Department of Forensic Medicine

The Department of Forensic Medicine at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, caters to the teaching needs of medical undergraduate students while fulfilling significant medico-legal responsibilities. The Professor and Head serves as the Honorary State Medico Legal Expert to the Government of Karnataka, while Associate Professors function as District Medico-legal Consultants, providing consultancy services to investigating authorities on skeletal remains examination, exhumation, and expert opinions. The department is recognized as one of the largest medico-legal centres in coastal Karnataka, employing innovative teaching methodologies including role play, videos, online quizzes, and problem-based learning alongside traditional lectures and small group teaching.

Highlights

Conducts approximately 900 post-mortems annually, ranking as one of the largest medico-legal centres in coastal Karnataka.

Operates as part of a first public-private partnership model in the state for medico-legal autopsies conducted round-the-clock at Government District Headquarters Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore.

Mortuary equipped to conduct two autopsies simultaneously with adequate cold storage capacity for small-scale mass casualty handling, separate bereaved rooms, multiple inquest rooms, and gallery facilities for medical graduate observation.

Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit (CFMU) at Kasturba Hospital, Attavar handles all medico-legal cases of the teaching hospital and acts as a consultancy service bridge between investigating authorities and the hospital.

Maintains international collaborations through Memoranda of Understanding with institutes in Europe (France) and Africa (Ethiopia).

Conducts a well-regarded blended Forensic Odontology course in association with Manipal College of Dental Sciences Mangalore, training dental faculty in disaster victim identification.