Thoracic Medicine History

“Rooted in Tradition, Reaching for New Heights”

Institute of Thoracic Medicine, Madras Medical College

• In the global fight to end tuberculosis, one institution that has completed a century and is still going strong is the Institute of Thoracic Medicine (ITM), Chetpet, often regarded as the heart of lung care in Chennai.
• It was established on July 15, 1916, as King Edward VII Memorial TB institute with Dr. P. S. Chandrasekar as the first director. It was intitally located in Pantheon road, Egmore and later the foundation stone of the King Edward VII Memorial Tuberculosis Institute was laid at the current location in Spur Tank Road, and a peach-coloured building with the iconic dome was completed in 1921. Its services expanded with public funds from the King George V Memorial Fund, eventually blossoming into a State TB Hospital—the Institute of Thoracic Medicine and Chest Diseases—associated with Madras Medical College. Rao Bahadur Dr. Kesava Pai, M.D., took charge as Director in 1924.
• In addition to clinical services, the Institute also functioned as a tuberculosis demonstration and training centre.Since 1963, periodical training has been given to multi-purpose health workers, PHC medical officers, undergraduates and postgraduates of Madras Medical College, Stanley Medical College, etc , as well as nursing students and students of MA Social Work.Lab technicians were trained in cold staining in addition to the routine Ziehl-Neelsen method followed at that time. It was among the first institutions in the country to start a dedicated post graduate training course for Tuberculosis as a speciality which has today evolved into the MD Respiratory Medicine.
• Apart from being the first institution in the country to adopt the cold-staining method, it also introduced the concept of transport medium for tuberculosis, the single-step culture technique, and various therapeutic trials.The Institute further pioneered the use of a 70 mm X-ray van with an inbuilt dark room and X-ray reading facilities, enabling medical camps to be conducted across Tamil Nadu (Mass Miniature Radiography).
• For many years, it also served as a key MDR-TB dispensing point, with patients travelling fortnightly from distant districts for supervised, programmatic second-line therapy—turning Chetpet into a familiar landmark of hope for drug-resistant TB.
• Today, the institution is a centre of excellence for respiratory medicine, catering to patients across Chennai and Tamil Nadu, who have access to specialised services for tuberculosis, asthma, COPD, lung cancer, occupational lung diseases, and rare interstitial disorders—completely free of cost. The Institute’s advanced diagnostics—molecular TB tests, sophisticated lung function labs, modern radiology, and interventional pulmonology—combined with a dedicated pulmonary rehabilitation centre, give the institute a concentration of respiratory expertise unmatched in the city.
• Its busy outpatient and laboratory statistics testify to the continuous stream of patients who make the Institute of Thoracic Medicine their destination for serious chest illnesses.