Digital health matters, just not the devices but also with the digits with which you touch the patient to feel the pulse: Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Past President, PHFI

Hyderabad, October, 2023: Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, hosted the Convocation Ceremony for the students of the Postgraduate Batch 2020 and Undergraduate Batch 2017, at Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, today. Chief Guest Prof K. Srinath Reddy, Distinguished Professor and Past President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Former HoD of Cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi; conferred the Degrees at a glittering ceremony attended by the parents and families of the students. Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group; presided over the Ceremony. Guests of Honour Dr Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group & Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group; graced the occasion. Ms Aparna Reddy, COO, AIMSR welcomed the gathering.

One hundred Undergraduates and thirty Post Graduates received their degrees on the occasion. Since its inception in 2012, over 600 Students have graduated from The Apollo Medical College, Hyderabad. 90% of the Alumni from the College secured Post Graduate seats in different medical colleges of the country.

The prestigious Chairman Dr Pratap C Reddy’s Gold medals were awarded to the best outgoing Postgraduate student, Dr Bobba Harshita from the Department of Community Medicine and the best Under Graduate student, Ms Irene Albi. The award instituted in the memory of Senior Physician Late Dr K.V.R. Prasad; by his son Dr Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Hospitals; was awarded to Ms. Irene Albi, during the convocation.

Prof K. Srinath Reddy speaking on the occasion said, this institution is not only training doctors who can cure the sick with great ability but is also producing people who can through their research and application of the research done by others, advance science and that’s an important object and of course to also engage with the people and communities in order to advance population health becomes a very important aspect as well. I have some messages to give you, knowledge is multidisciplinary and it is increasingly becoming so whether it is basic sciences or biomedical research, biomedical knowledge or clinical medicine or public health, there are multiple streams of knowledge that have integrated and come into play. Even if you look at the recent Noble prize for medicine the whole area of mRNA vaccine has been enriched. So it is important that you ensure that you are not limited by your adherence to only to one discipline even if you are practicing that with a great deal of proficiency and application. What we need to train in our medical institutions and I am sure Apollo has done that is to create T shaped individuals, where you have depth of expertise in one are two areas, but you have the breadth of understanding, exposure and willingness to work with other disciplines. When I talk about the need to work with others, I also come to the other message that medicine is a team science even in clinical care. Gone are the days where a single doctor could be the miraculous saver of lives. That can still happen, but essentially whether it is a primary care setting or the hospital setting you have to work with many of the team members, other doctors in your speciality, other specialities, with nurses, I learnt so much from the nurses who taught me from the time I was an intern even till the time I was a professor of Cardiology, from technicians, from physician assistants. So medicine in order to be practiced well has to be a team science. You have to shed false hierarchies and ensure that you function very integrally with that appreciation of the contribution by others. Because if you don’t, the weakest link in the team will actually affect the performance what you intend to achieve. You may be the best possible surgeon or the brightest physician, but if your resident or a nurse or a technician goofs up you are in trouble. So you have to understand that it is a team science and you have to promote that spirit of working as a team. You must constantly upgrade your knowledge and skills in this era of digital health, several new innovations and also because the context is changing. When we were under graduates communicable diseases were the most common, non-communicable diseases were just beginning to rise, by the time I became a post graduate student non-communicable diseases started rapidly rising and now they are the dominant killers and causes of disability. But, we also learnt that we can’t write off infectious diseases, not only TB and other diseases are there, but you see the way the pandemics have come in, not just because there is a microbe that is keen on attacking us, but because we created conveyor belts for those microbes to move from wildlife into veterinary population and human habitat. So our understanding of how pandemics come in have become very important not only in the context of Covid but in terms of future pandemics. With climate change the context is again changing, as human beings become restless wilting under the heat, mosquitoes will become athletic they can reach farther and higher heights to breed in newer areas where they never went to, even now the malaria, dengue, chikungunya map of India is expanding. So we are going to see a complexity of challenges because of these new conditions and of course climate change will bring in many other challenges as well. So you have to prepare yourself to adapt, you have to become adept at adopting and try and face all the challenges as you move along and therefore you have to continue to acquire that new knowledge and hone your skills with greater proficiency, while your skills and knowledge will need constant renewal. Patient and their family approach you at a time when they are most vulnerable and therefore the way you deal with them matters a lot, care, concern, courtesy, compassion and communication skills matter. Quite often we hear that Doctors have been bashed up in hospitals, people have become very violent, there are many reasons for that, shortage of staff, shortage of equipment and lot of other issues that come in, but one of the reasons is that if we do not communicate well with the patient and the patient’s family, we do not establish that relationship. It is absolutely important that you acquire those communication skills well. So the soft touch is also very important. Digital health matters, but digital health is not only with devices but also with the digits with which you touch the patient to feel the pulse. Now in terms of role, the role of a health professional is to alleviate as a care giver, to educate as a teacher, to elucidate as a researcher and you must also focus on acquiring knowledge of research methodology, even if you don’t do research, you have to apply research done by others in a very discriminating manner. In this era of fake news, you must not be misguided by knowledge which is incomplete or inaccurate, therefore you must be able to get an understanding of published research, the right research methodology, what to apply, when to apply, whom to apply and therefore understanding of research methodology becomes important. In your lives you need good role models and many of your faculty are excellent role models. But there is no better role model than Dr Prathap C. Reddy, who has created not only an institution but has been the architect of a whole healthcare system right from tertiary care to primary care and medical education, almost every aspect of healthcare has been explored and enriched under his leadership, therefore that is the kind of exemplary role model you have and you are highly privileged to have had that.     

