Pharmacology museum comes up in AIIMS Nagpur

Nagpur: The newest addition to the academic museums in AIIMS Nagpur is a state of art pharmacology museum.
Though, it is primarily designed for students studying pharmacology, the museum has a treasure of knowledge for ordinary people too.
TOI visited the unique museum as India celebrated ‘National Pharmacovigilance week’ between September 17 and 23.
A life-size statue of Maharshi Charak, father of Ayurveda, welcomes us as we step into the museum. Dr Ganesh Dakhale, dean (examination) and professor head, Department of Pharmacology, said it’s a befitting tribute to the legend.
“The health science acumen of Maharshi Charaka is India’s pride even after centuries. He was an expert in human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, and blood circulation,” said Dr Dakhale.
The museum has depicted the journey of therapeutics from the ancient to the current era. Dosage forms like drug-eluting stents, inhalational drug delivery systems, and insulin pens, photographs of adverse drug reactions, graphs, 2-D models and autobiography of drugs are also displayed. All the relevant information about particular dosage forms and adverse drug reactions can be obtained by scanning the QR code, which is the highlight of the museum. Aesthetic glass display of various dosage forms is a center of attraction.
Each of the wings in the museum is named after eminent Indian pharmacologists. These wings exhibit a gallery of charts depicting plant sources of drugs, renowned scientists and the history of medicine. “This will help undergraduate medical students to understand therapeutics in a better way and they can easily obtain authentic information by scanning the QR code,” said Dr Chaitali Chindhalore, assistant professor.
“Apart from medical students, the museum has valuable information for non-medicos who want to know how the life saving field of pharmacy developed over the years. The walls speak brief history of pharmacology,” said Dr Snehalata Gajbhiye.
Director and CEO of AIIMS Nagpur Maj Gen Dr Vibha Dutta (SM) gave entire credit to the department. “Under the guidance of Dr Dakhale, professors and postgraduate students took immense efforts for the establishment of this edifying museum,” she said.
This is second academic museum in AIIMS Nagpur, with first being a forensic museum and exhibit gallery established by the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology under the guidance of medical superintendent Dr Manish Shrigiriwar. This museum is also serving as a center of guidance for students seeking medico-legal knowledge, medical officer, police officer and judiciary all over central India.
You can report medicine side effects:
This year, second National Pharmacovigilance Week was celebrated across India (Sept 17-23) with ‘Encouraging reporting of Adverse drug reactions (ADR) by Patients’ as the theme. A series of events including CME, webinar, role play, felicitation of clinicians who reported ADR etc were organized at AIIMS Nagpur. Even you can report Medicine side-effects in your local language (Hindi, Marathi). Forms are available on the website ipc.gov.in. Patients/consumers/attendants/relatives can also report adverse effects due to any drug to an ADR monitoring centre. For Central India, AIIMS Nagpur is ADR centre.