Postgraduate Institute of Child Health (PGICH), Noida, India
Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Unit, Expertise Centre of Haemoglobinopathies and Their Complications
Institutional and Departmental Overview
The Postgraduate Institute of Child Health (PGICH), Noida, was established as a dedicated tertiary-care academic institute with the vision of advancing comprehensive and equitable healthcare for children across North India.
Conceived as a center of excellence in pediatric subspecialties, the institute has progressively expanded its clinical, academic, and research capabilities to address the growing burden of complex childhood diseases, particularly hematological disorders, malignancies, and chronic conditions requiring long-term multidisciplinary care.
Pediatric Hematology Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation
The Department of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Postgraduate Institute of Child Health is a specialized tertiary-care unit dedicated to the comprehensive management of childhood hematological disorders, malignancies, and immune deficiencies.
The department provides comprehensive, protocol-driven care for thalassaemia, encompassing early diagnosis, regular safe transfusion therapy, and standardized iron chelation strategies. Care is structured to include longitudinal monitoring of patients, with early detection and management of cardiac, hepatic, and endocrine complications, and integration of curative options such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation where appropriate.
The Bone Marrow Transplantation programme forms a core component of the department, offering curative therapy for both malignant and non-malignant conditions. With experience across matched sibling, haploidentical, and alternative donor transplants, the unit emphasizes standardized conditioning protocols, robust supportive care, and long-term follow-up.
Academic training, clinical research, and capacity building in resource-variable settings remain integral to the department’s mission.
Department of Transfusion Medicine
The Department of Transfusion Medicine provides critical support to the thalassemia programme through the provision of safe, timely, and high-quality blood components. The service is equipped to deliver leukoreduced, irradiated, and phenotype-matched blood products essential for specialised pediatric patients.
A key strength of the department is its expertise in immunohematology, particularly in the management of chronically transfused patients with thalassaemia. This includes extended red cell antigen profiling, alloantibody screening and identification, provision of antigen-matched units, and management of complex transfusion scenarios such as alloimmunization and autoantibodies. The department also supports haemovigilance and ensures optimization of transfusion practices to minimize transfusion-related complications and improve long-term outcomes in thalassaemia care.
Supporting Departments and Multidisciplinary Services
The delivery of comprehensive care is enabled through close collaboration with multiple pediatric and allied specialties, ensuring a holistic and systems-based approach to patient management:
- Pediatric Hematology Oncology
- Bone marrow transplantation
- Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology
- Pediatric cardiology
- Pediatric endocrinology
- Pediatric nephrology
- Radiology
- Genetics
- Pediatric dentistry
- Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
- Psychology and Counselling Services
- Specialist Nursing and Day-care Services
This integrated multidisciplinary framework facilitates comprehensive clinical care, complication surveillance, psychosocial support, and long-term follow-up, particularly for children with chronic hematological conditions and those undergoing bone marrow transplantation.