Dr Preetha Reddy said, I am proud and privileged to stand in front of you, because you are India’s future, you are the ones who are going to take the healthcare of India to another level. I wanted only to be a doctor and at that time when I got into medical school my father, the architect of healthcare in India Dr Prathap C. Reddy, said its very hard for girls to do medicine and may be you shouldn’t do it and as a good daughter agreed with him. My sister Sangita also got into medical school and as my father felt we should be working with him on his multifaceted agenda of healthcare, she also decided not to go through the medical school, but today we work with the institutions and hospital. I am telling you this because all of you are privileged to be the doctors and healthcare professionals of tomorrow. Because the difference you will make in the world is not just by an address in this region but you will be global citizens, you will be the esteemed faculty who will set the way healthcare and medicine is delivered in the future. Dr Prathap Reddy came back from US with a clear mission to make a difference the way healthcare is delivered, from one hospital to multiple healthcare locations, Apollo Hospitals really encompasses the whole healthcare field be it clinics, pharmacies, Research, AI and data sciences. That is an opportunity for all of you, that you don’t just need to be a clinical doctor just working in the wards, but really the future is fantastic, the path ahead is exciting and exhilarating and you can be a healthcare professional and do what you want in the area you are passionate about. Apollo’s philosophy has always been to provide the highest standards of clinical excellence to people who come to us. This institution is poised to be the best and definitely the jewel in our crown.

Dr Sangita Reddy said, It’s a very special day and may this special day mark the beginning of a new chapter and a new era in your lives. As you don the white coat and put these two alphabets as a prefix to your name, which my sister and I wanted as well, that DR letters come to you with a great sense of pride, a sense of achievement, of accomplishment, but equally with the sense of responsibility. I know that you will uphold the Hippocratic Oath, also uphold the value system of the institution you were trained at, that you will live up to the expectations and dreams of your faculty and also of that of your parents who have gone through so much to place you here. But I am going to give you a new challenge and this challenge is to help heal the world, because health inequalities shouldn’t continue. At no time in the history of the world have we ever been able to say with that much confidence as we can say today, that we can dream of health equity, that we can dream of a world where everyone has access to healthcare, but you all can, whether it’s a combination of technology, resources, innovative new cures, be it AI or the new reach in the biome. You also have an additional responsibility, you have been seeing over the last few days in Gaza, in Israel, it makes us to sit up and say that we grew up as students, as professionals saying life is priceless and yet across the world life is being sacrificed for various reasons. There is no profession in the world, whether it is business, engineering, politics, which is as powerful, dear and as respected as being a doctor. As the world is undergoing this major change, may I request all of you to go out into the world with this responsibility, uphold the ideology of being a continuous learner, respecting the values of medicine, of bringing the power of humanity and let that shine through, so that doctors become the shining examples of people who respect life, and because of that power and that conviction may you change the tide of how people value life. It is a very special moment in your lives as you get ready for your convocation, there are many a dreams and solutions for various ailments that the world looks forward from you. I leave with you the message that is, tread softly, because you tread upon our dreams, fly high because you have the ability to make these dreams a reality and most importantly keep true to yourselves. The faculty here is the true inspiration, the world has a shortage of great doctors, you have the potential to create, to amplify and reduce this shortage. Let us dream of this world, where we heal in India with medical value travel, heal from India using remote care, we continue to heal by India by using this capability and integrated medicine.