The Department of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology had a staggered start in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. Initially a Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic(Dr Suma Balan) was established in mid 2009 followed by the formal appointment of an Adult Rheumatologist( Dr Padmanabha Shenoy) in mid 2010. 2 more Adult Rheumatologists( Dr Jyoti Srikkanth & Dr Nagaprabhu) also started to shape the service contemporaneously. A formal department was established in 2013 and the department moved to the then main A Block of the hospital . The first trainee in the department was a Fellow who joined in 2013 – Dr Manish Bavaliya, now based in Rajkot Gujarat.

The DM program commenced in 2016 under the auspices of Dr Vishal Marwaha, Dr Mithun CB, Dr Suma Balan, Dr Jyoti Srikkanth. One of the students of the first batch ,Dr Sandeep Surendran joined the team after completion of training. The department moved once again to the new G block where it now functions from.

Some of the key features

• It cares for Rheumatology patients at all ages- neonate to nonagerian
• The bustling OPD sees a wide spectrum of patients
• The Day Care Unit in the Out Patient Department sees considerable activity each day with immunosuppressive and biological infusions allowing most patients to continue therapy conveniently on outpatient basis at modest charges.
  
  

Interdepartmental liaison and management of complex multidisciplinary patients is smoothlyenabled. Multidisciplinary clinics including ILD clinic , CIEICA ( Comprehensive Inborn Errors of Immunity Clinic@ Amrita), Amyloidosis Clinic, Uveitis clinic are established and running well. The Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Services are also being established.

Over the last five years, the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology has developed a broad and active research output across fibromyalgia, inflammatory arthritis, vasculitis, autoimmune connective tissue diseases, infection-related rheumatology, and artificial intelligence applications in rheumatology. A major departmental focus has been the study of fibromyalgia and soft-tissue rheumatism, including clinical phenotyping, cardiovascular risk assessment, autonomic dysfunction, inflammatory biomarkers, dyslipidemia, and disease-severity correlates in Indian patients. This work reflects the department’s interest in generating locally relevant evidence for conditions that are common in clinical practice but often under-represented in structured research. In parallel, the department has increasingly incorporated artificial intelligence and machine- learning approaches into rheumatology research.

Recent work has explored the use of data-driven models for cardiovascular risk prediction, disease stratification, outcome prediction, and identification of clinically meaningful predictors that may not be evident through conventional statistical methods alone. These projects highlight the department’s movement toward combining routine clinical datasets with computational tools to improve risk assessment and personalize patient care. Beyond fibromyalgia and AI, the department’s recent research has included studies and academic outputs in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, vasculitis, infection and immunosuppression, musculoskeletal ultrasound, treatment outcomes, and real-world rheumatology practice.

Pediatric Rheumatology has also been a prominent service in this department . There was a significant contribution during the Covid pandemic with the coolaborative efforts of the many tertiary pediatric services at AIMS coming together to establish a service of excellence for the sickest children with MISC including complications like heart block ,requiring ECMO, neonatal presentations etc. The department was part of all national level efforts at MOHFW, ICMR and IAP levels to set up guidelines for the diagnosis and management of Post COVID MISC . There is an ongoing COPCORD project .The collaboration with other departments at national level in setting up multicentre registries of Pediatric Lupus Nephritis, Pediatric MCTD, Juvenile Dermatomyositis is ongoing since several years. Multidisciplinary activities including a very active Inborn Errors of Immunity service from diagnosis to treatment including Bone marrow transplant is the forte of the multidisciplinary team. Various meetings have been held including the National Conference of Pediatric Rheumatology in 2015 and the National Conference of the Indian Society For Kawasaki Disease in 2025.

The department is proud to train 18 DM trainees so far from different parts of the country.

Trainees have actively represented the department in various national and international conferences including The Knowledge Bowl at ACR , Late Breaking Abstracts at APLAR amongst others.