Profile - Dr Rajeev Gupta, Jaipur.

• INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING

Dr Rajeev Gupta has helped create a large number of non-governmental organizations in the state of Rajasthan and elsewhere in his capacity as advisor and mentor. The following institutions and organizations were formatted with his participation:

::	Medical Practitioners Society, Jaipur. This society was established by non-governmental qualified medical and dental physicians in Jaipur in 1939. For the next 40 years its gatherings were devoted to socio-cultural events. In 1981 when Dr Gupta joined the society he realized the importance of continuing medical education for the practicing physicians and was appointed as the first scientific executive of the society in 1983. For the next 7 years as scientific secretary of the society he devoted time and energy to organize monthly clinical meeting and lectures by eminent national and international teachers for this 800 member strong organization. More than 12 meeting are organized under the aegis of the society every year and after more than 20 years the tradition of CME continues.
::	Small non-government hospitals. The town of Jaipur initiated the trend of small non-government general hospitals in the state of Rajasthan. Dr Gupta pioneered this concept and was instrumental in setting up at least half a dozen 20-50 bed general hospitals in the town and smaller cities of Jaipur in early 1980’s. In Jaipur he helped start Meera Hospital (presently 50 beds), Shah Hospital (40 beds), Jaipur Hospital (100 beds), Monilek Hospital (110 beds), Apex Hospitals (60 beds) and in smaller towns of Rajasthan he helped establish Lalit Clinic, Srimadhopur (20 beds), Dhanvantari Hospital, Sikar (30 beds), Saksham Hospital, Pilani (20 beds) etc.
::	Monilek Hospital and Research Centre, Jaipur. This state-of-the-art tertiary care hospital was established in 1986 with help of non-resident Indians. This is the first and only hospital in Rajasthan that has a successful and continuous renal transplantation program. Apart form specialties of urology and nephrology, the hospital and state-of-the-art intensive care units and specialty department of non-invasive cardiology, gastroenterology, laparoscopic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery.
::	Swasthya Kalyan Blood Bank, Jaipur. This is the first non-governmental fully recognized blood bank in the state of Rajasthan. Established in 1995, Dr Gupta is a founder trustee. More than 10,000 units of blood, plasma and platelets are supplied to the needy round-the-clock every year.
::	Mahatma Gandhi National Institute of Medical Sciences and Medical College, Jaipur. Dr Gupta helped establish this, the only non-government recognized medical college in Rajasthan state, in the year 2000. Already four batches of medical students are studying here. This has a 700-bed general hospital and all facilities required of a medical college and has been approved by Medical Council of India since the admission of the first batch in 2001.
::	Grass-roots: There is a Chinese aphorism that "If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn; if you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees; if you want hundred years of prosperity, educate people". Dr Gupta is a firm believer in this maxim and has created a unique medical teaching and research department at his place of work, Monilek Hospital and Research Centre, Jaipur. Every year MSc and PhD students from the University of Rajasthan and MD students from different medical colleges of the state of Rajasthan are trained in research methodology and perform studies under his guidance. This is the true institution building.

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• Teaching students:

::	Medical college: Dr Gupta began his career as a teacher at one of the government medical colleges in Rajasthan. He joined state services as assistant professor in medicine at Dr SN Medical College, Jodhpur in 1979 soon after completing the MD (Medicine) from prestigious Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. However, due to family reasons he shifted to Jaipur to start working in non-government sector after one year. His undergraduate students still remember and cherish his teachings.
::	Resident teaching: He has been teaching residents and post-graduate medical students while working in various capacities in non-government organizations. He is on the list of mentorship of American Heart Association.
::	Professor: Since 1999 he has been appointed as professor in medicine at Mahatma Gandhi National Institute of Medical Sciences and once the classes started at this new medical college he has resumed the teaching of undergraduate students in this medical college.
::	Director: As executive director (1999-2002) and trustee of this medical college he has been instrumental in developing core educational programs.
::	Guest lectures: Dr Gupta is being regularly invited to lecture at various national conferences of Cardiological Society of India, Association of Physicians of India, as well as many other learned societies (details in CV). His area of interest is cardiovascular epidemiology and preventive cardiology and he is a recognized national expert in this area.

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• Medical and Public Health Organizations

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Rural community outreach services: Dr Gupta has realized the importance of public health since the early part of his career. The theme of his research for the last 15 years has been societal influences on health, especially cardiovascular health. He has developed models for urban and rural health care in the state of Rajasthan. For more than 10 years he successfully imparted a rural health-care from Jaipur and visited the village of Srimadhopur in Sikar district under the community outreach effort. He gradually encouraged young doctors to provide specialist services in small towns of Rajasthan and was instrumental in creating a network of specialists who would commute to places far and wide out of Jaipur to provide specialist services in far-flung districts of the state. His initial team included specialists in gynecology, ophthalmology, and orthopedics etc. Later on he was able to pass on the baton to younger physicians and the program is presently running successfully in Srimadhopur 20 years after the inception. This program was so successful that there are myriads of specialists of all types involved in community outreach services from different hospitals of Jaipur.

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Centre for Development and Communication (CDC, Jaipur). This NGO with a national presence was started by Dr Gupta and his associates 10 years ago. He is currently vice-chairman of this NGO. Uniquely, this organization provides basic sanitation service in state of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Presently this organization is engaged in providing sanitation service to urban residents of large areas of Jaipur and smaller towns of Rajasthan, Nagpur and pats of Mumbai in Maharashtra, and Surat in Gujarat. There is also an active urban health component in this program that includes ongoing research and innovation in public health and hygiene.

