Raghu Ram Pillarisetti

Biography

Raghu Ram Pillarisetti was born on 22 September 1966 in Guntur in the undivided Andhra Pradesh in India to medical doctor parents, P. V. Chalapathi Rao and Ushalakshmi Kumari, a breast cancer survivor. He graduated in medicine (MBBS) Siddhartha Medical College, secured a master's degree in surgery (MS) with gold medal from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal in 1995 and migrated to UK to work at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust Hospital. In 2002, he returned to India to attend to his mother who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to open a dedicated purpose built facility for breast cancer care in India which was opened under the name, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), in Hyderabad in 2007.

Raghu Ram, over the course of time, founded Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation for spreading awareness about the disease and, later, started publishing Pink Connexion and quarterly newsletter to aid his awareness campaigns. He is an International Surgical Adviser of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and has organised ten post graduate courses in India during the period from 2000 to 2013, the highest number of courses RCSEd conducted at an overseas location, three of them in Andhra Pradesh, under the aegis of their International School of Surgery programme. He is a member of the governing council of the Association of Surgeons of India since 2013 and has served as its overseas coordinator during 2009-2012. He is a former secretary (2011–13), a former vice president (2013–14), the youngest in the organization's history, of the Association of Breast Surgeons of India and is its president elect for the term from 2015-2016. He served as a member of the board of advocates of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in 2009, the first surgeon from outside USA to sit in the board. He is associated with the Indian Association of Surgical Oncology as a member, as its overseas coordinator (2005–08), as the editorial secretary of its newsletters (2009–10), as a former member of the executive committee(2011–12) and as the joint editor of its official journal, Indian Journal of Surgical Oncology (IJSO) (2010–14). He has participated and organized several conferences and symposiums where he has delivered orations and keynote addresses and has moderated many panel discussions. He is the author of many articles on breast healthcare and has contributed nine chapters in three text books including the text book series, Recent Advances in Surgery.

Awards and recognitions

Ragu Ram holds the fellowship of all the four royal colleges of surgeons in the UK (FRCS), Royal College of Surgeons of London, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, besides the fellowship of the American College of Surgeons (FACS). He is a recipient of awards such as Visishta Ugadi Puraskar, Vishal Bharat Ugadi Puraskar and Rotary Vocational excellence Award and featured in the book, In Pursuit of Passion, a publication covering the lives of 50 young achievers in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He received the Overseas Gold Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2013, the youngest ever recipient of the award. The Government of India included Ram in the 2015 Republic day honours list for the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri, making him the youngest surgeon from Andhra Pradesh to receive the award.

In 2017, the Medical council of India selected him for the prestigious Dr B C Roy National award for ‘Outstanding service in the field of Socio Medical Relief’ for the year 2016.