# V. Mohan

V. Mohan is an Indian physician specializing in diabetology. He is the Chairman of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, which is an IDF Centre of Excellence in Diabetes Care. He is also the Chairman of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai which is an ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Diabetes.
Dr. V. Mohan has been treating patients with diabetes & also has contributed to scientific research on diabetes for over 40 years and has published over 1040 original articles and has a h-index of 153. He also serves on various national and international bodies in his field of specialisation. He is ranked amongst the top 2% of scientists in the world and the top medical scientist in India as per Stanford University Global.

## Education

Dr. Mohan completed his undergraduate (MBBS) and postgraduate medical education (MD, General Medicine) from Madras Medical College Chennai, India. In 1984 – 85, he worked for a year as a Welcome Trust Research Fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, London, U.K and in 1985 – 86 as an Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Ulm, Germany.
He was awarded a PhD in 1987 and later a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) by thesis in 1997 for his research in the field of fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes (FCPD).

## Clinical services

Mohan started his research work on diabetes at the age of 18 as an undergraduate medical student when he joined his father, the pioneer in diabetology in India, Prof M. Viswanathan. In 1971, together with his father, he set up the first private diabetes centre in India, the M.V. Hospital for Diabetes and continued to work at this centre till 1991. Mohan and his late wife Rema Mohan who was an international recognized ophthalmologist in the field of diabetes eye diseases, subsequently established their own diabetes centre under the name of "Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre".
He and his daughter R.M. Anjana and son in law Ranjit Unnikrishnan and their colleagues later oversaw a chain of 50 diabetes centres across 8 states and 32 cities of India.

## Research

In 1996, Mohan and his late wife Rema established the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) at Chennai with over 20 scientists. Over 75 students have obtained their PhD degree working at MDRF, from 4 Universities, namely the Madras University, The Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, the Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia and the University of Warwick, UK. Dr. Mohan's research combines clinical, epidemiological, and genomic aspects of diabetes.
As of September 2023, his research work has an h-index of 153, an i-10 index of 926 and has received over 199,000 citations. His areas of work include Epidemiology of diabetes and its complications, Genomics of diabetes, Precision Diabetes, Nutrition and Diabetes and Fibrocalculous Pancreatic Diabetes (FCPD). He described the criteria for diagnosis of FCPD which is known as Mohan's criteria for FCPD. He has also done seminal work on describing the Asian Indian (South Asia) Phenotype of type 2 diabetes. He was the national co-ordinator for the ICMR – INDIAB national epidemiological study of diabetes and other NCDs, carried out on 113,000 individuals representative of India's 1.4 billion people and covering all states and union territories of India. He has also been involved in the other large epidemiological studies like CURES (n = 225,000 individuals in 27 high, middle and low-income countries) and CARRS (n = 20,000). His work on Monogenic Diabetes is well recognised. He and his colleagues have set up a National Registry for Monogenic Diabetes in India.

## Training and education programs in diabetes

Mohan started several training courses for diabetes for health care professionals. This includes a two-year full time Fellowship in Diabetology for medical doctors with an undergraduate medical degree. In collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Education Academy (DMDEA) set up by him, has started a Certificate Course in Evidence-Based Management of Diabetes.

## Rural Diabetes Services and Charity

Mohan established a rural diabetology service with a fully equipped mobile diabetes van and satellite connection with the initial support of the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Denmark, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the National Agro Foundation (NAF). Mohan is a follower of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and is a Trustee of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh.

## Awards

Mohan has received several awards, including the Padma Shri National Award by the Government of India for his accomplishments in the field of diabetology. In 2018, he received the Dr. Harold Rifkin Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes Award from the American Diabetes Association. He is also a recipient of the Dr. B. C. Roy Award of the Medical Council of India.
Dr Viswanathan Mohan received Indian of The Year in Diabetes & Endocrinology at the Pharma Leaders 16th Annual Healthcare Leadership Summit & Awards 2024 in Mumbai.

## Books published

* Mohan, V. (2017). Sathya Sai Baba lives on. Sri Sathya Sai Sadhana.
* 'Making Excellence a Habit: The Secret to Building a World-Class Healthcare System in India’, published by Penguin India in February 2021.
* Banting, Best and Beyond Published by Notion Press in May 2022.