Dr. Raman Viswanathan
(Padma Bhushan, 1974 – Medicine)

In the early years after Independence, when India was still building specialised medical institutions, one physician from the southern tip of the country quietly laid the foundations of modern chest medicine. Dr. Raman Viswanathan was born on 8 September 1899 in Nagercoil, then part of Travancore. After graduating in English literature and science, he studied medicine at Madras Medical College, taking his MBBS in 1926 and MD in General Medicine in 1931. He earned the MRCP (London) in 1932 and later a Diploma in Tuberculosis Diseases from Wales in 1938. In time he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and of the American College of Chest Physicians.

He taught and practised at Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, rising to Professor of Clinical Medicine. During the Second World War he served as a Colonel in the Indian Medical Service, commanding a medical division. After the war he became Adviser in Tuberculosis and later Deputy Director-General of Health Services to the Government of India. Yet his deepest impact came through institution-building and teaching.

In 1953 he founded the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute in Delhi and served as its first Director. Under his leadership the institute grew into a premier centre for postgraduate training and research in respiratory diseases. He also headed the Department of Medicine (Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases) and served for many years as Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Delhi. Students and colleagues remembered a teacher who insisted that clinical observation, laboratory work and compassion must go together.

One young postgraduate, overwhelmed by a complex case of tropical pulmonary eosinophilia, once confessed his uncertainty.
Viswanathan listened carefully and then said, “The chest speaks in many languages—tuberculosis, allergy, infection, even the high altitudes. Learn to listen to every patient as if he is your first and your last. The diagnosis will follow.”

He published more than a hundred scientific papers and several books, including works on pulmonary tuberculosis and diseases of the chest. His research on tropical eosinophilia and other chest conditions advanced knowledge both in India and abroad. He was closely associated with the Tuberculosis Association of India and helped establish professional bodies for chest physicians. International recognition came through the Forlanini Medal of the Italian Tuberculosis Association and the Eugeno Morelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences of Italy. The Indian National Science Academy awarded him the Dhanwantari Prize. In 1974 the Government of India conferred the Padma Bhushan.

Even after formal retirement he continued as Professor Emeritus, remaining active until his death on 14 July 1982. Today the main hospital complex of the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute bears his name, and he is widely remembered as the Father of Chest Medicine in India—a physician who turned a scattered field into a disciplined specialty and trained generations to care for the lungs of a nation.