Apollo Hospitals finds pride of place in the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 ranking released by Newsweek, the premier international news magazine and website. The ranking in partnership with global research firm Statista ranks the world’s best specialized hospitals and features the top 250 hospitals for cardiology and oncology and the top 150 for pediatrics among ten specialities. The Apollo Heart Centre at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai makes it to the list of Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Cardiology with a global rank of 126 and ranks No. 1 among the five Indian hospitals in the list. In the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Oncology, two hospitals from the Apollo Hospitals Group make it to the list with Apollo Cancer Centres at Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals, Chennai ranked at 228 and 239 respectively. The two hospitals are among just four Indian hospitals that are in list for Oncology. In the Paediatric speciality, Apollo Children’s Hospital, Chennai is ranked at 103 globally and is one among just five Indian hospitals that are part of the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Paediatrics ranking. This global recognition is testament to the specialty healthcare of international standards provided at Apollo Hospitals with outcomes matching those of the world’s best hospitals. Apollo Hospitals, with some of the world’s finest and brightest medical experts, has been the pioneer in bringing ground-breaking healthcare technologies to India to deliver best in class clinical results.

Apollo Hospitals Group has launched the Apollo Centre of Excellence in Critical Care (ACECC). Apollo Hospitals is currently the largest critical care provider in India with over 25% of its in-patient bed capacity designated for critical care. Critical care, also referred to as Intensive care, deals with critically-ill patients who require intensive care for various medical conditions that are immediately life-threatening but reversible. The ACECC will harness digital technology to create an integrated network of eICUs providing world-class critical care not just across the Apollo Hospitals network but also in partnership with non-Apollo units in India and abroad. The ACECC will enable wider and timely access to critical care and help in implementing a standardised scope of management and treatment in emergencies and critical medical situations. Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Critical illness leads to millions of deaths each year. However, critical care faces challenges due to factors such as lack of prioritisation, co-ordination, timely identification and availability of basic life-saving treatments. At Apollo Hospitals, we have the vision, expertise and ability to transform critical care for India and beyond, through excellence in outcomes in an evidence based cost effective manner. The Apollo Centre of Excellence in Critical Care will be instrumental in turning this vision into reality. The ACECC goes beyond Apollo Hospitals through partnerships with non-Apollo units, both public and private, to add value and make it a win-win for patients, doctors, nursing homes and hospitals across India.” The ACECC will comprise digital technology enabled Critical Care Units (CCUs) having standard protocols and operating procedures (SOPs) supported by smart solutions. This will enable expansion of the critical care network through e-ICUs using Tele-health and Apollo Connect. The ACECC will also focus on evidence-based protocols, training, and capacity building of critical care specialists. Ms. Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The COVID pandemic highlighted the challenges faced by the country with regard to its critical care infrastructure. Studies have indicated that India has just 2.3 critical care beds per 100,000 populations as against 10 to 11 beds per 100,000 populations in developed countries like South Korea and Singapore. The pandemic brought to the fore the need for augmenting India’s critical treatment facilities and creating capability for high end critical care. The ACECC will be based on a network of hub-and-spokes units between Apollo and non-Apollo providers, both public and private, to ensure that every citizen has access to the best of critical care when needed.” Critical care is delivered by critical care specialists, who are also referred to as intensivists. An intensivist is specially trained to manage the broad range of conditions that are commonly found in critically ill patients. They also need to be aware of the various procedures and devices used in an intensive care setting, and the technology that powers it. They will also collaborate with other specialities that are relevant to individual cases. Ms. Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Critical care in the country today faces multiple challenges ranging from lack of trained staff and equipment and a lower priority given to emergency and critical care as compared to other specialities. The ACECC will enable quality critical care with a reduction in morbidity and mortality by encompassing the entire gamut of critical care backed by appropriate training of healthcare professionals. Integrated education and training through Medvarsity will ensure up-to-date clinical knowledge for the healthcare physicians and staff. International partnerships will create an environment for excellence in clinical standards, education, research and support.” Dr Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “There was tremendous pressure on critical care during COVID-19 surge, but resilience and undiluted commitment of the intensivists