Cardio-vascular disease enjoys a dubious distinction, being responsible for half of the deaths in the country. Not a proud fact to say; while we are having one of the youngest populations in the world. Heart diseases are taking away millions of lives every year, and there are only a few who are striving to save lives. With the sole purpose of improving people’s heart health and getting back their lives to normal, doctors like Dr. Milind Shrivastava are working day in and day out.
Having spent over two decades in the Healthcare industry as a cardiologist, Milind is currently leading a large team at Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital as Director- Intervention Cardiology. Throughout his professional journey, he has worked with prestigious hospitals of the country including SMS Medical College, G B Pant hospital, RNT Medical College, and JLN Medical College. He is well known for his interventional skills with an ethical approach, also recognized for his great teaching skills and academics.
He has done around 20,000 interventions so far, with 99.5 percent success rate, which itself speaks about his great interventional skills. He has many publications in peer reviewed journals and awarded prestigious fellowship from American college of cardiology, European society of cardiology, Society for cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions US and Indian Academy of Echocardiography.
This industry veteran emphasizes the importance of being an open-minded learner and learning something new every day. He puts subordinates, colleagues, and patients first to reap win-win situations for both patients and the hospital. CEO Insights admires his leadership and appreciates his contribution to the ever-evolving healthcare sector. We take pride to engage in an exclusive conversation with this meticulous leader. In the interview, Dr. Milind looks back on his journey, achievements, and shares inspiring thoughts. Below are the excerpts.
What inspired you to pursue your profession in interventional cardiology?
While pursuing my training for MD (Medicine), I came across a number of patients, who died of heart disease. In most of the cases, I somehow felt that perhaps their lives could have been saved had something extra special been done. This made a deep imprint on my heart and I decided that, if possible, I would devote myself to the intervention cardiology and since then on I have engaged myself in the field of service. Saving lives makes me happy, it gives immense satisfaction and I therefore always wish to help people live healthy and symptomfree life.
Intervention cardiology is a charming and resultoriented profession. Every case puts you on a different challenge and once you overcome the challenge, you become wiser and learn something new. It provides huge opportunity for growth, new technological advancements and therapeutic options.
What would you say is the uniqueness in your style of leadership?
Uniqueness is my style!! Being directive is not my innate nature but keeping trust in my colleagues and staff helps building a cohesive team. I believe in hiring the right team and allowing them to explore and work, show confidence in them, lead when they need it, and help them navigate through it. Appreciation and recognition are the most crucial part of leadership that helps in deriving 100 percent from them. It’s important to give credit to good work and encourage them rather than command them.
How has been your response to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic? How would you describe your role in tackling those challenges?
The challenges thrown by COVID were numerous. All of us were affected by COVID including myself. Working in a critical field, we cannot decline any patients because they are/were covid infected. While working was really hard, especially during the first wave, we did interventions in COVID Patients as well. We adhered to strict protocols to work in the pandemic. We are continuing to follow those and not a single patient was/will be turned out of the hospital without treatment.
Milind follows the Heart-Team approach, where cardiologists & cardiac surgeons work as a team to decide the best treatment modality for the patients
How would you define Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital as a healthcare institution and the values it possesses?
With over 550 beds, Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital is recognized as one of the oldest and largest private hospitals in Rajasthan. It is one of the first hospitals in the state; established and run by a trust. Although it’s a private hospital, it is a charitable or non-profit venture to offer the best treatment at an affordable cost. The hospital insists on using cuttingedge technology in a patient-friendly atmosphere. Our secretary, Yogendra Durlabhji ensures that we offer state-of-the-art treatment at the lowest price possible to every patient. He is actively involved in providing free treatment for lakhs of patients, so far. He is also actively involved with the project ‘Little Hearts’ and with his all support we are operating the children with heart diseases free of cost. He makes sure that at SDMH, no patient leaves without treatment on the monetary ground.
The beauty of the hospital is, we do not compromise on the quality of service despite low cost for the treatment. We are striving to break the misconception that low price means low quality. Ultimately, great care, compassion, and empathy are what our hospital stands for.
What is the impact you have been making in your current role?
In over a decade journey with Santokba Durlabhji Memorial Hospital, we have been able to transform cardiac sciences at SDMH into one of the leading departments of cardiology in Rajasthan. We have all sub-specialties of cardiology and the best doctors (trained at premier institutes of India and abroad) with vast experience. I believe in team-work and my job is to ensure that each and every team person has been provided the equal opportunity to grow and show his skill. I always try to help them in tough times. We have created the Heart-Team approach, where Cardiologist, Cardiac surgeon and Cardiac anaesthetist working as a unit.
Dr. Milind Shrivastava, Director - Cardiac Sciences, Santokba Durlabji Hospital
Milind is channelizing his core strength of formulating sound protocols to make patients feel carefree, and employees feel empowered amidst the pandemic difficulties.
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