The Father of Cardiology at AIIMS: The Story of Dr. Sujoy Bhushan Roy

Born in Myanmar (then Burma), Sujoy Bhushan Roy graduated in medicine from Rangoon University Medical School. He pursued postgraduate training in Edinburgh and then in the United States, working at Brigham and Boston City Hospitals under distinguished cardiologists such as Benedict Massell and Walter Abelmann. He later joined the faculty at Harvard University.

In 1958, when Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, India’s Health Minister, invited him to help build the newly established All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, he left his promising American career and returned home. He became the founding Head of the Department of Cardiology at AIIMS—the first such dedicated department in the country.

Under his leadership the department grew into a modern centre of clinical care, teaching and research. In 1962 he performed India’s first cardiac catheterisation. He conducted extensive studies on rheumatic heart disease, coining the term “Juvenile Rheumatic Stenosis” (or Juvenile Mitral Stenosis) to describe the severe form of the condition seen in young Indian patients. His research also covered coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies, congenital heart defects and high-altitude cardiorespiratory problems—work that proved valuable for troops stationed in the Himalayas. He published more than 150 papers in international journals and served on the World Health Organization’s Cardiovascular Expert Committee.

A compassionate clinician and gifted teacher, he trained many of the next generation of Indian cardiologists. In 1972 he served as President of the Cardiological Society of India. The same year the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan. He also received the Basanti Devi Amir Chand Prize of the ICMR and the FICCI Award.

Dr. Sujoy Bhushan Roy passed away on 25 March 1976 in New Delhi after a brief illness. Those who worked with him remember a dedicated physician who sacrificed international opportunities to lay the foundations of modern cardiology in India. The Department of Cardiology at AIIMS, which he built from scratch, stands as his enduring legacy—a centre that continues to train specialists and care for patients across the nation.