In the corridors of AIIMS and the lecture halls of global health forums, Professor K. Srinath Reddy (Kolli Srinath Reddy) emerged as a cardiologist who chose to heal not just individual hearts but entire populations. He earned his medical degree from Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, then completed his MD in Medicine and DM in Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Seeking a broader lens, he obtained an MSc in Epidemiology from McMaster University in Canada.

For years he headed the Department of Cardiology at AIIMS, treating patients and training young doctors with the same quiet intensity. Yet he saw that many of the heart attacks and strokes he faced were preventable. “A nation cannot be healthy if we only treat disease after it strikes,” he would tell colleagues. “We must change the conditions that create illness.” That conviction led him into public health research. He contributed to landmark international studies such as INTERSALT and INTERHEART, which mapped risk factors for cardiovascular disease across continents, and worked on community programmes to control rheumatic heart disease in India.

In 2006 he became the Founder President of the Public Health Foundation of India. Under his leadership PHFI established five Indian Institutes of Public Health, creating a new generation of professionals trained in multidisciplinary approaches to health systems, research and policy. He chaired the Planning Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage, served as President of the World Heart Federation (2013–15), and became the first Indian elected to the US National Academy of Medicine. He has held visiting and adjunct professorships at Harvard, Emory, Sydney and other universities, and continues to advise governments and international bodies.

His advocacy for tobacco control earned him the WHO Director-General’s Award and the Luther Terry Medal. In 2005 President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam conferred on him the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to public health. Author of hundreds of scientific papers and books such as Make Health in India, he remains a thoughtful voice linking clinical medicine, epidemiology and social policy.

From the cardiology wards of AIIMS to the global stage of preventive health, K. Srinath Reddy’s career is a story of a doctor who widened his circle of care until it embraced a billion lives and beyond.