Viswanathan Mohan Part 2, What’s the Award You’re Being Given?

In part 2 of this Exclusive Interview, Viswanathan Mohan talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed about his work leading to his ADA award.

Viswanathan Mohan, PhD, MD, DSc is the chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre and president and director of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai, India.

Transcript of this video segment:

Freed:  That’s terrific. I don’t know what to say. (Laughs) Well, first of all I have to applaud you. What’s the award that you’re getting?

Mohan: So, this is the Dr. Harold Rifkin Award. So, Harold Rifkin was the former president of the ADA and one of — the man who wrote the Rifkin and Ellenberg textbook, which we all read when we were younger. So, in his name — in fact, he was the first recipient. In 1991, they gave the award to him, And then, of course a series of people have got it. The award — this is the only award, of all the awards given by the ADA, this is specifically given for international service to the cause of diabetes. So, I believe the criterion is that you should have worked in more than one country or at least your work should have benefited more than one country. To start with it was easy for me because I invited the ADA to India in 1988. And we had four ADA Meetings in India, that was the first time that ADA left America and came to another country, so that was a good start for me. Four consecutive years, we had the ADA presidents and speakers coming, jointly with the ADA, my institution and the ADA. And then we started working with the World Diabetes Foundation, this is based in Denmark. And so, they sent people from Africa, from Uganda, from Tanzania, from Rwanda, Nigeria, and also from many countries in Asia; Bhutan and Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. So, they all come to our center for training; doctors, nurses, podiatrists. So, this was on my CV that I’ve been training people from different countries. And of course within India we run the largest training programs. We have trained something like 20,000 physicians in India.

Freed:  How many pages is your CV?

Mohan:  How many pages? (Laughs) Well, I can tell you the number of publications because it is a world record. Well, it started out at 18. I mean, not many people get the advantage. So, currently my publication list is 1,150 publications, which is a world record by a practicing doctor in any field. So, (Laughs).

Freed:  I don’t know if you’ve heard of Aaron Vinik?

Mohan: Of course, a good friend of mine. Yeah.

Freed:  I remember I invited him to a CE Program to present and I asked for his CV before I got to know him.

Mohan:  Yes, that big. (Laughs) He has come to India several times.

Freed:  And so, when I introduced him at the program I got this accordion paper.

Mohan: (Laughs)

Freed:  I said I’m going to read —

Mohan:  Like a book.

Freed:  There’s a CV and I drop the thing.

Mohan: (Laughs) Yeah, he’s very, very good.

Freed:  A super guy.

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