Dr. Harit Chaturvedi
MBBS, MS - General Surgery, MCh - Surgical Oncology
My professional life started taking shape in college, where as President of Junior Doctors’ Association and by building a platform for discussion through a fortnightly newspaper, ‘Charcha’, I could strengthen the skill of navigating through contrary views and building consensus. I was lucky to get a chance to work under the tutelage of Dr S Krishnamurthy and Dr V Shanta at the Cancer Institute, Chennai. During these five years at Chennai, I was inspired by the world of science and devotion to the patients at the highest level. This combined with my own drive and mission to serve the oncology patients in this part of the world gave me the direction and purpose for life. I realized that to serve millions of patients we need to impact the professional communities on large scale. This understanding and intent took me to leadership roles not just in our country but also in SAARC region and Asia. I served as the Executive member for SAARC Federation of Oncology (SFO) and the Asian Clinical Oncology Society (ACOS). We hosted their conferences in Delhi NCR in 2014 & 2016 respectively.
I have served as the President of Indian Society of Oncology (ISO), Indian Association of Surgical Oncology (IASO) and the Oncology Forum.In each of these roles, I contributed by pushing further specialization, collaboration, adoption of newer techniques and concepts, research and academics laced with genuine empathy and holistic care for our patients. Today, Oncology Forum is the most vibrant of all oncology associations, where regular sessions on focused specialty topics through different hospitals has helped nurture a healthy environment with exchange of knowledge, from which the real beneficiaries are patients. All through the way I developed the strength of creating grand visions and then executing them. The first Indian Cancer Congress (ICC) was led by me, to bring together almost 30 associations. The brand of ICC was built through lot of networking and hardwork. We worked with heads of cancer institutions across the country to create a vision for ICC and then physically visited the seven metros of India to engage with students and faculty. We had more than 5000 delegates, close to 2000 abstracts and a five-day conference managed in 10 halls. This ICC remains a watershed conference in the oncology world and a landmark event in the medical fraternity. I have overall executed more than ten major conferences with participation of delegates ranging from 300 to 5000.
I pursued clinical work with passion and dream to build a great team, focused on specialization, research and academics, where patients are supported throughout the treatment journey with empathy and care. To create such an ecosystem in private sector is a challenge, however, through perseverance, I could create an image which stood for these values, in different major hospitals like Batra and Apollo Hospital, Delhi. Finally, at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, I could influence the team towards specialization. However, as Chairman of the Max Institute of Page | 2 DR. HARIT KUMAR CHATURVEDI Cancer Care I could pursue lots of ideas into action. We would conduct town halls, leadership workshops and build consensus. We brought out a Vision-mission document for MICC, where, six pillars were identified to create such a journey. As an outcome of this MICC became a brand for high quality clinical care, research and academics, and, we embraced the Disease management Group model to a great extent. Today, MICC has over 100 oncologists, we treated close to 28000 cancer patients last year and published 85 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. We have one of the strongest patient support groups program in the country. We were the first to start a dedicated chemotherapy day care centre, besides, running a Cancer alert Program and awareness sessions.
Over the last 35 years, I have performed over 25000 cancer surgeries and have published over 100 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, with a couple of them in Lancet Oncology. I have been a National Board teacher since 2007, when DNB course in Surgical Oncology was started. Over the last 15 years I have trained more than 50 surgical oncologists and mentored over 100 more.
Almost 60% of cancer is preventable and tobacco alone is responsible for half of this segment. I started an NGO by the name of Core Cancer Foundation in 2004, which worked on Tobacco awareness through interactive sessions, workshops, quizzes etc. in the schools of NCR and northern India. I have actively worked with Voice of Tobacco Victims (VOTV), to influence law makers for policy making on tobacco and then through the administrative machinery getting the law implemented. Recently, we developed an app to monitor implementation of COTPA to achieve Tobacco Free Educational Institutions. Several state governments have partnered with us.
I have pursued my dream to create an ideal world for cancer patients for 35 years and have impacted the oncology world as an outcome. My area of influence has extended beyond my institutions, my state and the whole country to SAARC countries and Asia. I have been recognised for this, through several leadership roles in different organisations and awards in the medical fraternity, recently I was invited for a TEDx talk on ‘Forging a Silver Lining’.