ensured delivery of care of the highest standards given the circumstances. Innovation, agility, adapting to rapidly changing situations and dedication were on display in the most difficult conditions. In the spirit of the transformation that has been seen across healthcare, we have redoubled efforts to create an exceptional experience in critical care for all stakeholders. ACECC will oversee an integrated critical care network, leveraging our collective strength across the group, and will ensure that we take the speciality to a different level not only in the country but also build a global model for the same.” Dr. K. Hari Prasad, President – Hospitals Division, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises said, “The country faces a resource mismatch with 80% of physicians working in urban areas and 70% of the population residing in remote locations. The ACECC will help in overcoming variability in expertise and critical care delivery and provide smart solutions to the national shortage of critical care experts.” Critically ill patients present with a different set of challenges from in-patients in other specialities. They require constant monitoring, care and support, which makes the role of critical care vital to the patient’s health. A patient in a critical care unit has an entire team of specialised physicians, nurses, and other medical staff to look after every need. Professor Ravi Mahajan, Director – Critical Care Integration and Transformation, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The launch of the Centre heralds furthering Apollo’s ambition to make high quality, affordable Critical Care expertise available even to the remotest parts of India. It will be a focal point for national networks and international collaborations achieving excellence through standard setting, developing protocols, quality improvement programmes, education and research”

15-day-old Baby Dianna from Mauritius successfully underwent a complex heart procedure at Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai. Baby Dianna was born on 28th July 2021 in Mauritius and was diagnosed with a severe congenital heart disease. The baby was born with cyanosis (bluish or greyish colour of the skin, nails, lips or around the eyes) and was diagnosed with valvular pulmonary atresia, a defect of the heart found at birth where the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the lungs doesn’t open at all. She was surviving on the patent ductus arteriosus and was managed in a NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit). With the help of the government, she was brought to Mumbai on 12th August 2021. Baby Dianna was stabilized and in less than 24 hours she was taken to the Cath lab for a cardiac procedure. Before starting the procedure, Baby Dianna developed a severe Cardiac arrest, which needed immediate shock treatment (4 to 6 shocks were delivered) along with multiple emergency cardiac medications. In the last 16 months, Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai has treated over 60 children from Mauritius. The lead doctor of this case, Dr Bhushan Chavan, Consultant, Interventional Paediatric Cardiology, Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai, explains, “As her condition deteriorated, she was referred for further clinical management to Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai, by the Mauritius government. The condition of the Baby Dianna was grim, with no response to these treatments, so temporary pacemaker was inserted as a last resort and we kept the heart beating, at the rate of 150/min. CPR was still continued and the procedure was abandoned.” Post the shock treatment, in the next couple of minutes, Baby Dianna regained her own rhythm and as a result, the pacemaker was removed. Baby Dianna was shifted to NICU for stabilization. In the next 10 days, the Baby had overcome all the neonatal problems (Acute kidney failure) and successfully extubated. She was also coming back to normal neurological functioning, assessed by a paediatric neurologist which was another miracle, despite having a long duration of CPR and cardiac arrest. Once Baby Dianna was stabilised, Dr Bhushan Chavan went ahead with the interventional procedure, and a Perforation and Balloon Pulmonary Valvotomy (widening of a narrowed pulmonary valve by using a balloon catheter inside the valve) was performed, to open up the defective pulmonary valve that had caused the cardiac arrest in the first place. Mr. Santosh Marathe, COO and Unit Head, Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai, said, “Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is the most common congenital disorder in newborns and affects around 8 in every 1000 babies. The successful treatment of baby Dianna is a proud moment for our institution. Our team of world class experts have made sure Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai, is recognised as one of the most advanced centres in Western India for paediatric cardiac care. The rising number of heart diseases in India has become a major concern now and with the growing pandemic there is even bigger threat to people who are at risk of cardiovascular diseases.” He further added, “Till date, Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai has treated over 350 paediatric children and is equipped with state of the art NICU and PICU facilities backed by good intensive care, paediatric cardiologists and paediatric heart surgery team”. The case highlights how complex a critical congenital heart problem can be, if not treated on time. The excellence and the dedication of the team of doctors at Apollo Hospitals gave a new lease of life for the baby and the entire family.

