Dr. KS Sanjivi Awards 2011 presented

Call to provide high quality healthcare at affordable cost

With healthcare costs spiralling with the advancement of diagnostic technologies, the onus is on the physician to be selective in the use of sophisticated investigations and in keeping treatment costs affordable, V. Shanta, Chairman, Adyar Cancer Institute, said on Sunday.

Presenting the Dr. K. S. Sanjivi Awards 2011 instituted by Udhavum Ullangal and Ekam Foundation to honour doctors and institutions for their service to the underprivileged, Dr. Shanta said the critical balance of the art of healing and science in the practice of medicine had been lost in the proliferation of technology, specialities and super-specialities.

While technology advances had contributed to early diagnosis and better survival rates, the widespread use of expensive investigations had raised ethical issues and also led to spiralling costs of healthcare.

In such a situation, it is the physician's responsibility to contain the costs by prescribing technology-intensive tests only after a cost-benefit analysis, Dr. Shanta said.

Noting that medical ethics was at a low level and evidence-based guidelines remained in words and not in practice, Dr. Shanta urged medical professionals to work towards providing healthcare that was of high quality and accessible to the people.

S. Bhaskaran, chairman, Sankara Nethralaya, said the Dr. Sanjivi awards should serve as a stimulus for other doctors to emulate the service of the underprivileged.

N. Rangabashyam, surgical gastroenterologist, paid tributes to Dr. Sanjivi who was a “Dhanwantri” who employed simple methods of evaluation and eschewed commercial objectives.

D. J. Parthasarathy, vice-president, sales and marketing, TTK Health Care, pledged the continuing support of the TTK group in sponsoring the awards ceremony.

N. Krishnaswamy, (allergy and general medicine), was conferred the lifetime achievement award for his contribution to the poor and needy.

The other awardees were Arvind Krishnamurthy, surgical oncologist at Adyar Cancer Institute, Arun Seshachalam, paediatric medical oncologist at GVN Cancer Hospital, Tiruchi, T. S. Chandrasekar, medical gastroenterologist and founder of MedIndia Hospitals, P. Gunasekaran, deputy director and Head, Department of Virology, in the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research, Chennai, and R. Ramakrishnan, ophthalmologist at Aravind Hospital,

The ICO Charitable Trust that runs the Shifa Free Hospitals at B. P. Agraharam and A. T. Annamalai in Erode and the Cure Trust and Research Center, Madurai, were awarded for catering to the healthcare needs of the underprivileged.

K. Pandiarajan, MLA and founder-trustee of Ekam, and Sankar Mahadevan, founder-trustee of Udhavum Ullangal, and the Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy (CIOSA) also participated.