India’s largest trans-catheter valve replacement (TAVR)conference, India Valves 2019 was conducted at ITC Grand Chola between 6th and 8th of September 2019, Chennai where more than 800 senior heart specialists and surgeons across the country gathered together to share their knowledge and be updated on the latest heart valve treatments without surgery.
With Chennai being the origin of TAVR and valve surgeries, it was chosen as the destination for hosting the third edition of the conference. The conference organiser and course director Dr. A. B. Gopalamurugan, Chief Consultant, Interventional Cardiologist and Chief of Trans Catheter Valve Therapies Kauvery Hospital, Chennai said, “It is an honour to host India Valves 2019 at Chennai. It is delightful to see so many heart specialists gather together to stay updated on the latest technology of heart valve surgeries. This is a collective effort of a large team of heart specialists across various parts of the country. Through this conference we hope awareness on heart valve replacement without open surgery will spread widely among patients and clinicians to help us serve our patients towards better quality of life after their Heart Valve Replacement Treatment.”
At the conference, statistics and evidences on how Chennai and Tamil Nadu have emerged as the birth places for TAVR and many valve replacements without open heart surgery in our country were presented. Along with Dr. A. B. Gopalamurugan, the other senior heart specialists who organised the conference included Dr. G. Sengottuvelu, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospital, Chennai, Dr. Praveen Chandra, Senior Interventional Cardiologist and Chairman for Cardiology at Medanta Medicity, Delhi, Dr. Ashok Seth, Chairman for Cardiology at Fortis Escorts Hospital, New Delhi and Dr. Ravinder Singh Rao, Senior Interventional Cardiologist at Eternal Heart Centre, Jaipur.
During the conference, 2 live surgeries were performed at Chennai, Kauvery Hospital and various other hospitals were live-streamed, which enabled many heart specialists to learn and keep themselves abreast on the latest medical techniques. Among the six surgeries, two surgeries were performed by Dr. A. B. Gopalamurugan, a national expert in heart valve treatments wherein he performed India’s first heart valve treatments, from state-of-the-art facilities at Kauvery Hospital.
At the conference, Kauvery Hospital was acknowledged as the only hospital in the entire state of Tamil Nadu to be equipped with a hybrid operating room. This hybrid operating room is an exclusive facility where cutting edge treatment for heart related treatments without open heart surgery can be provided thereby delivering the best outcome for patients.
Dr. C. Vijaya Baskar, Health Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu said, “It is a great opportunity for Tamil Nadu to host such a national conference on very highly specialised heart treatments. We are very fortunate to have people like Dr. A.B. Gopalamurugan who is an international and national leader in heart treatments and who has contributed significantly to heart treatments in this country. We are also proud to announce that we have partnered with Kauvery Hospital and Dr. A.B. Gopalamurugan and have recently become the first State Government in the entire country to offer TAVR treatment free of cost at Tamil Nadu Government Omandurar Multi Super Speciality Hospital.”
At the inauguration, Dr. S Manivannan, Managing Director, Kauvery Hospitals and Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj, Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital, spoke on how they have put in a lot of resources towards advancing heart care treatments in the country and towards Chennai and Tamil Nadu becoming the hub for the latest and cutting edge heart treatments in the country. They were also pleased to announce that it has now become a reality that Kauvery Hospital Chennai has the most advanced heart treatment facility, namely hybrid operating room which is not available anywhere in India. As a result, Kauvery Hospital has been officially labelled as a centre of excellence for advanced heart treatments and a training centre for many cardiologists.