Apollo Hospitals announced the national launch of an AI (artificial intelligence) tool to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease. The Apollo AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk tool will help healthcare providers to predict the risk of cardiac disease in their patients and initiate intervention early enough to make a real difference. The cardiac risk scoring tool is remarkable for the speed in processing data and its accuracy at predicting the probability of a patient developing coronary disease. Using the tool, physicians will be enabled to deliver proactive, pre-emptive and preventive care for at-risk individuals, improving lives, while mitigating future pressure on healthcare systems. On the occasion, Apollo Hospitals also announced that it had found pride of place in the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 ranking released by Newsweek, the premier international news magazine and website. The ranking in partnership with global research firm Statista ranks the world’s best specialized hospitals and features the top 250 hospitals for Cardiology and Oncology and the top 150 for Paediatrics among ten specialities. The Apollo Heart Centre at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai makes it to the list of Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Cardiology with a global rank of 126 and ranks No. 1 among the five Indian hospitals in the list. Also, in the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Oncology, two hospitals from the Apollo Hospitals Group make it to the list with Apollo Cancer Centres at Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals, Chennai ranked at 228 and 239 respectively. The two hospitals are among just four Indian hospitals that are in list for Oncology. In the Paediatric speciality, Apollo Children’s Hospital, Chennai ranked at 103 globally and one among just five Indian hospitals that are part of the Best Specialized Hospitals 2022 – Paediatrics ranking. Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The nation’s economy is intricately linked to the health of the people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) leading to loss of productivity with consequent impact on national income. While estimates suggest that NCDs account for an economic burden in the range of 5% to 10% of GDP, it is the chronic nature of NCDs, and their projected increase in prevalence, that will result in a growing economic impact if not addressed in time. Among the rising burden of NCDs, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) figure at the top. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the Asia Pacific, and it’s a problem that will only intensify as our populations continue to age. It’s also a problem that healthcare providers struggle to diagnose early enough to make a real difference. “While some predictive tools do exist to help physicians understand the probability of their patients developing heart disease, most of these are based on Western data sets and don’t take regional risk variations into account. This impacts their accuracy when applied in an Indian context. The Apollo AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk tool will change that and put the knowledge and the means to predict and prevent heart disease in the physician’s hands. Available till now only to Apollo’s physicians, it is a proud moment for us to dedicate this AI tool to all physicians in the country.” Speaking on the Newsweek recognition, Dr. Prathap C Reddy added, “This global recognition is testament to the specialty healthcare of international standards provided at Apollo Hospitals with outcomes matching those of the world’s best hospitals. Apollo Hospitals, with some of the world’s finest and brightest medical experts, has been the pioneer in bringing ground-breaking healthcare technologies to India to deliver best in class clinical results.” The team at Apollo Hospitals collected more than ten years of data relating to 400,000 individuals across the country. Then, they used Microsoft Azure to turn that anonymized data into actionable insights that data scientists and clinicians could use to train machine learning models. The tool has been validated using data from the Maastricht Study, a long-term cohort health study in the Maastricht region and from the Heart and vascular Center at Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands. Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The AI tool to predict and prevent heart disease is the fruition of many years of research and development and stands testament to Apollo Hospitals’ technological prowess. Apollo’s AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score is specifically for use in the Indian population, so physicians can better predict the risk of cardiac disease in their patients. The tool is built on algorithms based on ten years of anonymized data relating to around 400,000 individuals across the country collected by the team at Apollo Hospitals. “The tool has also been validated internationally using federated learning through Microsoft Azure Platform. Doctors across the Apollo network have been leveraging this AI-powered tool for three years to predict risk of cardiovascular disease and drive preventive cardiac care across the country. With this launch of the AI tool to predict risk of heart disease, we will be able to help achieve the World Health Organization’s goal of reducing the risk of premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, including CVDs, by 25% by 2025.” The AI-powered tool delivers a more accurate CVD risk score using algorithms specifically for the Indian population and helps in developing standardised care regimens. Developed using a combination of applied AI and clinical expertise on a large sample of retrospective data on health checks and coronary events, the tool delivers a risk score that takes into account all contributing factors including lifestyle attributes such as diet, tobacco & smoking preferences and physical activity as well as psychological stress and anxiety as reflected via rate of respiration, and hypertension. The risk is categorized into High, Moderate and Minimal. The tool also gives insights on the risk contributors that can be modified to improve the score. This enables physicians to give a more holistic advice to their patients with specific insights for lifestyle modification.

