He’s known as the King of Hearts, Mother Theresa’s cardiologist, the founder of one of the word’s largest hospitals, and a champion of health care for the poor, young, and most vulnerable.
Devi Shetty has no intention of slowing down. This spring, the world-renowned cardiac surgeon traveled to the Twin Cities to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Minnesota. The Indian physician and U health care experts have forged close ties over the years in a common pursuit to improve health care access worldwide.
As founder and chair of Narayana Hrudayalaya, a 1,500-bed hospital near Bangalore, India, Shetty oversees an average of 40 adult heart surgeries a day and 16 pediatric heart surgeries. The “health city” operates on economies of scale that afford care to those who would otherwise go without. Beyond hospital walls, this access is expanded through a government-sponsored micro-insurance program that Shetty pioneered. Now hundreds of thousands of Indians have health care by paying a monthly fee of about 20 cents.
Read more in Advances Magazine.
