Leading Nephrologist from Visakhapatnam and former vice-chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences Tatapudi Ravi Raju has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by the Indian Society for Nephrology.
The award was given to him at the annual conference of ISN, held in Chennai on Friday.
The award was bestowed upon him for his contribution to the field of medical health care, medical education and administration.
Apart from serving as the V-C of NTRUHS, he served as the member of governing body of the National Board of Examinations and had played a key role in introducing the online examinations for NEET and other super-speciality courses.
He also was instrumental in streamlining the curriculum and examinations for DNB courses in the country.
He is also the recipient of ‘Sardar Vallabhai Patel Award’ for service to the nation, given by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2021.
Dr. Ravi Raju started his career as a nephrologist after completing his DM from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh in 1985. Subsequently, he worked in Andhra Pradesh Medical Education Services in various capacitiesas Assistant Professor, Professor, Additional Director of Medical Education (Superintendent and Principal of Medical College) and Director of Medical Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He also served as the president of Indian Society of Nephrology.
He was actively associated with the epidemiological study on the prevalence of kidney diseases in north coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, conducted jointly in collaboration with Harvard University, USA. His study drew the attention of the international community of nephrologists and it was christened as “Uddanam Nephropathy” in the World Congress of Nephrology-2013 in Hong Kong.
His research work at Weil Cornell Medical College, New York, led to the identification of one of the signature genes, IP10, for diagnosis of rejection after organ transplantation. His pioneering work on diagnosis of organ rejection has paved the way for publication of major breakthrough research work in New England Journal of Medicine.
He is currently working on establishing prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease and CKDu (Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology) in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