A first-of-its-kind Post-Graduate medical simulation centre at Apollo Specialty Hospital, Vanagaram was inaugurated by Thiru. MA Subramanian, Minister for Health and Family and Welfare, Tamil Nadu, in the presence of Thiru. A. Krishnasami, MLA-Poonamallee, Thiru. K. Ganapathi, MLA-Madhuravoyal, Dr. Sudha Seshayyan, Vice Chancellor, The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University and Ms Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group. Apollo Simulation Centre (ASC) is the first-of-its-kind post graduate simulation centre set up in India. This advanced simulation Centre has been equipped with state-of-art, hi-tech, hi-fidelity computerized Simulators that will provide hands-on training for post-graduate medical students as well as assist practicing doctors to refine their procedural skills. This is an absolute necessity during this pandemic, as it allows students to gain procedural skills and handle critical emergencies in safe and controlled environment. Read more about Apollo Simulation Centre

A 28-year-old post-graduate medical student successfully underwent Robotic Colorectal Surgery at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai for her low rectal cancer and also succeeded in completing her studies as well as winning a gold medal. Dr. Venkatesh Munikrishnan, Consultant Colorectal & Robotic Surgeon at Apollo Institute of Colorectal Surgery, Chennai said, “The patient was diagnosed with very low rectal cancer in 2017 when she was 24 years of age, just as she was about to join her medical post-graduation. It was a shock to her as she expected that even with treatment, her medical dreams would come to an abrupt halt. This is because conventional surgery for colorectal cancer leaves patients with a colostomy, i.e., a surgically created opening in the body that routes bowel waste away into an external colostomy bag. It was then that she approached us with the hope that we could offer her a solution that would let her continue her studies and live a normal life. We did not let her down!” Read more about Robotic Colorectal Surgery performed at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai

Apollo Cancer Centres will be conducting India’s first virtual Duathlon. Apollo D2D Duathlon 2021, aiming to create awareness, support and raise funds for the treatment of childhood cancers. In addition to raising awareness around Paediatric Cancer, Apollo’s Dawn to Dusk(D2D) Duathlon also promotes the need for a healthy lifestyle to ensure a future with less cancer risk. All support raised through Apollo D2D Duathlon 2021 will give young cancer patients, identified by Apollo’s team of Oncologists, a chance to live and be the future we can all proudly look forward to. To participate in the Apollo D2D Duathlon 2021, participants have to register on the website https://www.apollod2d.com/. The participants can register and complete the race on their own within 15th October to 15th November 2021. Registrations are open till 14th Oct 2021. The participants can run, walk, or cycle to cover the distance of 3KM – 125 KM at their own pace and location of their choice. People can choose to cycle or run or both. The participants can use simple watch / stopwatch to note their time or can go for GPS watches, smart-watches, or activity tracking apps on smartphone. There is no timing partner or timing chip provided for this virtual format of the event. Participants need to refrain from group runs or cycling. It is advisable to run or cycle following social distancing in the vicinity of your neighbourhood, with strict adherence to local regulations. On completion, the participants will receive an e-certificate with timing, e-badge, finisher medal, finisher t-shirt, and a voucher by Apollo for a discounted health check. Read more about India’s first virtual Duathlon organised by Apollo Cancer Centres

Apollomedics Super Specialty Hospital, Lucknow has performed its second Living Donor Transplant surgery. A 45-year-old patient underwent a successful liver transplant at Apollomedics Super Specialty Hospital, Lucknow. Dr Mayank Somani, CEO and MD at Apollomedics, said, “We are extremely happy that our hospital has successfully completed a second living donor liver transplant. I would like to congratulate Dr. Ashish Kumar Mishra, Dr. Suhang Verma, Dr. Waliullah, Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, and their team on achieving this feat. Now, people from nearby districts can get all their treatments done under one roof via our modern technology. Apollomedics Super Specialty Hospital is providing health benefits to the patients by strictly following the COVID protocol.” Dr. Ashish Mishra, consultant, Liver Transplant and HPB surgery at Apollomedics Super Specialty Hospital, said that the patient was brought to the hospital in a very serious condition and was unconscious. The patient’s liver was in such bad shape that it was affecting his brain, lungs and kidney. The transplant took about 16 to 17 hours. After the transplant, both the patient and the donor, who was his son, are kept under observation. Dr. Mishra said, “The patient, Mr. Vikat Singh, had visited many hospitals before coming to Apollo Hospital. There was significant swelling in the patient’s leg, for which he had gotten treatment from many doctors. In the course of his treatment, he was told by one of the doctors that his liver was in a bad condition. When the patient came to us, he was in a state of unconsciousness. We call this condition encephalopathy. The patient’s brain was getting affected due to his liver failure, his kidney was deteriorating and the lungs were also affected. He had jaundice and his condition was very serious. 60 to 65% of the donor’s liver lobe was taken. The patient’s transplant lasted 16 to 17 hours while the donor’s surgery lasted 6 to 7 hours.” Dr. Mishra also said that due to increased alcohol consumption, bad eating habits, diabetes, and obesity, liver disorders are on a rise. Every year around 40 to 50 thousand people require liver transplant, but due to the unavailability of a healthy liver, or cadaver, only 10% of those patients get an organ for transplant. Dr. Suhang said, “Liver transplant is done by two techniques. The first technique is cadaver donor transplantation, in which organs are donated by a dying person. Second is Living Donor Transplant where 60 to 65 percent of the liver of a relative of the patient is taken and transplanted by removing the old liver of the patient. In this situation, 35 to 40 percent of the liver left with the donor regrows fully within 4 to 6 weeks and the patient also grows a complete liver in the same period.” He said that liver transplant is a safe procedure, it can save lives. There are no medicines to repair a damaged liver, therefore the only way to treat one is through a transplant. Dr. Waliullah said, “Liver cirrhosis is the biggest reason for a transplant. Liver cirrhosis can be due to many reasons, which mainly include dietary negligence or some serious disease. It is also the cause of 90 to 95 percent of liver cancers. There are many misconceptions in society about organ donation. Donating a liver is not harmful at all for living donors, as it re-grows to its original size within 4 to 6 weeks.”

