Raman Viswanathan

Raman Viswanathan (8 September 1899 – 14 July 1982) was an Indian chest physician, medical mycologist and pulmonologist, considered by many as the father of Chest Medicine in India. He was the founder director of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, a postgraduate medical institute based in Delhi. An elected fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, Royal College of Physicians of London, Indian National Science Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom, he was a recipient of several honors including the Forlanini Medal by Italian Tuberculosis Association and the Eugeno Morelli Prize of the National Academy of Sciences, Italy. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1974, for his contributions to medicine.

Biography R. Viswanathan was born on 8 September 1899 in Nagarcoil, in the southern tip of India in the state of Tamil Nadu to a government official in the erstwhile Travancore state as the youngest of his two children. After losing his mother at the age of nine, he stayed with his elder sister's family and did his schooling in Nagarcoil. Later, he secured his graduate degree with honours in Science and English literature from the Maharaja's College (present-day University College Thiruvananthapuram) of the University of Madras in 1921 after which he graduated in medicine from Madras Medical College in 1926. During this period, he also worked as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Madras Medical College but moved to Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam in 1934 as the Professor of Clinical Medicine, where he worked till 1941. In between, he took a hiatus from work and obtained Diploma in Tuberculosis Diseases (TDD) from Cardiff University School of Medicine, Wales, UK, in 1938. Diseases of the Chest, Medical Problems of Old Age and more than 230 medical articles in peer reviewed journals, Epidemiology, Infectious hepatitis in Delhi (1955-56): a critical study-epidemiology and A review of the literature on the epidemiology of infectious hepatitis being some of the notable ones; his articles and books have been cited in several medical journals and text books, too. He also founded a medical journal, the Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences (IJCDAS) in 1959 as the publishing arm of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute. and an honorary physician to the President of India, National Conference on Pulmonary Diseases (NAPCON) has instituted an annual oration, Prof. Raman Viswanathan Memorial Chest Oration, in his honor; the 2015 lecture was delivered by noted pulmonologist, S. K. Katiyar. Candida viswanathii, a yeast species and a common pathogen causing fungal infections, is named after him. His life has been documented in his autobiography, While the Light Lives - Reminiscences of a Medical Scientist, as well as in an article, Dr. R. Viswanathan : a profile, published in the Indian Journal of Chest Disease and Allied Science, the official journal of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute and the National College of Chest Physicians.

Selected bibliography