Dr. P. Shanmuga Sundaram

Dr. P. Shanmuga Sundaram is a national and internationally acclaimed Nuclear medicine specialist with immense experience in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine with work experience of 30 years. He has served in many prestigious posts including being the past president of Association of Nuclear Medicine Physicians of India (ANMPI). He is also an ardent teacher and scientific researcher. He has successfully trained many young doctors in Nuclear medicine during their DNB & MD training programmes. He has also trained doctors from allied specialities, DM and MCH residents in Nuclear medicine so that they can integrate it in their clinical practice. He has also received international training to sharpen his skills in diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of Nuclear medicine and can handle difficult cases with ease.

• Nuclear Cardiology
• Nuclear Oncology with Special Emphasis on PETCT and PETMR Reporting
• Thyroid Cancer Management
• Liver Cancer Radionuclide Therapy (TARE)
• Systemic Radionuclide Therapy for Prostate Cancer & NET (Neuro Endocrine Tumours)

• English
• Tamil
• Malayalam
• Telugu
• Hindi

Experience

• Senior Resident, Nuclear medicine dept, Jaslok hospital & Research centre, Mumbai, India Aug 1995 – May 1997
• Asst Professor & Head, Nuclear Medicine dept, Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences & University (Teaching post), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India – From June 1997 - Jan 2000.
• Joined Amrita Institute of Medical sciences, Amrita University, Cochin, Kerala as Consultant Nuclear Medicine in Jan 2000 & continuing till date.
• Recognized Teacher for training DNB (Diplomate of National Board) Nuclear medicine students which was started in 2008 at Amrita Institute, Kochi.
• First NM department in India in the private sector to be recognized by MCI to start post graduate training MD Nuclear medicine programme since 2012 – teacher for MD Nuclear medicine

New NM procedures introduced

• Radionuclide Salivagram – Standardising and introducing this imaging technique in mainstream routine paediatric imaging to detect antegrade aspiration esp. in neonates & children with recurrent respiratory tract infections.
• Axillary reverse mapping scintigraphy – a new, innovative technique done to avoid lymphedema in early cases of breast cancers.
• Established AIMS, Kochi as an Apex institute for all sentinel node imaging and biopsy programmes : Radionuclide Sentinel node imaging for early Ca breast, head/ neck cancers & all gynecological malignancies
• Oropharyngeal (swallowing) scintigraphy with differing bolus infusion methods which has been standarised – for swallowing dysfunction esp in videofluruoscopy negative post RT patients.
• Introducing Salivary scintigraphy in mainstream routine NM imaging
• Started Radiation synovectomy programme for benefit of residents of Kerala specially to treat patients suffering from hemophilic arthritis and villonodular synovitis.
• Standardization of PETMR wholebody, regional (brain, liver, prostate etc) and cardiac PETMR acquisition, processing protocols suiting to Indian population

Facilities/ Infrastructure

• Two Gamma cameras: Siemens Symbia E (dual head variable angle GC) & GE NM Optima 640 (SPECT CT)
• Thyroid uptake probe & well counter – Captus 3000
• Gamma probes – three
• PETCT – Biograph Horizon
• Ga 68 mini AIO synthesizer unit
• PET MR – Siemens Biograph mMR (3T MR)
• Radionuclide therapeutic procedures including I131, I131 MIBG, Sr89, Sm153, Lu177 DOTA, PSMA, SIRT and alpha therapies.

• 2023 : Bestowed prestigious Dr. HOMI BHABHA ORATION Award in recognition of Nuclear medicine services in India at 55th Annual conference of Society of Nuclear Medicine, held at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 16th -19th Nov 2023
• 2023 : Bestowed prestigious Dr S K SHARMA ORATION award in recognition of Nuclear medicine services in India at 21st Annual conference of Association of Nuclear Medicine, India held at Faridabad, Sept 29th - Oct 1st
• 2022 : FICNM – Awarded Fellow of Indian College of Nuclear Medicine, New Delhi
• 2019 : EACV1 – European Association of CardioVascular Imaging & Nuclear cardiology certification, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2016 : PET MR perceptorship training programme, Mayo clinic Rochester, Minesota USA Nov 2016
• 2015 : FANMB, Awarded Fellow of Asian Nuclear Medicine board examination, Jeju, South Korea
• 2014 : IAEA sponsored training course in Advanced Hybrid NM reporting in Oncology, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Australia Sept 2014.
• 2010 : Advanced PET CT imaging course in Clinical practice at Peter MacCallum cancer centre, Melbourne, Australia
• 2004 : Perceptorship in Hybrid imaging at Katherinen Hospital,Stuttgart, Germany
• 2003 : Perceptorship in SPECT imaging : New Orleans university, USA
• 2002 : Fellowship in Nuclear Cardiology, USA
• 1997 : DNB - Diplomate of National Board (Nuclear medicine) National Board of Exams, New Delhi
• 1995 : Diploma in Radiation Medicine (DRM), BARC, TMH, Mumbai Bombay university
• 1989 : MBBS from Madurai medical college, Madurai kamaraj University

