Ida Scudder was the daughter of second-generation medical missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States of America (US) who served in India.

As a young girl she witnessed famine, poverty and death, and vowed that she would never follow in her parents' footsteps and become a missionary.

[1] It was at this time that Ida became acutely aware of the lack of medical services available to women and children in India, primarily due to cultural and religious norms that did not allow male practitioners to treat females.

This awareness became the driving force of her life one evening in her parents' bungalow, when a young Indian man came to the door requesting Ida's help for his wife who was struggling in childbirth.

Two more men came that very night with similar requests, seeking medical help for their wives in labor, but again turning down John Scudder's care.

She completed her studies in New York where she was in the first class of doctors at Cornell Medical College[12] that included women (1899).

She began bringing "roadside dispensaries" to rural villages in 1906 when the average life expectancy of an Indian was 25 years.

[1] The hospital has been visited at various times by many prominent leaders including Sir Alexander Fleming, Dr Jonas Salk, the American Evangelist Billy Graham, Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Presidents Radhakrishna, Rajendra Prasad, Abdul Kalam,[1] Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the Countess Edwina Ashley Mountbatten of Burma.

[1][14] The hospital has eleven sites and serves over 2000 inpatients and 8,000 outpatients daily, with 67 wards, 92 clinics each day and over 150 departments/units.

[2] The hospital is owned and administered by its Administrative Council made up of Christian Church leaders from across India.

[20] In 2015 the college won the coveted and prestigious D. L. Shah Quality Award - Gold for its Clinical Audit Programme.

[2] Department of Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology caters to more than 40,000 patients a year,[citation needed] covering conditions like Rheumatoid arthritis, Spondyloarthropathies including Ankylosing spondylitis and Psoriatic arthropathy, Lupus, Primary Sjogren's syndrome and Takayasu arteritis.

This department has its own extremity MRI and Sonography services, and is also involved in clinical and translational research.

The program serves a rural, semi-urban and tribal population of about 250,000 around the area of Kaniyambadi, including the Kaniyambadi block (82 villages), Jawadhi Hills (120 tribal villages), and urban areas such as Kansalpet, Saidapet, Sreenivasanagar and Kagithapattarai.

[2] Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) is located at KV Kuppam Block, about 25 km from Vellore.

[1] It organizes a number of field programs for the rural people around the area, providing inpatient care, mobile health services and vocational training programs, and involves over 100 local family care volunteers, serving about 135,000 people in 39 Panchayats.

[2] Efforts have been made to alleviate poverty through encouraging income generating projects and improved agricultural practices.

Shalom targets low-medium income residents of Vellore and the fees generated help subsidize the outreach programs in surrounding areas.