A Person To Live For Over 150 Years Has Already Born: Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Medical Science has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years in terms of prevention of diseases. A recent global report has claimed that at least one among those expected to be lived for over 150 years on this earth has already taken birth. Member of Parliament (MP) and Ex-Union Minister for health and family welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan said this on the occasion of inauguration of the Epitome Kidney Urology Institute and Lions Hospital in the New Friends Colony area in the national capital.

With its state-of-the-art facilities and a team of highly experienced doctors and healthcare professionals, the hospital will provide much-needed comprehensive nephrology and urology services in and around the location. With its launch, Epitome Kidney Urology Institute becomes the first such hospital in Delhi NCR, focused on Nephrology and Urology. This is an initiative planned in collaboration with Lions Service Trust, which has been serving patients for more than 40 years.

A medical professional himself, Dr. Harsh Vardhan urged medical fraternity to invest at least as much as required time to its patients, so that number of repeat patients could be reduced to its minimum. He asked medical professionals to invest time in educating patients, so that they could return to a healthy and balanced life. He also pointed towards immense opportunities that this field provides for newcomers, start-ups, companies and sector as a whole, as India required hundreds of thousands of medical professionals, companies and allied services to take medical services to each and every citizen of the country.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the medical science had already moved ahead from preventive medicines to minimising aging process to anti-aging up to such an extent that it has started talking about human beings living for more than 140-150 years. He said that he was sitting in a global meeting where members opined that the anti-aging was not merely a hypothesis anymore and someone expected to enjoy life of over 150 years must have already come in existence somewhere on this earth.

This hospital also seems to be bucking the trend of multispecialty hospitals which are catering to all specialties by focusing on providing comprehensive services focused on kidney and urinary issues.

During the inauguration of Epitome, Harsh Vardhan said, “Epitome name is also very impressive and inspiring. Epitome hospital which I’m sure is going to develop into an Institute in itself. I have known lions trust for many years. I have worked with them in 80’s also as a practising doctor, and participated in many camps. Kidney ailments are quite difficult to diagnose and once they start advancing things become so tough for the patients unless managed under expert care. I also feel food is a medicine for every disease. Kidney ailment can be prevented by adopting good lifestyle. Prevention and early detection is the cure”.

Epitome Kidney Urology Institute and Lions Hospital is 80 bedded facility with a 24x7 emergency, critical care (ICU), 30-bed Dialysis Centre equipped with state of the art Haemodialysis and Online-Hemodiafiltration (Online-HDF) machines augmented with Online Dialysis Water Treatment system to provide ultrapure water, two modular operation theatres.

Hospital Management, also announced that internationally renowned Nephrologist Dr Vijay Kher is joining the mission the hospital has embarked upon and welcomed him as Chairman of the Medical Board and Department of Nephrology & Kidney Transplant. 

Dr. Kher said, “Kidney disease is the 8^th common cause of death in our country. Sometimes people are only able to realize the symptoms when the disease has already progressed to End Stage Renal Disease(ESRD). Focussed and super specialised healthcare institutes like Epitome, can be a major support not only in treatment of disease but also in disease prevention as well.”

The inauguration event also witnessed the presence of DrSudhanshu Tyagi, founder of NephroMed -- a renowned Dialysis Care provider in Europe along with and Ashish Tyagi.

There has been a significant rise in the incidence of risk factors of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) across the world and especially in India with a global epidemic of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Unfortunately, a majority of chronic kidney disease patients in India (>50%) are left undiagnosed with kidney disease till a very late stage of the disease.

Once kidney disease develops and progresses to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), there is limited access to renal replacement therapy (dialysis or transplant) in India. This is due to limited infrastructure and insufficient trained manpower.

With a large “state of the art” dialysis centre with an online dialysis water treatment system, Epitome will not only provide excellent dialysis services to the community but with its expert nephrologists and dialysis staff will also provide training to dialysis technicians to improve the current manpower shortage in the country. 

Epitome Kidney Urology Institute and Lions Hospital will also be leading community awareness campaigns utilising all the tools of the current age, camps, social media, animations and lectures, to reduce this burden.