Dr Vijayaraghavan, Padmasree awardee from The President of India, is the Vice Chairman & Founder Director of the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences and the President of the Society for Continuing Medical Education and Research, Trivandrum, Kerala. He is one of the senior most medical teachers of this country and is widely known in India for establishing the first 2dimensional echocardiography laboratory in India way back in 1980.
Dr Vijayaraghavan was born on 18th September 1942, at Perumpuzha, Kerala, as the son of the famous Sanskrit scholar Sahithya Siromany Sri M.K. Govindan. During his schooling at Trivandrum Model School, he became one of the first Bharat Scouts of this country and was congratulated by Prime Minister Sri Jawaharlal Nehru at New Delhi. He graduated from Trivandrum Medical College in 1964 and passed MD in General Medicine in 1969. From Christian Medical College" Vellore he got Doctorate in Cardiology {D.M (Card)) in 1973, He continued his services there as associate professor to pursue his research activities. From 1976, back in Trivandrum Medical College in collaboration with Post-graduate Medical School and Brompton Hospital, London he did pioneering work on heart muscle disease peculiar to Kerala [Endomyocardial Fibrosis]. His research publications in this field in internationally reputed journals have been path breaking. His research on Cerebra Odollum poisoning (a suicidal plant poison used by poor people of S.lndia) during the 1970's, introduced innovative treatment modalities, which still saves numerous suicide victims. In 1983 he was invited to work at the University of California, Los Angeles, and became one of the pioneer research workers in Doppler echocardiography and co-authored the first book on this subject from USA (1985).
Dr Vijayaraghavan is well known as a master teacher in cardiology in India & abroad. It was his painstaking effort in the 1980's in conducting continuing medical education programme all over India that established 2-D echocardiography as the most popular cardiology investigation in this country. As Professor and Head of cardiology Dr Vijayaraghavan established one of the most modern cardiology departments in this country at the Trivandrum Medical College. With help from the World Health Organization & Government of India he demonstrated that heart attacks and its risk factors are very highly prevalent among the poor people of Kerala.
Dr Vijayaraghavan is the author of many books and contributes chapters to cardiology text books. He is a member of the editorial board of the Indian Edition of the American Heart Association journals, 'Circulation' & 'Hypertension' and is the Chairman of the Echocardiology Council of the Cardiological Society of India.
Dr Vijayaraghavan is the recipient of numerous awards & honours. He received honorary fellowships from the Royal College of physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP Edin), from the Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP Lond), from the American College of Cardiology (FACe), and the Premier Golden Heart Fellowship from the American Heart Association (FAHA). This is in addition to the fellowships awarded to him by the Indian College of Cardiology (FICe), Indian Academy of Echocardiography (FIAE), International Medical Sciences Academy (FIMSA) and the Cardiological Society of India (FCSI). Lifetime achievement awards were given to him by Indian Academy of Echocardiography,lndian College of cardiology and the Cardiological Society of India.He was elected as the chief patron of Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists during the annual scientific session IACCCON 2010.He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Journal of Clinical Cardiology (IJCC).