10 Sep : Prof. K.K. Talwar, Director PGIMER delivered XI B. P. Koirala Memorial Oration at B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) on the occasion of XVII Anniversary of BPKIHS & 97th B. P. Jayanti at Dharan, Nepal on 9th September 2010. Prof. Talwar was the Chief Guest and was awarded the Oration during an elaborate function. The topic of oration was Cardiovascular Disease – Burden and Intervention.
Padma Bhushan Dr. Talwar has immense contribution to the development of specialty of Cardiology and to medical research in the country. In recognition of his significant contribution in the field of Cardiology, he has received many honours and recognitions. He is on the Editorial Boards of prestigious international journals (European Journal of Heart Failure and American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs & Devices) and is a member of Scientific Council on Cardiomyopathies of World Heart Federation (WHF). He is a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) and International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. He is the recipient of various prestigious awards from the National Bodies including Dr. B.C. Roy National Award (2000), Basanti Devi Amir Chand Award (ICMR – 2003) and Amrut Mody Unichem Award (ICMR – I993), Ranbaxy Research Award (1997), Goyal Prize (2002), Norman Alpert Award by International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (2005), Prof. Sujoy B. Roy Memorial Investigator Award (CSI -1986), Shyam Lal Saksena Award (NAMS – 1988), Searle award (CSI -1987). He is also recipient of various prestigious orations viz. Dr. K.L. Wig Oration (2000-2001), Sphere Oration (1989), Glaxo Oration, Dr. Devi Chand Memorial Oration (1992), R.S. Tiwari Oration (1999), Dr. R.N. Chatterjee Memorial Oration (2003), Dr. Austin Doyle Memorial Lecture (1996) and IMA DR. Menda Oratrion (2005). He is a member of the Institute Body of the All India Institute of Medical Science, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram, Governing Body of ICMR and Dean Faculty of Medical Sciences of Panjab University, Chandigarh.
His significant contributions to the specialty of Cardiology include:
i) He was the first to initiate the technique of radiofrequency ablation to cure arrhythmic disorders in the country and established state-of-the-art facility at the Department of Cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi. He also helped to establish these facilities at other centres in the country. Now he has established this technique at the PGIMER, Chandigarh.
ii) He was the first in India and South Asian region to introduce the therapy of automatic implantable cardioverter and defibrillator (ICD) in 1995 and this contribution is recorded in the LIMCA Book of World Records (1997).
iii) He was again the first to implant the multisite pacing system (2000) as a therapy for heart failure and thus again established a new therapeutic modality in the country.
iv) He also established the technique of Endomyocardial Biopsy in 1986 and used this technique to evaluate patients with various tropical heart muscle diseases to understand the pathogenesis and to evaluate newer forms of therapy in these patients. His original work in this area is well recognized. For the first time in world literature, using this technique, he documented the occurrence of inflammatory myocarditis in patients with Takayasu arteritis resulting in heart failure. He further demonstrated that myocardial dysfunction was reversible with the use of immunosuppressive therapy. All this work is published in the prestigious International and National journals. Recently he was invited as one of the Asian Guest faculty by the Japanese Society of Cardiology to present his work on Endomyocardial biopsy in Tropical heart muscle diseases at their annual conference. He has published more than 206 paper and 270 abstracts in both national and international journals of repute. He has contributed chapters in 18 national and international books.