Focus on Mahatma Gandhi Mission (MGM) University of Health Sciences, Part 1: The Establishment of the World Spine Care Clinic in India

A few months back, we posted an article about one of our partner organizations - Asociación Española de Quiropráctica (AEQ).  Now we’re pleased to share an article written by AEQ Past President, Dr. Carlos Gevers Montoro.

by Carlos Gevers Montoro

The first contact I had with World Spine Care (WSC) was through one of my former students, Carmen Pajuelo, a physiotherapist and a 2014 graduate from the Madrid College of Chiropractic (MCC). In between two jobs as a chiropractor, Carmen was eager to move on to a different project and talked to me about WSC.

Carmen Pajuelo and other World Spine Care Volunteers in front of the Shoshong Clinic in Botswana

The Spanish Chiropractic Association, of which I’m Past President, supported Carmenon her decision to go to Botswana and volunteer with WSC for a few months.

As soon as Carmen came back, she gave a presentation for our membership on her life-changing experience in Botswana. Icouldn’’t wait to go home and do some more research on WSC.

It was through this research that I learned of their most recent project, a collaboration with a prestigious Medical College in Mumbai, India. Having visited India close to ten times in the past for different reasons, I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of the WSC project in India.

In a country the size of India, the most logical first step to address this situation is to focus on educating local providers to deliver sustainable care over the long term. Here’s where the Mahatma Gandhi Mission (MGM) University of Health Sciences comes into play. MGM is a well-known charitable trust in India whose vision, mission, and projects are centered on providing state-of-the-art education, mainly in the area of healthcare, based on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy and values, including sustainability, service-oriented, and non-violence.

In 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between WSC and the Department of Physiotherapy at MGM University in Kamothe (Navi Mumbai). Navi Mumbai, a planned community growing East of its giant brother, Mumbai, provides a strategic location at the edge of both rural and urban India.

After signing the MOU, the collaboration and training of clinic supervisors were kick-started. (Pictured here: Board members of WSC, Drs. Geoff Outerbridge, Adam Wilkey, Margareta Nordin with MGM Director of Physiotherapy, Rajani Mullerpatan, PT.

Throughout 2017, MGM used the approved WSC protocols and toolkit while participating at regular conference calls. This trial period allowed WSC to consider the viability of the project and identify the areas of weakness in advance of the next visit. 

In November 2017, I joined the WSC team for this visit. The multidisciplinary team was made up by eminent Physiotherapist, Dr. Margareta Nordin, a reputed Radiologist, Dr. Alberto Zerbi, WSC Europe’s President, Dr. Adam Wilkey, Clinical Director, Dr. Geoff Outerbridge and the most recent recipient of the British Chiropractor of the Year Award, Dr. Nadine Harrison, who had also been very involved with the WSC project in Botswana. We had a very strong team and we were ready to get started!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Focus on Mahatma Gandhi Mission (MGM) University of Health Sciences series.