Dr. Harit Chaturvedi
MBBS, MS - General Surgery, MCh - Surgical Oncology
I have pursued more than 35 years of professional life with the missionary zeal to mentor professionals and strengthen leadership capabilities in the oncology world and serve cancer patients with empathy and highest standards in well integrated clinical care. The ability to create grand visions and execute them, taking along large teams has been the hall mark of my career. This intent and ability to execute, naturally created opportunities for me at the highest levels. I have helped shape several cancer institutions along my professional journey, and, also contributed to the professional bodies, organizations, conferences and meetings at national and international levels.
I have been an active member of more than a dozen professional bodies and served three of them as President.
I approached my responsibilities as the President of these associations with the guiding spirit of empathy, collaboration, sub-specialization & research. I have treated conferences and meetings as ground for debates on scientific conversations leading to new ideas and acceptance of best practices. This has taken me to host several large national and international level meetings in my career. As President of IASO, I strengthened the organ based specialization model through the association for wider acceptance. We worked alongside National Board and MCI to structure the training program which helps in further specialization. As President of ISO, I pursued the path of integration of molecular and genetics into oncology mainstream. Oncology Forum is the most vibrant of all associations at the state level, and we have successfully strengthened specialization by regular holding focused meetings on organ based developments.
I organized the VIII Biennial conference of the Indian Society of Oncology (ISO) in Feb 1999 in Delhi. With more than 1000 delegates from across our country and some innovative ideas for that era, when we did workshop on the ideal tumor board and shared the UICC TNM book with all the delegates and sharing of best practices by institutional heads, we could contribute in strengthening the path for teamwork and collective leadership.
I organized a satellite symposium on colorectal cancer at Delhi in November 1999, during the IVth Asia Pacific Cancer Conference at Chennai. For the first time a super specialized conference of this scale was organized by a private hospital in India. Hundreds of students and faculty participated with focus on colorectal cancer only.
The First Indian Cancer Congress in 2013,was a watershed event in medical conferences. It not just demonstrated the academic and clinical oncology powers to the world, it also gave the confidence to our own oncology community of our capabilities. I conceived the grand vision of bringing together the clinical and researchers world of oncology on one platform, to stimulate cancer research in our country. This required unparalleled organizational skills. We put together the four major Oncology societies, viz. the ISO, IASO, ISMPO and AROI and twenty-five smaller subspecialty associations and at least hundred major organizations, hospitals and institutions engaged in cancer treatment and research. This was a herculean foot. It was the first time that such a vision was conceived. I created an execution plan by engaging with more than 100 top oncology leaders from across our country. Heads of all major institutions were engaged in building the execution map. Thereafter, I visited the major institutions in the seven metros and engaged with the faculty and students. Finally, this conference, surpassed all milestones we had set up at the outset. For the first time we had more than 5000 delegates and over 1500 scientific abstract submissions which were presented in ten parallel halls. The partnership with industry was taken several notches up, through Oncotech, which was much more than an exhibition. On one side there were sessions organized for young doctors and entrepreneurs on setting up cancer hospitals in tier II and III cities, creating partnerships and learning management skills and on the other side, we had more than 100 foreign faculties from top institutions of the world seeking collaboration opportunities for research and innovation with few of our premier institutions. ICC in some ways, paved the way for big thinking in the oncology world.
As an executive member for SAARC Federation of Oncology (SFO), we hosted the SFO conference in November of 2014 at Gurgaon, with the theme of Cancer Care - beyond borders. This conference was dedicated to the unique challenges related to cancer treatment in SAARC countries. Lack of trained manpower and resource limitation led to several partnerships through brain storming sessions.
The twelfth Asian Clinical Oncology Society (ACOS) conference was held in Delhi in April 2016, and I was a key member of the organizing committee. The aim of ACOS was to foster clinical research in Asia. I organized a leadership workshop for participants from across Asia, with an exercise to create a vision for their local communities and solving the cancer challenge relevant in their geographies. This was very well appreciated and stimulated appropriate action across Asia.
I was the Organizing Chairman for the 36th Natcon at Delhi. This National conference of IASO which was the largest virtually conducted oncology conference with more than 1200 delegates.
Max Institute of Cancer Care (MICC), was conceived by me in 2012, with the vision to contribute in the global war on cancer by strengthening best clinical practices, attracting and nurturing young talent and contributing in cancer research. in ten years we have earned respect for our organization in the oncology world. We identified, six pillars on which this vision could be executed, Disease Management Group based clinical model, Balanced Score Card, Clinical Admin forum, Research and academics, IT and technology and patient experience. The first three pillars were brought in for the first time in any cancer institution in our country. It required a huge shift from the prevailing practices in that time. A roadmap was carefully crafted and executed, through several town halls, leadership workshops and consensus building, which could win the confidence of the team. This model helped in contributing to research and innovation. As a result of this journey, we have over hundred oncologists at MICC, spread over 12 hospitals. Today, we have one of the finest and largest oncology programs in this part of the world. We treated close to 28000 cancer patients last year and as a group had over 85 publications in peer reviewed journals. We partner with industry at multiple levels for innovation and research.Our partnership with GE, Pfizer and Roche has created multiple avenues. At the National Cancer Grid (NCG), we are the only organization other than Tata Memorial Hospital to host the virtual tumor board. Today, MICC is the strongest and most respected brand for Max Healthcare and contributes close to 25% of Max Healthcare pie. MICC led from the front and has inspired so many groups and hospitals to create a path of organ based specialization.
Max Debates : Is an annual event structured to bring the most controversial topics of the day in oncology for discussion on the debate format.
In 2015 we organized a workshop at Max Vaishali on peritoneal surface malignancy, with the participation of the biggest international leaders of this aspect. In fact, this conference is seen as the inflection point for practice of HIPEC in a major way across our country.
Max Cancer Congress: In 2019 to mark the first decade of Max Institute of Cancer Care we did a mega conference in oncology, including a GI Oncology surgical workshop.