Dr. Raghu Ram Pillarisetti
FOUNDING DIRECTOR & CONSULTANT SURGEON, KIMS-USHALAKSHMI CENTRE FOR BREAST DISEASES
Early Life
Pillarisetti was born on September 22, 1966, in Guntur, in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh in India, to medical doctor parents
Ushalakshmi Kumari, a breast cancer survivor, and Prof. P. V. Chalapathi Rao, a recipient of the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award.
He earned his medical degree (MBBS) from Siddhartha Medical College and his master’s degree (MS) in surgery (first place) in 1995 from Kasturba Medical College. After that, he went to the United Kingdom and earned his FRCS in 1997 from all four British Isles’ Surgical Royal Colleges—England, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Ireland.
He then completed Higher Surgical Training and subspecialty training in oncoplastic breast surgery at the Nottingham Breast Institute and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London. Additionally, he holds an American College of Surgeons fellowship.
Professional Journery
- In the year 2002, Pillarisetti’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. There on, he relocated to India in 2007 and established a dedicated purpose-built facility for breast health care at KIMS Hospitals in Hyderabad. The centre, KIMS-Ushalakshmi Center for Breast Diseases, bears his mother’s name (Ushalakshmi). He is presently the Founding Director & Consultant Surgeon at KIMS-USHALAKSHMI Centre for Breast Diseases, KIMS Hospitals.
- Pillarisetti established Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation, with Amitabh Bachchan and P. V. Sindhu as its ambassadors, to spread awareness about the disease and, later, started publishing Pink Connexion, a quarterly newsletter. In 2007, the annual “Pink Ribbon Campaign” was launched to raise awareness of breast cancer during the month of October (international breast cancer awareness month).
- Between 2012 – 2016, he has overseen the implementation of south Asia’s largest population-based breast cancer screening programme in the southern Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Women diagnosed with breast cancer were treated free of cost under the State Government’s Arogyasree scheme.
- In 2016, the Government of India invited him to be part of the Steering Committee, and a high-powered Technical Advisory Group (TAG) set up by the Union Ministry of Health, which has drafted guidelines to replicate the Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) based breast cancer screening programme across the nation.
- He was appointed as an International Surgical Adviser of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2012.
- He was one of the youngest surgeons chosen through election to serve as President of The Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) for the year 2020. ASI is South Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest surgical organization that represents the surgical fraternity in India. As President of ASI, he launched five Skills Courses & the National Online Skills Enhancement Programme (NSEP) in 2020, which are aimed to enhance the knowledge base & improve the skill sets of surgical trainees.
- Being a Convenor of International Affairs for the Association of Surgeons of India (2017 – 2018), he implemented a working partnership between the Association of Surgeons of India and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Doing this facilitates the process of selecting surgical trainees from India to obtain advanced subspecialty surgical training at selected centres of excellence in the UK through the Royal College’s International Surgical Training Programme (ISTP).
- He was a member of the governing council of the Association of Surgeons of India from 2013 – 2015. He has taken responsibility as its overseas coordinator between 2009 and 2012.
- He served as the founder and Honorary Secretary (2011–13), Vice President (2013–14), and as President (2015 – 2017) of the Association of Breast Surgeons of India (ABSI), the youngest in the organization’s history. He also started the ‘ABSI-UK Fellowship Programme,’ which allows surgical trainees from India selected on merit to obtain ‘hands-on’ one-year subspecialty training in breast centres of excellence in the UK
- He served as a member of the board of advocates of the American Society of Breast Surgeons in 2009. Being the first surgeon from outside USA to sit on the board.
- He has been associated with the Indian Association of Surgical Oncology as a member, as its overseas coordinator (2005–08), as the editorial secretary (2009–10), as a member of the executive committee (2011–12), and as the joint editor of its official journal, Indian Journal of Surgical Oncology (IJSO) (2010–14).
- He has been the author of many articles on breast healthcare and has contributed nine chapters in three textbooks, including the textbook series, Recent Advances in Surgery and Bailey & Love Revision Guide.
Qualifications
MBBS: Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada, India – 1991
MS (General Surgery) – Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, India – 1995
FRCS (Edinburgh) – 1997
FRCS (Glasgow) – 1997
FRCS (Ireland) – 1997
FRCS (England) – 2010 Fellowship ad eundem conferred by the Royal College of Surgeons of England
FACS (The American College of Surgeons) – 2014
Honorary Fellowship conferred by The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand Hon. FRCS (Thailand) – 2019
Honorary Fellowship conferred by The College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka Hon. FCSSL (Sri Lanka) – 2020
Honorary Fellowship conferred by The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland – 2021
Awards
2022 – Honorary FRCS (Eng) conferred by the Royal College of Surgeons of England
2021 – Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
2016 – Dr B C Roy award
2015 – Padma Shri
2015 – Edward Kennedy Memorial award
2013 – RSCEd Overseas Gold Medal