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• Research

Epidemiology is a basic science of medicine and has contributed immensely to the way we treat our patients. Dr Gupta set up the first cardiovascular epidemiology research centre in the non-governmental sector in India.

::	Clinical research: Since the early part of his career Dr Gupta has been engaged in clinical research devoted to cardiovascular diseases. In early part of his career these were observational studies devoted to non-invasive cardiology, stress testing and echocardiography. He has also conducted a large number of clinical trials sponsored by various pharmaceutical companies. Presently he is engaged in an international research study on management strategies in acute coronary syndromes using low-molecular heparin and/or glucose-insulin-potassium (Create Study, sample size >15,000). He is on the national steering committee of this study that has headquarters at McMaster University, Canada and St John's Medical College, Bangalore.
::	Cardiovascular epidemiology: Epidemiology involves multidisciplinary research. There is need for a strong input from social sciences as well as basic sciences. Since late 1980's, Dr Gupta has been engaged in cardiovascular epidemiology collaborative research that includes inputs from departments of statistics, home science, sociology, botany and chemistry of University of Rajasthan and community medicine, medicine and cardiology departments of SMS Medical College, Jaipur and SP Medical College, Bikaner. His initial research focused on school children in Jaipur funded locally. With generous grants from Rajasthan Patrika Foundation, Jaipur he performed a large rural and urban epidemiology research (Jaipur Heart Watch, JHW-1). This study included 2212 urban subjects and 3148 rural subjects and is one of the largest studies of its kind in India. Since then he has been conducting large epidemiological surveys in Jaipur (JHW-2, JHW-3) to evaluate changes in cardiovascular risk factors among urban populations. These studies are well known internationally and publications include those in prestigious journals such as the BMJ.
::	International collaborations: For the last two years he is engaged in an international cardiovascular epidemiological study (PURE International Study, sample size >125,000). This study is prospectively evaluating various socio-cultural, dietary and biological cardiovascular risk factors and incidence of coronary heart disease using a standardized protocol. This is spread over 12 developing countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. Dr Gupta is member of the international steering committee of this study. The study is being coordinated from McMaster University, Canada and Indian headquarters are at St Johns Medical College, Bangalore. He also has international research collaborations with University of California, Stanford University, and Yeshiva University, USA.
::	Genetic studies: Dr Gupta performed the first chromosomal study on protein calorie malnutrition as intern in mid 1970's. Presently he in engaged in genetic epidemiology research to elucidate genetic mechanisms in obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Studies have been initiated in collaboration with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi on genetics of obesity and with University of Delhi on diabetic nephropathy.
::	Publications and awards. Dr Gupta has a very large number of publications in peer reviewed journals and as the enclosed biodata shows he has more than 330 publications that include more than 150 original scientific articles. He has received awards from many learned societies in India and abroad for his research activities as detailed in the CV.
::	South Asian Journal of Preventive Cardiology: This national peer-reviewed journal was started by Dr Gupta in 1987 and is presently in 8th year of publication. It published original peer reviewed articles as well as review articles useful for both clinicians and researchers. It is very popular among the community medicine fraternity of India.
::	National Awards: Dr Gupta received the most prestigious award for cardiovascular diseases instituted by Indian Council of Medical Research and Government of India for his research in cardiovascular epidemiology in 1997. He has also received Dr VV Shah Oration award by the Cardiological Society of India in 2000. Apart from this there is an enviable array of awards instituted by various governmental and non-governmental organizations throughout his academic career.

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• Patient care

William Osler, the famous physician and scientist said that if you wish to become famous locally see your patients well, if nationally then talk well at medical conferences and internationally then write well. Dr Gupta has followed this maxim to the fullest extent. He is one of the busiest clinicians of Jaipur. His clinical skills are widely known and he has patients not only from all over the state of Rajasthan but also from neighboring states of Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. He has in addition contributed to the following patient friendly innovations:

::	Low cost medical care of acute coronary syndromes: Management of acute coronary syndromes has undergone a sea change in the last 30 years. In early part of his clinical career he popularized the concept of domiciliary care of patients with acute coronary syndromes. Subsequently when the concept of intensive care units evolved he was the first one to start ICU in private sector in Jaipur in 1981. The therapy of acute coronary syndromes and acute myocardial infarction has evolved dramatically recently. Dr Gupta remains on forefront of these innovations and has set up a low cost ICU at Monilek Hospital, Jaipur for caring of such patients. The important components of management of these conditions remain evidence-based interventions such as early thrombolysis, early ambulation and short hospitalization. The Create study, vide supra, is an effort in this direction and if glucose-potassium-insulin treatment is effective, it would be a major low-cost life-saving intervention in acute myocardial infarction.
::	Preventive medicine: Dr Gupta is one of the most famous proponents of preventive medicine in the country. He believes that all the medical treatment is essentially preventive, prevention of death! To this extent he practices and teaches early preventive treatment in hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular diseases.
::	Other innovations: He has developed other multiple innovations in clinical practice. These include shortened hospital stay for patients with various medical conditions, rapid-track diagnosis systems in emergency, shared-care concept in non-government sector, and the concept of group medical practice.
::	Designing of hospitals: Dr Gupta has to his credit conceptualizing and designing of at least half a dozen medium sized hospitals in Jaipur. Hallmark of these hospitals is the patient friendly atmosphere.

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