What was the idea behind launching a channel on YouTube?
The channel is part of a larger release. People, not just in India, but around the world, lack awareness and access to world-class international standards in health care. When I moved here from the West, the goal was to scale medicine using a combination of media, technology and smart services. The idea was simple: in India, in particular, we have 1.35 billion people and only about 1.8 million doctors, of which one million are allopathic practitioners and only 2% go to rural areas. So I decided to use all of our subsets – my technology experience, my media experience and my healthcare career for 20 years as a cardiac surgeon – and bring them together to bring a better awareness and appreciation of what they needed to do.
How did the strategy change during the coronavirus pandemic?
This year, in particular, we realized the need to obtain current, as well as well-researched and evidence-based information. Therefore, we decided to focus 100 percent on health. The channel has become a means of engaging people and starting a dialogue. I would always tell my patients that 50% of the journey towards health is in their head. If you do not believe the real process and do not understand it, it will be very difficult to process the procedure.
What is there for a patient?
Let’s face it, as doctors, we have no infrastructure or time to be with patients, explaining to them every detail of what is happening to them. I was trained and educated in the United States and spent a lot of time in India. I am an experienced and experienced surgeon, who is now back here to serve his country and his people. But no matter how hard I work, the best I can do is to operate three to five patients a day. At the end of the year, 350 to 500 patients benefited from my services, but there are a billion people on the planet. I wanted to take care of the growing population and do something that really made a difference in people’s lives.
We have some of the best doctors in the world, who put their heart, soul and love into what they do, but there are many patients too. The patient must be the main part of the show. As a doctor, I want them to make their own decisions based on all the information I provide them. But, since each person is different and their previous medical history, family history, socioeconomic history, the place in which they live, must be considered to make it a personalized report. I hope I can improve your life expectancy with this. Once successful in India, we can implement the model worldwide.
During the first months of the outbreak, there was a lot of fear of the virus …
As a doctor, I constantly try to dispel myths. During the pandemic, we worked to dispel the doubts that caused us a lot of anxiety and fear at the beginning of the outbreak. When people know what the risk factors are and what symptoms they need to be aware of, it takes away a lot of fear and educates them when they need to seek medical attention. We also did an episode about ordering food, which was a blockbuster, because people were really confused if it was safe. I did the research for them and found that there was no evidence to support the fact that the new coronavirus was a foodborne disease. In India, we have known for a long time that the preparation and handling of food is essential. We put it all together to conclude that if the food is handled properly and heated to a certain temperature, all viruses will be destroyed.
What do you plan to do with the channel in the long run?
It is the beginning of something bigger called Pathfinder Health Sciences, which is a medium created to entertain and educate through a combination of long, medium and short content, patients will be able to create a panel to train themselves. We will update them with everything that is going on in layman’s language instead of medical jargon because, like it or not, people are afraid of a white coat. I want to make them feel like they have a doctor in the family. When I say doctor, I mean a health system, made up of specialists from the best laboratories, hospitals and government services.
I think there is an opportunity here to improve people’s lives. Through scripted content, we intend to inform people about medical problems, so that they remember what the causes, symptoms and options are. When you tell them that way, he gets it; I discovered this through my children who watch medical programs on TV. The problem now is that people don’t know when to seek medical help. They only rush to the doctor when they are sick, after ignoring the symptoms for days. Wouldn’t it be great to have an engine panel with an engine check light, to educate you about what is good and what is bad? It’s like GPS.
What did you think of the way India handled the pandemic?
I am very proud of how India handled the pandemic and I really must thank everyone in the frontline trenches. I interviewed many of them for the channel; they are the real heroes, you know, the frontline workers, the police, with the governor, workers and others, because they put their own lives and those of their families at risk for all of us. And, secondly, I think that the government acted very quickly in imposing a blockade; I think we were ahead of the curve. I am very proud to be here; you saw what happened in some of the western countries. We should be grateful to all those responsible, as well as to all my colleagues in the medical fraternity and to the personnel in the field.
What changes have you implemented in your home to ensure your family’s safety at the worst moment of the outbreak?
My 88-year-old mother-in-law is sweet; I love her so much. We had to take extra precautions. I have a team that was kind enough to stay with us and help us with the office and the house; they get a lot of credit for keeping us safe. At the same time, I was working with the chief minister, the prime minister, the BMC and some foundations to find out how to move forward because it was a new disease.