V Mohan

Summary

Mohan has been delivering care to patients with diabetes across the country via its centres and tele-medicine. He has trained thousands of diabetologists in India and other developing countries. He also has contributed to scientific research on diabetes and serves on various national and international bodies in his field of specialisation.

Education

Mohan completed his undergraduate (MBBS) and postgraduate medical education (MD, General Medicine) from Madras Medical College, Chennai, India. He then worked for a year as a Welcome Trust Research Fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, London, U.K and later for a year as an Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Ulm, West Germany. He was awarded a Ph.D. and later a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) for his research on diabetes.

Mohan’s activities cover a wide range of clinical services, training and education, rural diabetes services and charity, research and public education and activities on diabetes.

Clinical services

Mohan started working on diabetes as an undergraduate medical student when he joined his father late M. Viswanathan a pioneer in diabetes in India. Together with his father, he set up the first private diabetes centre in India in 1971 and continued to work at this centre till 1991. Mohan and his late wife Rema Mohan subsequently established their own diabetes centres under the name of “Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre”. He and his colleagues currently oversee 31 diabetes centres across India and one international centre at Muscat in Oman with over 400,000 diabetic patients have been registered at these centres.

Training and education programs in diabetes

Mohan has started several training courses for diabetes. This includes a two-year Fellowship in Diabetology for medical doctors with an undergraduate degree and a one-year Post Doctoral Fellowship in Diabetology for those with a post-graduate degree in Internal Medicine. He has trained over 400 diabetologists who practice in several places in India. In collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Education Academy (DMDEA) has started a Certificate Course in Evidence Based Management of Diabetes which has trained over 7,500 physicians in India. In association with Indian Diabetes Educators Association, DMDEA also started a Certificate Course in Diabetes Education and trained 3,000 Diabetes Educators.

Rural diabetes services & charity

Mohan has established a unique rural diabetology service with a fully equipped mobile diabetes van and satellite connection with the initial support of the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Denmark and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the National Agro Foundation (NAF). He and his colleagues have screened a population of over 50,000 people in 42 villages near Chunampet in Tamil Nadu in south India and provided free diabetes treatment to hundreds of patients through this service. This unique Telemedicine based project has proved to be a “Model for Rural Diabetes Health Care“ in developing countries. He also provides free treatment to a large number of diabetic patients along with the Sri Sathya Sai Organization, Tamil Nadu through 3 free diabetic clinics.

Research

In 1996, Mohan established the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) in Asia. His research combines clinical, epidemiological and genomic aspects of diabetes. He has published over 1050 papers including over 672 original research articles in peer reviewed journals, over 142 chapters in text books on diabetes, endocrinology and Internal Medicine and several invited reviews and editorials. His areas of work include Epidemiology, Genomics of Diabetes and Community based projects on prevention of diabetes.

Awards & recognitions

Mohan has received numerous awards and Fellowships. This includes the Padma Shri National Award by the Govt. of India for his accomplishments in the field of diabetology, Dr.B.C.Roy Award from the Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centenary Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).He was also awarded the Fellowships of the Wellcome Trust, UK and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He also received the Wockhardt Award for Medical Excellence from the Harvard Medical International, Boston. He has been conferred Fellowships by all the four Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ireland and was elected Fellow of all the three Science Academies of India including the Fellowship of Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Delhi. He was elected Fellow of American College of Endocrinology (FACE), Mastership of the American College of Physicians (MACP), Honorary Fellow, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, UK, 2013 and Fellow, the World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS), Italy, 2013. He was conferred three National honours – Best Diabetologist of India by Zee News & Zee TV and by Times of India and Best Single Specialty Hospital in Diabetes and Endocrinology in India by CNBC & TV 18. For his extensive contribution in the field of diabetes, Dr. Mohan was awarded the Padma Shri from the Govt. of India in 2012.In 2013 he was awarded the Best Diabetologist in India – Pioneer in Health Care Award 2013 by Times of India in association with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of Tamil Nadu & FICCI 2013 and Diabetes Technology Society Leadership award by Diabetes Technology Society, San Francisco.

Mohan's work has been recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) which has nominated his centre as a "WHO Collaborating Centre for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases" as well as by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) which nominated his centre as an "IDF Centre of Education". He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Govt. of India's National Program for Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPDCS) and on several other national scientific organisations. He is also a WHO Consultant on Diabetes and serves on several committees of the International Diabetes Federation.