Professor Balram Bhargava was recently felicitated at the World Health Assembly with the Dr LEE Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health.

Professor Bhargava was recognized recently for his accomplishments as a clinician, innovator, researcher and trainer.
“I was 14 years old when my father had a heart attack,” remembers Professor Balram Bhargava. “That’s when I decided to become a doctor. Ever since, my goal in life has been to treat people.”

This desire to treat people has continued throughout his 29 years of service. Even in his current roles as director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research and secretary of the governmental Department of Health Research, Professor Bhargava continues to see patients every week.

“I do this because serving people is a humbling experience. When I work with patients, I think about how to apply science to alleviate their suffering. This gives meaning to everything else I do.” Professor Bhargava’s credo is in line with the vision that healthcare must be affordable. “There are health facilities in my country where only the richest can step. I would never wish to work in a place like that. I did not study medicine to make money! I did it to help people.”

“Indians do not need to go abroad for treatment – we have the health solutions here,” he affirms. “Unfortunately, they are not accessible for everyone. This is a huge unfinished agenda that policymakers must address.” With the Ayushman Bharat – the world’s largest health scheme – the whole world is watching India, he feels. “Many countries hope to see whether we will deliver and how, because this programme has created a paradigm shift to achieve universal health coverage.”

Professor Bhargava believes the responsibility lies with everyone, but that policy makers must take the lead.
“A doctor treats only one patient at a time. A researcher helps larger groups, as his knowledge and innovation can spread to many patients. A policymaker brings it all one step farther when taking decisions to ensure that the whole population of the country benefits,” he says.

Professor Bhargava has a strong desire to reach vulnerable people. For instance, he led a big study of the cardiovascular health of bus drivers in New Delhi. “It was so obvious we needed to look into the health needs of those young men whose work conditions are tough - heat, crowded vehicles, polluted air,” he says.

When the researchers captured the pattern of hypertension and other heart health risks, they found the bus drivers were at much higher risk than average for people of their age. This research led to action to address these health risks.

A researcher’s curiosity has often led Professor Bhargava into unchartered waters. He describes his team’s work on health effects of chewing tobacco. “Smoking is globally recognized as a lead cause of cardiovascular disease and death, but no attention was previously paid to chewing tobacco.”

Hence he led a major study to discover that, when chewed, tobacco causes constriction of the coronary arteries and may lead to heart attackes. “Now the evidence is all there, and policy makers can take action - in India and other countries where it is widely practiced.”

When Professor Bhargava speaks to policymakers, they listen. When he launches new ideas for creating affordable medical devices, the innovation community follows. When he publishes groundbreaking studies, scientists pay attention.

His passion to know how things work, and to make them work, has resulted in a long list of innovative medical devices – affordable, created and applied in India. In cooperation with the Indian Institute of Technology, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a devoted follower group of more than 100 young innovators, his work on developing low-cost devices is already saving thousands of lives. Professor Bhargava hopes to transmit this family tradition of helping others through his two sons who have also chosen medicine – one specializes in endocrinology, the other is an infectious disease specialist.