The prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (2021), awarded to scientists annually for outstanding research work, applied or fundamental, has been won by Jeemon Panniyammakal, of Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies (AMCHSS), Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), in the discipline of medical sciences.
The award, instituted by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, in the name of its late founder-director Dr (Sir) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, carries a cash award of ₹five lakh.
Dr. Jeemon, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at AMCHSS, won the award for his outstanding contributions to research in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in India, an area he was working on for the past two years.
Dr. Jeemon had recently published a landmark study on how low-cost interventions involving entire families can help patients in adhering to lifestyle changes and drug regimen and effectively reducing their cardiovascular risk, irrespective of their age, sex, and level of baseline risk.
The PROgramme of Lifestyle Intervention in Families for Cardiovascular risk reduction (PROLIFIC) study, published in the journal Lancet Global Health, had demonstrated that regular screenings for cardiovascular risk factors, structured lifestyle interventions, and active follow-up of patients at the primary care level, had the potential to prevent at least 20% of cardiovascular events in the country.