On August 11th, 2021, a 27-year-old pregnant patient was brought to the Community Health Centre (CHC) Kaza. She was diagnosed with Abruptio Placentae. A caesarean section had to be performed on the very same day for delivering the baby. The patient encountered persistent vaginal bleeding, a post-surgical complication that needed specialist consultation for clinical management. Apollo TeleHealth has been delivering technology-enabled specialist healthcare services to the rural communities in and around Kaza, for over six years. Read more about how Tele-Emergency Services provided by Apollo TeleHealth saved lives

Apollo Hospitals Bangalore has announced the successful completion of 100 robotics cardiac surgeries at its dedicated Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery Unit; a milestone in the history of cardiovascular surgery in the country. The hospital also announced that the team had performed a Complex Mitral Valve surgery using robotic-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery with the da Vinci robotic system in under 70 minutes, a landmark achievement in interventional cardiology. Dr. Sathyaki Nambala, Sr. Consultant, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon and HoD, Robotic Cardiac Surgery Unit said, “Cardiovascular diseases tend to affect patients in the most productive years of their lives result in catastrophic social and economic consequences. The establishment of a Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery program requires a tremendous amount of dedication and preparation, and we are proud to be India’s first hospital to complete 100 robotic cardiac surgeries since the program’s inception in late 2019. In comparison to traditional open-heart surgery, which involves opening up the chest by splitting the breastbone, the da Vinci Xi’s innovative technology allows for complex cardiovascular surgeries to be performed through smaller incisions and precise motion control. “In addition, a high-definition camera provides a clear, 3D view of the chest to the surgeon on a console screen. With the help of the system, we were also successful in conducting the fastest Robotic Complex Mitral Valve repair in under 70 minutes as opposed to the global benchmarks. We hope to achieve more such milestones in the near future.” Robotic cardiac surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that helps patients return to their everyday life much faster than open-heart surgeries. Surgeons use the da Vinci Surgical System to operate through 8 mm holes called ports and a magnified 3D high-definition vision as well as tiny wristed instruments that bend and rotate much more than the human hand aid in surgery. As a result, surgeons have better vision, precision, and control. Other benefits include decreased pain, fewer post-operative wound infections, less post-operative scarring, and improved breathing. Recovery is rapid, with lesser hospitalisation, faster mobilisation and rehabilitation. Reducing the chance of infection makes it an ideal procedure for people with diabetes and older patients. Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Group of Hospitals said, ” Our goal has always been to bring the most cutting-edge medical technology to India for the benefit of our patients. We want more patients to benefit from the most advanced surgical and medical care available at our hospital. The da Vinci Surgical System has assisted us in providing the best possible surgical outcomes, and the completion of more than 100 successful robotic cardiac surgeries attests to our commitment to providing the most recent and highest quality of care. The patient is at the heart of all our efforts at Apollo Hospitals to provide accessible and affordable world-class treatment, and the addition of the da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system is a step toward that goal. We are confident that by achieving the two milestones of 100 surgeries and performing the robotic complex mitral valve repair in under 70 minutes, we will change the lives of many more patients who cannot undergo conventional cardiac surgery.” Commenting on this, Mr. Mandeep Singh Kumar, VP and General Manager, Intuitive India, said, “It gives us great pleasure to be part of this exemplary milestone of 100 successful robotic-assisted cardiac surgeries. At Intuitive, we believe technology should enhance a surgeon’s ability to perform complex procedures with ease and help improve clinical outcomes. Surgeons today are increasingly vouching for robotic-assisted surgery and the da Vinci system for its potential to enhance precision, improve visualisation, flexibility, and its potential to improve clinical outcomes. The dedicated Robotic Cardiac Unit at Apollo (Bengaluru) is one amongst the very few such centres globally that provide robotic cardiac surgery as a treatment option. That coupled with Dr. Sathyaki’s expertise in minimally invasive cardiac surgery is a true testament to the world-class standards set by the organisation and its care teams. It also speaks highly of Apollo’s ongoing commitment to leveraging the power of technology towards providing quality care. We are proud of our association with the Apollo Group of Hospitals towards making robotic-assisted surgery accessible to the greater patient community.” Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have overtaken cancer as the leading cause of death in India. This epidemiological shift is primarily due to an increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and cardiovascular risk factors in India. According to studies, the estimated prevalence of CVDs in India in 2016 was approximately 54.5 million, with 1 in 4 deaths in India being caused by CVDs, with ischemic heart disease and stroke accounting for more than 80% of this burden. According to a study published in The Lancet Global Health, Indians now have one of the highest rates of mortality after a heart failure diagnosis, higher than people in several developing countries around the world. According to the study, heart failure patients in India had one of the highest mortality rates after one year of diagnosis, at 23%. This was higher than the mortality rates in Southeast Asia (15%), China (7%), South America (9%), and West Asia (3%). (9 percent). The study also found that heart failure patients in India, Africa, and Southeast Asia were about ten years younger than patients in developed countries like the United States and Europe. The Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery Unit at Apollo provides patients with complex cardiac disease with access to the best cardiac care available. Dr. Sathyaki P Nambala, Senior Consultant, Cardio-thoracic and Vascular Surgeon and Head of the Department, Robotic Cardiac Surgery Unit, leads the Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery Unit, which is equipped with the advanced fourth-generation versatile ‘da Vinci Xi’ robotic surgical system and a dedicated team.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals successfully performed liver transplant procedures for 11 children from Philippines who were suffering from chronic liver diseases. These children were between the age of 12 months – 15 years, in grave health conditions and needed immediate organ transplants along with specialised medical treatment, as any further delay could have been fatal. A team from Apollo assisted the families in acquiring permissions for travel while ensuring safety and brought the children to Delhi in specialised chartered flights and got them transferred back to their country post recovery. After compulsory quarantine the children underwent successful lifesaving liver transplant procedures at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. With post-operative observation and care these children have returned to their country on 23rd August. Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals, said, “At Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals we have been regularly receiving patients from Philippines and South Asia in the pre-COVID times, but ever since countries imposed restrictions on travel and movement due to the pandemic, a lot of patients have been deprived of life saving treatments. We were fortunate to have immense support from the Embassies of both the countries who helped ease the process. The first group of patients arrived on 15th August last year. While the last of the group had their transplant several months ago, the families could not travel as there were no flights. “ Dr. Neerav Goyal, Senior Liver Transplant Surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said, “In liver transplant, surgery is performed when patients have a high risk of dying from their disease in the ensuing weeks to month. Since COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon, many of these patients were unlikely to survive the period of pandemic without a liver transplant and the patients, despite several challenges, travelled to us. The youngest baby was 12 months and 8 were less than 18 months of age. In 7 cases, and the mothers were the donors.”

Apollo Hospitals has launched an Institute of Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction at Chennai which is a comprehensive specialty centre for hernia care. The Institute of Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction at Chennai was inaugurated by Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Thiru. MA. Subramaniam. Speaking about the advancement in Hernia treatment, Dr. Premkumar Balachandran, Senior Consultant Minimal Access, Bariatric and Robotic Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, said, “The management of hernia has now undergone a paradigm shift. The advent of minimal access or laparoscopic surgery has been a boon to both the surgeon and the patient. The nomenclature of ventral hernia management is now referred to as “abdominal wall reconstruction”. Complex reconstructions, abdominal wall component separation surgeries, regular groin and ventral hernia can now be treated with minimal morbidity by the laparoscopic and robotic techniques.” Read more about the Institute of Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction at Chennai