Meeting Dr Trehan is like interacting with a dervish, he can see inside you, and speak to your soul.

He shared his vision of a world class proof of concept research facility that would bring new drugs and devices to the country and I was hooked.

The transition from an academic nonprofit center, set in a low income setting to a large (1350 bedded) private tertiary care hospital was a transition, but an even more extreme one was from being the center stage player at the research unit to a supporting team at the hospital!

Persistence being my middle name, I rolled up my sleeves and started on the journey –a full attempt to make the for profit research unit work did not pass muster and Dr Trehan was convinced to convert the team to a non profit mode.

This was the change that was needed, and research took off like a rocket headed for the moon!

Government grants, Pharma driven trials, CSR funded public health work –you name it and we were doing it!

Publications in high and higher impact factor journals became the norm, clinical teams would discuss research projects over lunch –the best in class unit even if I say so myself .Seeing the transformation or tremulous researchers to confident ones and even research mentors has been heartwarming (case in point Dr Deeksha and Dr Anand Prakash- you guys are rocking it!)

A shoutout to my teammates Radhesh and Kuldeep who were the real convertors of the vision to action-they always always said –“ yes we can !!”

My students over the years, the coordinators, team leads, associates, inspirational investigators, I have had such wonderful team mates – Cheers to you!!

India is growing and so is research –it has now grown into its version 2.0 –Innovation

I’m excited to see where this journey of accelerating innovation will take me next!