AIG Hospitals’ Dr Nageshwar appointed NTF member

The Supreme Court appointed on Tuesday the Chairman and Managing Director of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad, Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, as a member of the National Task Force (NTF) set up to formulate protocols to tackle the situation created by a doctor’s rape and murder in Kolkata.
In the last four decades, Dr Reddy’s contribution to therapeutic endoscopy has been immense including the development of the Nagi stent used for biliary drainage. He served as the first Indian President of the World Endoscopy Organisation.
A staunch believer in affordable, accessible healthcare, Dr Reddy set up the Asian Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a not-for-profit entity with the dual objective of increasing health coverage in rural areas and creating robust research capabilities to improve patient care.
He is the first Indian doctor to start a mobile endoscopy unit which goes to rural areas and offers free treatment for GI related diseases.
Recently, under the AIG Rural Outreach Programme, a door-to-door survey has started across South India and aims to screen 10,000 people for various diseases in the next six months.
It is because of this programme, many GI diseases like IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) which were believed to be non-existent in rural India have been diagnosed.
The research arm of the AHF has partnered with organisations like the ICMR and DBT among others on several projects including the development of a macro-encapsulation device for islet cell transplantation for diabetes treatment.