Dr Pushpakaran Munuswamy

Dr Pushpakaran Munuswamy is a consultant gastroenterologist who specialises in treating patients with gastrointestinal problems, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease and acute pancreatitis. He is highly experienced in carrying out gastroscopy, colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy procedures to diagnose and treat a variety of gastrointestinal conditions.

He commonly sees patients who are struggling with acid reflux, swallowing problems, abdominal pain, bowel-related symptoms, unexplained weight loss, bloating, poor appetite, small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), liver diseases evaluation (fatty liver disease) and gastrointestinal bleeding.

His kind, considerate and listening approach is reflected in his clinical practice and high quality of care. He believes in discussing the diagnosis and treatment options with his patients before decisions are made.

Colonoscopy: With a completion rate of 98% (national target: 90%) and adenomatous polyp detection rate of 60% (national target: 20%), Dr Munuswamy has proven his expertise, having performed over 4,000 colonoscopy procedures. Feedback from his patients is good and there are minimal signs of discomfort.

Gastroscopy: Dr Munuswamy has performed more than 4000 gastroscopy procedures so far in his career.

Working as a department lead for gastroenterology, Dr Munuswamy supervises juniors, nurses, undergraduates, medical students and pharmacists. And, as an innovator in his field, he has designed a new naso-gastric tube, which earned him a highly commended prize in the competition of the East of England Region.

Dr Munuswamy has also implemented electronic order communications for pathology and radiology requests, electronic observations at the bedside, and has successfully bid for NHS England funds for electronic prescribing after becoming a chief clinical information officer. On top of this, he has implemented the use of smartphones for basic tests. In the Essex region where Dr Munuswamy works, smartphone-based fecal calprotectin tests now monitor inflammatory bowel disease while smartphone apps are used to run breath tests for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

Dr Munuswamy completed his training in Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases at King's College Hospital, London. He actively participates in research on the management of gastrointestinal conditions. He contributes to various liver-related studies and is known for being actively involved in national trials including CONSTRUCT for the management of acute colitis patients. His work is often published in peer-reviewed journals. 

Dr Munuswamy's work on implementation of smartphone based monitoring of inflammatory bowel disease has been recognised for HSJ award finalist. This work has been used as a case study nationally and is published in NHS digital website.  

Dr. Munuswamy conducted a study on the remote testing of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) using breath tests. This research was presented as an oral poster at the British Society of Gastroenterology meeting and was subsequently published as an abstract in the peer-reviewed journal GUT as well as the NHS Digital Playbook.

He is also actively involved in the national ColoPrevent research trial, which aims to evaluate whether certain interventions—such as medications or dietary supplements—can reduce the incidence of bowel polyps.

In addition, Dr. Munuswamy serves as an accredited Optical Diagnosis Champion for the South Essex Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. This role involves the visual identification and resection of small polyps (less than 5mm), with diagnostic accuracy comparable to histological analysis under a microscope.