathy work up, molecular study for thalassemia mutation and prenatal diagnostic services for thalassemia, etc. Both the centers, considered as state of the art bone marrow transplantation units, are also nodal centers for the control of thalassemia in the state. Till date, these two institutes have produced 40 odd number of clinical hematologists who are working in different parts of India and abroad. Dr. Kanjaksha Ghosh, a great intellectual and multifaceted personality, joined as Assistant Director at National Institute of Immunohematology (NIIH), Mumbai in 1994; and in a short span of time elevated as the Director of the Institute. Dr. Ghosh is credited with 776 publications in various national and international journals of repute and has also written 31 chapters in different books and monographs. Though he mostly worked in a place far away from West Bengal, but in truest sense he was instrumental in upgrading hematology laboratory and education in both the institutes. He is the true pioneer of multidisciplinary research and the inspiration to junior colleagues.^[14]

HEMATOLOGY RESEARCH: bench to bedside^[8,9]

In the present days, hematology research not restricted to the walls of the above mentioned departments only. There is active participation of learned scientists from basic sciences who are involved in unveiling some of the many unknown mechanisms in pathobiology of different hematological conditions, e.g., cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, epigenetic mechanisms, molecular biology. Institutes like, Bose Institute, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Science College (Rajabazar Campus) under Calcutta University and many others have experts on different fields of basic sciences who are working on these areas. Our medical fraternity need to interact with these institutes to carry out hematology research and should learn how to apply the knowledge gained from basic scientific research to develop clinical applications, such as new treatments, devices, or drugs.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)^[9]

There are many non-profit organizations, formed mainly by the hematologists and also many famous scientists from basic sciences with the vision of cultivation and spread of hematology education amongst medical professionals from different disciplines. Kolkata Haematology Education & Research Initiative (KHERI), is such an Initiative for patients with blood disorders so that they may thrive and perform in life and to create awareness among public and facilitate screening and prevention programs for control of the diseases. Society for Education Research in Clinical Hematology (SERCH), another NGO of the hematologist from Kolkata, works on hematology education and research. It regularly conducts CMEs, seminars, highlights of different international events in hematology throughout the year. Bengal Society of Hematology (BSH; website: www.bsh.org.in.) is a professional body of consultant hematologists formed in 2014. Its members are physicians/ pathologist with postgraduate qualifications in different specialties. The organization conducts various educational and professional activities for its members throughout the year. With the mission and vision to propagate the knowledge of hematology, it organizes conferences, seminars, tutorials, CME’s on a regular basis not only in Kolkata but also in the remotest medical colleges of West Bengal. This year, the BSH is publishing the first issue of its official scientific publication “Journal Of Hematology and Allied Sciences (JHAS)”.