Career Highlights

1. Head & Clinical Professor of Dept. of Nuclear medicine & Molecular Imaging, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita university, Cochin since Jan 2000.
2. Practicing diagnostic & therapeutic nuclear medicine for the past 30 years with keen interest in Nuclear oncology & Nuclear cardiology, performing over 1000 cases per month.
3. Started DNB in Nuclear medicine course in Amrita Institute in 2006 (First in Kerala, India).
4. First centre to offer PET CT services to people of Kerala in 2009
5. Privileged to start the first MD nuclear medicine course in India under MCI in 2011 at Amrita Institute.
6. First university hospital in India to have PET MRI services – installed in 2018.
7. Past President of Association of Nuclear Medicine Physicians of India, ANMPI (2015 -17)
8. Editorial board member of IJNM and several other journals.
9. Examiner for MD Nuclear medicine & PhD program for many universities.
10. Selected & participated as one of the Indian representatives for IAEA programme : International seminar on Therapeutic Applications of Radiopharmaceuticals, Hyderabad Jan 1999
11. Selected & participated as Indian representative for IAEA programme : Regional training course on Nuclear Oncology, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical centre, Manila, Phillipines, Aug 2002

Achievements

• External examiner for MD Nuclear medicine /PhD programmes related to Nuclear medicine for various universities
• Participated and served as international speaker in multiple Nuclear medicine related activities since 2019 and initiated Sentinel node imaging and biopsy services in Malaysia.
• Recipient of multiple international scientific awards for research papers presented in conferences. Few are listed below.
• 2002: Recipient of young investigator award from Indo American society of Nuclear medicine IASNM in Los Angeles, USA for presenting Ischemia & myocardial hibernation is more frequently associated with non-transmural myocardial infarction than transmural - utility of myocardial perfusion SPECT.
• 2005: Travel grant for scientific research presentation at Asian Regional Coop Council on Nuclear Medicine annual conference, at Bangkok, Thailand
• 2005: Travel grant for scientific research presentation at International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology ICNC Lisbon Portugal
• 2006: IAEA Travel grant for scientific research presentation at World Federation of Nuclear Medicine & Biology (WFNMB) IPET Annual Conference, Seoul, South Korea, Title of paper “Assessment of silent ischemia by stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in essential hypertensives with / without type 2 diabetes.
• 2007: Travel grant award by European Society of Cardiology (ECS) to present research at International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology ICNC Prague, Czech Republic, title “Role of nuclear medicine imaging in cardiac transplants”
• 2007: IAEA grant Travel grant award by European Society Cardiology to attend International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology, ICNC Prague, Czech Republic - for “"Cardiac innervation scintigraphy”
• 2007: Travel Grant winner of Asian Regional Cooperation Council on Nuclear Medicine (ARCCNM) in Bangkok Thailand for presenting “Incremental value of Technetium MIBI SPECT, MR fusion imaging in evaluation of intracranial space occupying lesions”
• 2011: Invited guest speaker for British Society of Nuclear medicine annual programme, Brighton
• 2011 – 2019 : Attended and presented original scientific papers in SNMMI, USA, EANM, ASNC, IAEA conferences
• 2017 : Part of Task force in 2017 AERB safety manual on Qualification & Training aspects for Employement of persons and their approval / Licensing at Radiation Facilities (AERB/RF/SM-1).
• 2019 : ESA-SRB-AOTA 2019 annual conference: Presented research paper at Sydney, Australia
• 2019 : Invited International guest Faculty for sentinel program initiation at Putrajaya hospital, Malaysian govt Nov 2019
• 2022: Invited International guest faculty for annual conference of Malaysian Nuclear medicine Johor Bahru, Malaysia Sept 2022
• 2023 : Invited International guest faculty for annual conference of Kuwait Society of Nuclear medicine, Kuwait, July 2023
• 2023: Invited International guest faculty for annual conference of Malaysian Nuclear medicine Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Sept 2023
• 154 national & international Publications including chapters in Books, Review articles, Original articles etc.

Society Membership

• Society of Nuclear Medicine India (SNMI) Life membership
• Society of Nuclear Medicine - Southern chapter life membership
• Association of Nuclear Medicine Physicians of India (ANMPI) Life membership
• European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Membership from 2011
• Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI, US) member
• American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) member: from Jan 2014
• Asia Oceania Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology, AOFNMB 2015
• WARMTH, World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy Member from 2016
• Member of Indian Thyroid Society (ITS).