Renowned surgical oncologist, Dr R. Ravi Kannan, Director of the Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Silchar, Assam, was on Friday conferred with THE WEEK’s first Healing Touch Award at New Delhi.
Accepting the award on his behalf, Kannan’s wife, Seetha Lakshmi Raghavachary said, "To dream the impossible, to bear the unbearable sorrow...to run where the brave do not go...All of us dream of a disease-free world..we are doing our bit to create a cancer-free world".
She said she was accepting the reward on behalf of the hundreds of patients the hospital served every single day. She mentioned the lay citizens, most not doctors, who came together to set up the hospital, and the 480 plus colleagues.
"This kind of recognition reassures us of the tenets we believe in", she said.
One of these tenets is not to turn away any patient. "It is reassuring to us that what we have been doing is right", she said.
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She also spoke of the future of cancer care- where it would be accessible closer to home, and of inclusive health care through technology.
The award ceremony marked the culmination of the second Health Summit organized by THE WEEK.
Kannan, whose list of accolades includes the 65th Ramon Magsaysay Award is an alumna of Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi and Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai.
In 2007, Kannan moved to Silchar. He had been then leading the surgical oncology department at the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai (often described as a nursery of oncologists)
In an interview with THE WEEK, ‘Patients are at the heart of Ravi Kannan's medical philosophy’, Kannan spoke about his medical philosophy.
“A medical practitioner”, he said, “should be entirely focused on the patient to make sure the only interest that matters is that of the patient. All the other interests- that of the physician, the caregiver, the hospital etc. should be eliminated”.
Sited in the Barak Valley, the CCHRC was set up in 1996 through public philanthropy. It serves an area where the only option for medical treatment was to travel to Guwahati- some 300 kilometres away. That was a near impossibility for most patients- mostly daily wage earners at tea plantations and agricultural labourers with limited means. And if somehow the means could be met, travel itself was treacherous with frequent landslides and fierce rains.
Kannan’s move to Silchar would not have been possible without Seetha, who was then employed with the United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF). When the couple first visited Silchar, with their five-year daughter in tow, it was Seetha who decided that it desperately needed Kannan’s skills.
"There is a lot of need here. This is what you should be doing", she told her husband.
Kannan is also one of the recipients of the 65th Ramon Magsaysay Awards. The citation describes him as a ‘Hero for Holistic Healthcare, Providing hope and healing in cancer care’.