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Global leadership in paediatric and congenital cardiac care: education and empowerment to improve outcomes in low- and middle-income countries – an interview with Krishna Kumar, MD, DM FAHA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2023

Mayme E. Marshall Open the ORCID record for Mayme E. Marshall [Opens in a new window] ,
Jeffrey P. Jacobs Open the ORCID record for Jeffrey P. Jacobs [Opens in a new window]  and
Justin T. Tretter Open the ORCID record for Justin T. Tretter [Opens in a new window]
Mayme E. Marshall*
Affiliation:
Children’s Institute Department of Heart, Vascular & Thoracic, Division of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Children’s, Cleveland, OH, USA
Jeffrey P. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics, Congenital Heart Center, UF Health Shands Hospital, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Justin T. Tretter
Affiliation:
Children’s Institute Department of Heart, Vascular & Thoracic, Division of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Children’s, Cleveland, OH, USA Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic Children’s, and The Heart, Vascular, and Thoracic Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
*
Corresponding author: Mayme E. Marshall; Email: marsham12@ccf.org
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Abstract

Dr Krishna Kumar is the focus of our sixth in a series of interviews in Cardiology in the Young entitled, “Global Leadership in Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Care.” Dr Kumar was born in Raurkela, India. He attended medical school at Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, graduating in 1984. Dr Kumar then went on to complete internal medicine, emergency medicine, and adult cardiology training at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1988, 1989, and 1990, respectively. He then pursued paediatric cardiology training at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA. Dr Kumar began his clinical position as a paediatric cardiologist at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, Kerala, India.

During his impressive career, Dr Kumar has made significant contributions to educational advancement, research and innovation, public health advocacy, and clinical care. Dr Kumar is credited for distinguishing paediatric cardiology as a distinct subspecialty in India. He was a founding member of the Pediatric Cardiology Society of India and the original editor of the society’s academic journal. Recognising the deficit of paediatric cardiology-trained physicians in low- and middle-income countries, Dr Kumar helped establish formal structured training programmes for paediatric cardiology in India. More recently, he established the Children’s HeartLink Fellowships in paediatric cardiac sciences at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi and Institut Jantung Negara in Malaysia. Through educational programmes, Dr Kumar has taught countless caregivers and paediatricians, in India and neighbouring countries, the early identification and management of children with CHD. Dr Kumar has established a premier paediatric heart programme at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. As department Chief, he emphasises the importance of teamwork, advocacy, and continuous quality improvement. He has developed numerous low-cost strategies for the management of CHD. He has established large community-based studies on rheumatic heart disease and CHD in South India. Dr Kumar’s focus on advocacy and policy change in India has made a substantial impact on early identification and treatment of CHD in the subcontinent. He has made a global impact on the care of paediatric cardiology patients through his educational programmes, research and innovation, large-scale research registries, and advocacy for public health policy changes. He is an incredibly humble and generous leader, and his patients and community are the source of his unending motivation.

Keywords

Adult CHDGlobal healthGlobal leadershipMedical educationMentorship
Type
Interview
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 33 , Issue 7 , July 2023 , pp. 1071 - 1078
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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