Leadership Lessons: ‘Success shouldn’t quench fire in belly’

Studying in a Tamil medium school, it was possibly destiny that led him to become a doctor. He says, “I am the first doctor in my family. I couldn’t control my excitement when I joined as student at the same hospital, the Government Rajaji Hospital Madurai Medical College, where I was born. In fact, my mother could even locate the exact bed.” 

It was a new window of opportunities for him, as he was tutored by some of the most inspiring professors. “When I looked for specialisation, it was the time of neurology and cardiology. Gastro was unheard of, but it had an ideal combination of both surgical and physician side,” he says. After pursuing an MD in Internal Medicine and DM in Gastroenterology at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER, Chandigarh), he entered government service. “I wanted to do something for society and decided to go for it and joined the Madras Medical College (MMC) as an assistant professor,” he adds. 

After a stint at the MMC and Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital, where he established the Department of Gastroenterology, he moved to private practice. For over more than three decades, Dr Chandrasekar has pioneered a number of minimally invasive endoscopic surgical interventions and introduced state-ofthe-art endoscopic facilities for digestive disorders and treatment concepts (oesophageal and constipation relief labs), with many firsts to his credit in Southern India. 

With a range of new modalities of endoscopic treatment solutions for certain diseases that otherwise would need major surgeries, he has given a new dimension to the field of gastroenterology. Calling teaching his deep passion, he has spread the message of advances in the field by organising several national and international conferences. Training scores of doctors with emphasis on finest nuances in the high-tech life-saving procedures, he has empowered young doctors with new-found skills of managing complex disorders. “Therefore, an inaccessible field of speciality has now become accessible for the rural masses,” he says. 

He has also served as an expert faculty in as many as 80 international live endoscopy workshops held at Singapore, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India and delivered more than 350 invitational lectures and contributed richly with several noteworthy scientific publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals. With a 30-40 per cent prevalence of digestive diseases among the Indian population, he reckons that heart burn is at the top of the list, apart from gastroenteritis. “Today alcohol-related diseases are also a big problem. Unbalanced diet and sedentary lifestyle are huge contributing factors. Lack of potable water and low awareness add to the line-up of diseases. In Chennai, specifically, we have a huge problem of constipation,” he says. 

Interestingly, he claims that he hadn’t wasted a single moment in his life and that his philosophy of R+ (routine plus) has made him look beyond usual service. “That’s why at a felicitation ceremony, following the Padma Shri award this year, I wanted to launch a website on digestive diseases,” he says.  He is also the brain behind a 24x7 Toll Free Digestive Diseases Helpline No 12789, a first of its kind, apart from several mass media health awareness programmes on ‘Hepatitis B eradication’ that benefited thousands of people. 

Growing along with the field, it is like watching one’s daughter grow up, he says with a laugh, speaking about the development in the field. “Endoscopy is a result of 150 years of research and to see its advancement is extremely exciting. I try to catch up with the field, as it develops and have always believed that initial success should never extinguish the fire in your belly,” he said.