hepatologist
Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates the study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree, and pancreas as well as management of their disorders. Although traditionally considered a sub-specialty of gastroenterology, rapid expansion ...
, medical researcher and academic, and the Chairman and Senior Consultant of Gastroenterology, at Metro Hospitals and Heart Institute,
Noida
Noida, short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, is a planned city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a satellite city of Delhi and is a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) o ...
. He is a former Professor and Head of Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition Unit at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi (AIIMS) and a former Director and Senior Consultant of Hepatology and Gastroenterology at Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute for Liver, Renal and Digestive Diseases, New Delhi. He is a recipient of several awards including Sasakawa WHO Health Prize and Jubilee Medal of the
RAMS
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Padma Bhushan, in 1986, for his contributions to medicine.
Biography
Badri Nath Tandon, born on 1 August 1931 in a Khatri family, graduated in medicine (MBBS) from
King George Medical College
King George's Medical University is a medical school, hospital, and medical university located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The medical school was raised to a medical university by an act passed by the government of Uttar Pradesh on 16 S ...
, Lucknow and secured his post-graduate degree (MD) from the same institution. Subsequently, he joined Harvard Medical School, Boston for advanced training in gastroenterology followed by training in Nutrition Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He started his career at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1962 as a member of faculty where he stayed till 1991. It was during this period he founded the Department of Gastroenterology at AIIMS, serving the department as its head and as a Professor at the Human Nutrition Unit till his superannuation from AIIMS service on 31 August 1991. In 1993, he shifted to Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute for Liver, Renal and Digestive Diseases, New Delhi as its director and senior consultant and served the institution till 2000 when he moved to Metro Group of Hospitals, Noida as its chairman, a post he holds till date.
Tandon was associated with several medical and socio-medical initiatives. When the Integrated Child Development Services (Anganwadi) scheme was introduced in India, with assistance from UNICEF, in 1975, he chaired the technical committee of the program from inception till 1995. He served as the chairman of the ''Task Force of Liver Diseases'' initiated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and is the incumbent chair of the ''Digestive Diseases Foundation of India'' and the ''Digestive Diseases Research Foundation''. He has been the president of such societies as International Association of Liver Diseases, Asian Pacific Association for the Study of Liver, Indian Society of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Society of India (1995–99) and the vice-president of the
World Gastroenterology Organisation
The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) is an international federation of over 100 national GI societies and 4 regional associations of gastroenterology representing over 50,000 individual members.
WGO is focused on "the improvement of stan ...
.
Tandon is known to have conducted pioneering research on bowel diseases, effects of malnutrition on intestine, pancreas and liver and the role of pathogens and food toxins in various diseases. His work on veno-occlusive disease of the liver helped in the discovery that pyrrolizidine alkaloids present in the Jhunjhunia seeds could cause the disease. He is also credited with the isolation of
Hepatitis E virus
The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the causative agent of hepatitis E. It is of the species ''Orthohepevirus A.''
Globally, approximately 939 million corresponding to 1 in 8 individuals have ever experienced HEV infection. About 15–110 million ind ...
and the introduction of a new therapeutic protocol of the Hepatitis E as well as
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
using herbal plants. His researches have been documented in over 225 medical papers and four monographs. He has also published two text books, ''Textbook Of Tropical Gastroenterology'', and ''Tropical Hepato-Gastroenterology'', and has contributed 13 chapters to text books written by others. Besides being the founder editor of ''Tropical Gastroenterology'' journal, he also sits in the editorial boards of several national and international journals; National Medical Journal, Ceylon Medical Journal, Asian Pacific Journal of Gastroentrology and Hepatology, Hepatology Communication, European Journal of Hepatology,
Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology
''Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology'' is a peer reviewed medical journal covering gastroenterology and hepatology, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. It was established in 1979 and the current editor-in-chief is Ronnie Fass, MD (Case We ...
and Gastroenterology International counting among them.
Awards and honors
Tandon is a Fellow of the
National Academy of Medical Sciences
National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), better known by its acronym, NAMS, is a nodal agency under the Government of India, which acts as an advisory body to the Government in matters related to National Health Policy and Planning and as a ...
, elected to the position in 1974. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicines and the Indian Public Health Association. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan in 1986. He received the Sasakawa WHO Health Prize of the World Health Organization in 1990 and the Jubilee Medal of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in 1995. He has delivered several award orations such as ''Dr. R.V. Rajam Oration'' (1983–84) of the
National Academy of Medical Sciences
National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), better known by its acronym, NAMS, is a nodal agency under the Government of India, which acts as an advisory body to the Government in matters related to National Health Policy and Planning and as a ...
, and is also a recipient of Kent Memorial Award of the National Homoeopathic Association (1998), Lifetime Achievement Award of the New Delhi chapter of the Indian Medical Association (2004) and the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award of Indian society of Gastroenterology (2007).
See also
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List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
This list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni includes students who studied as undergraduates or graduate students at MIT's School of Engineering; School of Science; MIT Sloan School of Management; School of Humanities, Arts, ...