S. I. Padmavati Biography 
Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavati, best known as S. Padmavati or S. I. Padmavati is a physician and leading cardiologist. She is the first woman cardiologist in India. She currently serves as the director of the National Heart Institute, Delhi and she is the founder president of the All India Heart Foundation too. For her overall contributions towards the field of medicine, government of India honored her with Padma Vibhushan in 1992. She is now 101. She has remained in news for being active in the medical field and profession even after crossing 90+.
Padmavati was born in Burma in 1917. Her father practised as barrister. She has 5 siblings. She received a MBBS degree from Rangoon Medical College, Rangoon in the 1940s. She then moved to London in 1949 for advanced studies in medicine. She took FRCP from Royal College of Physicians, London followed by FRCPE from Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and later worked in a few hospitals there. During this time, she got interested in cardiology and moved to Sweden where she took cardiology courses at the Southern Hospital. She continued her studies in Cardiology. She studied under noted cardiologist Dr. Helen Taussig with the help of a fellowship given by Johns Hopkins Hospital, and it was followed by her advanced studies at Harvard Medical School.
After studies she returned to India in 1953 and started practising soon. She started as a lecturer at Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi and opened a cardiology clinic, thus adding her name to the history books of Indian medicine. After that she practised as a cardiologist in many leading hospitals across India. In 1981 she retired from government service and then started National Heart Institute (NHI) under AIHF, in South Delhi.
Published: September 08, 2018
Updated: September 08, 2018
