Excerpts from the interview:
You seem to have a passion for research in diabetes?
I should thank my father late Prof. M.Viswanathan for initiating me into this field. He was an eminent diabetologist and was instrumental in establishing the first diabetes hospital in India which I was lucky to help him to set up. Even when I joined the medical college, I decided that I would only be doing diabetology. Many a time my professors had told me to go in for more lucrative fields but I refused as the subject of diabetology particularly research in this field fascinated me even as a student.
When did you begin your work on diabetic care? And when did you get interested in research?
I began working with my father the day I began going to the Madras Medical College. I used to help him in various projects and it was this vast experience which helped me later on. It was my ambition to combine diabetes care and research to help diabetic patients. This is a very difficult task as both are quite demanding. However, as it is quite an exciting field I have kept up my interest in this.
What is the rationale for setting up a research centre for diabetes. Is there not enough research done by drug companies?
It is now known that India has the highest number of diabetic subjects in the world - even higher than China and USA. India has the highest prevalence rate of diabetes i.e. about 20 per cent of the total diabetic population in the world, hence there is a need for us to go in for basic research. Yes, drug companies also do research but that is mainly aimed at drug discovery. We wanted to study the problem of diabetes as a whole and hence combine clinical research with epidemiology, genetic studies, drug trials and even basic research on diabetes.
There is a fear even among companies, let alone research firms, that basic research does not pay ---- How come you are in this arena?
We should get out of this mindset that research does not pay and infact should not try to commercialise research. However, having said that, even research can be self-supporting. For example, many of the companies are now coming to us for clinical trials. They are very happy with the quality of our research and India would be amongst the most cost effective places for companies to do clinical trials. When they see our facilities and processes, which are world class, there is a lot of support not only from companies but also several universities and diabetes centres all over the world come forward to collaborate with us.
How do you keep pace with the new trends?
I am a visiting professor in many US universities - the University of Minnesota and Alabama in USA to name a few. I have already published more than 400 original research papers in peer reviewed journals. I have also contributed chapters to over 30 text books on diabetes and I am on the editorial board of many journals. All these help me to keep pace with the latest developments.
Who are your patients? Why is it that you hesitate to move out of chennai to other cities?
Our clientele is varied. It ranges from the very poor to the rich and we have a free diabetic care programme for poor patients. Some of them fly in from Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and even from South Africa, the UK and U.S.A. It is cheaper to fly in and then go through the diabetic treatment here than take the treatment there. It is also because all medicines are extremely cheap in India.
Yes, we have not moved to other cities despite the demand and constant request for franchising of our brand from various doctors. We are implementing very high quality processes and do not want to take the franchising route as yet as we do not wish to lower the very high standards that we have set. May be in the future, this will become possible.
