Academics and research play an important role in medical science’s growth and development. The role of those who practice medicine to diagnose problems faced by patients is as crucial as those who study it in depth. One such person is Dr Surya Kant, Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow. He has worked as a professor for 18 years and HoD for over 12 years at KGMU. He was rated among the top 2% of scientists in the world as per the world ranking by Stanford University, California, USA.
Student Teacher
Dr Kant was a very serious student, earning his MBBS degree with top marks and MD (Gold Medallist). He also has 24 Diploma/certificate courses like Yoga and Naturopathy, Health Education, Nutrition, and the prestigious DSC (Honoris Causa), etc. He has taken various courses from International Societies like the American Thoracic Society, the Royal College of Physicians UK, the American Heart Association, etc. Dr Kant has been instrumental in formulating National and International guidelines for more than 24 respiratory disorders. He has trained over a million doctors and healthcare workers on different health issues and ailments.
Dr Kant has guided about 200 DM, MD, DNB, PhD, and MPhil students, supervised 50 research projects, and authored 21 Books, 69 book chapters, and more than 800 research publications.
Contribution to Science
Dr Kant has established a Tobacco Cessation Clinic, three Respiratory ICUs, and nine Specialty Clinics, including a post-COVID clinic, the first DOTS Plus Centre for Drug-Resistant TB in UP, and the first online difficult-to-treat TB clinic in UP. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Kant played a crucial role in forming the UP-Government Order (GO) regarding the COVID treatment protocol, based on Ivermectin and Doxycycline. He also published a ‘White Paper on Ivermectin’ for the first time in the world, which was appreciated globally by the medical community and also displayed on the WHO website.
He has made a simple and unique treatment protocol termed ‘Na Janch, Na Report, Karo Corona Par Sidhi Chot’ for rural people in India, distributed Corona medicines through various voluntary organisations and networks of Gram Pradhans, and saved many lives of rural people during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also worked as an international, national, and state COVID Trainer for COVID Health Care Workers. He created public awareness of COVID-19 via electronic, print, and social media.
Dr Kant has initiated creating harmony among Allopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, and other systems of AYUSH.
He has published a special article in the Journal of the Indian Medical Association. His historical contribution to Hindi is that Dr Kant submitted his MD thesis in Hindi in 1991. It was not easy and after a long battle through a resolution passed by the UP assembly. He continues to present his research work at conferences in Hindi, writing the first Medical Editorial in Hindi and publishing seven books and more than 1000 articles related to Health awareness in Hindi.
New Initiatives
Dr Kant was instrumental in setting up a Medical and Health Education Park (the first of its kind in the world), Rotary-Respiratory Herbal Park, Navagraha Vatika, and Poshan Vatika (Nutrition Garden) in the Department of Respiratory Medicine, KGMU, UP, Lucknow as its Head of Department. Dr Kant has given international recognition to his department as it has been selected as the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Drug-Resistant TB by the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases.
Dr Kant is Chairman of the National Task Force (North Zone) for the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and a governing body member of AIIMS Patna. He is a Member of the Board of Management, Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, and a Member of the National Steering Committee for Doctors for Clean Air and Climate Change Action. He has been President of many apex medical and professional bodies like the Indian Chest Society, the National College of Chest Physicians, the Indian College of Allergy, Asthma, and Applied Immunology, and the Medical Science Section of the Indian Science Congress Association.
Dr Kant was also the National Vice-Chairman of IMA-AMS and National Secretary General of the Indian Society Against Smoking. He has also been a Member of the Executive Council of the University of Lucknow (2010-13, 2014-17) and UP University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etwah (2016-21).
Awards and Recognition
He has two US patents and innovations in asthma, for which he was awarded the LS Lowesche Award. He has been awarded 185 awards, including 15 Oration and 21 fellowship awards. It includes the prestigious Fellowships of the American College of Chest Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians.
He has also been awarded Honorary Professor of IMA, IMA-CGP, IMA-AMS, and the Best Teacher Award by KGMU and IMA. He was in charge of an 1100-bed COVID Hospital at KGMU and also virtually supervised the COVID ICUs of 58 COVID hospitals in UP. The National Health Mission nominated him as a Brand Ambassador for COVID-19 vaccination as he was the first doctor to be vaccinated at KGMU.
Dr Kant has also been recognised internationally for his exemplary work in Corona and has been made the International Partner of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance. He has been interviewed by famous international journalists like Christine Clark (United Kingdom), Kelly Jhones (USA), etc. During the COVID crisis, he was sent by the UP government as an expert on COVID review to various places, including the PM’s constituency in Varanasi, in May 2021.
Dr Kant is the first and only Indian doctor to be invited as a Government Delegate to the 10th, 11th, and 12th Vishva Hindi Sammelan and has been awarded by UP Hindi Sansthan and Kendriya Hindi Sansthan.
Serving the Society
Dr Kant has been involved in various charitable works through more than 20 NGOs in fields like TB, Tobacco, Cancer, COVID, Air Pollution, Eye and Divyang Relief, etc., for over 30 years. He facilitated the donation of 1000 oxygen concentrators to KGMU and other hospitals of UP with the help of NGOs. He also distributed free COVID medicines to patients of rural and slum areas with the help of various NGOs and networking of Gram Pradhans. In his supervision, a free OPD for poor people has been running for 21 years, and more than 1,35,000 patents have benefitted from it. A weekly mobile medical van OPD has also been run under his supervision, which helped more than 4,20,000 people.
He has worked as a Trustee Treasurer and Secretary of Health Projects of Bhau Rao Devras Seva Nyas, established by the late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for 21 years. He is the convener of the TB-Free Lucknow Campaign. He has adopted the first Village and the first slum area of UP to make TB-free and has adopted more than 100 patients suffering from TB.
