Speaker :Dr. Ann Agnes Mathew
Qualifications: MBBS, MRCPCH, Fellow in Paediatric Neurology, Fellow in Paediatric Epilepsy, Fellow in Paediatric Stroke and Fellow in Paediatric Neuromuscular Disorders.
Specialization: Child Neurology, Muscular dystrophies, Congenital myopathies, Myasthenia, Childhood Epilepsy, Childhood Stroke, Neurodegenerative conditions and Childhood headaches.
Awards: Times Health Care excellence award for the year 2019 in Paediatric Neuromuscular disorders.
Professional profile:
Dr. Ann Agnes Mathew completed her MBBS from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore and passed out as the best outgoing student in 2000. She completed her MRCPCH and acquired training in Paediatrics and tertiary neonatology from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow (Yorkhill) and Tayside University Hospitals, Dundee, UK, with a rotation that included neonates, surgical neonates (in one of the 4 units with ECMO in the UK), Paediatric cardiology and Acute Paediatrics which covered a training of 4.5 years in Paediatrics including 2.5 years of tertiary neonates and another 1 year of level 2 neonatology.
She completed her Paediatric neurology training at Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children, one of the finest and oldest Children’s Hospitals in the world. This included a total of 4 years of training with 6 months as an Epilepsy fellow at Kings College Hospital, London and Evelina Children’s Hospital, a part of the prestigious Guys and St. Thomas’s Hospital of London. During this time, she was involved with epilepsy research, Epilepsy genetics, Vagal Nerve Stimulation services, Ketogenic Diet clinics and Epilepsy surgeries.
Her time at Great Ormond Street saw her as a fellow in Paediatric Neurology, then as a fellow in Neurovascular disorders and later she completed training as a fellow in Paediatric Neuromuscular Disorders (NMD). Neuromuscular disorders, became her first passion as she trained at the world famous Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre under Prof. Francesco Muntoni for 2 years. The Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre is one of the premier centers for the research and treatment of childhood Muscular Dystrophies, congenital myopathies, congenital Myasthenias and other neuromuscular disorders. It is part of the National Commissioning Service for rare genetic disorders in NMD in the UK and is a referral center receiving patients and trainees from all over the world. It is one of the centers were exon skipping trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy was first held almost a decade ago, among other clinical trials.
She went on to establish the Paediatric neurology department and child development center at Rainbow Children’s Hospitals in Bangalore and establish the first ever Paediatric Neuromuscular Service in the country at Bangalore Baptist Hospital in conjunction with the Organization for Rare Diseases (ORDI) an NGO that is the voice of rare diseases in India. The neuromuscular service established at Sagar Hospital and Baptist Hospital is now one of just 4 national centers where the revolutionary medicine Nusinersen (SPINRAZA) has been initiated for the devastating disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which affects infants and causes early death. We are the only center at the moment for the 5 Southern states of our country.
