Vijayawada: Renowned cardiologist Dr. Pothineni Ramesh Babu, Chief Cardiologist and Managing Director ofAster Ramesh Hospitals, Vijayawada, has been conferred with the “Lifetime Achievement in Regional Cardiology and Healthcare Leadership Award” at the BEAT 2025National Cardiovascular Summitand Awards held in New Delhi. Dr. Ramesh Babu completed his MBBS from Guntur Medical College. He went on to pursue his MD in General Medicine in 1984 and DM in Cardiology in 1988 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and began his career as a Junior Resident in Internal Medicine and later served as a Senior Resident Cardiologist at AIIMS. He established Vijayawada’s first cardiac centre with an Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU) in 1988 and set up the region’s first advanced Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory (Cath-Lab) in 1996, inaugurated by then President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma. In 2008, he expanded Ramesh Hospitals into a multispecialty institution, followed by the launch of a 50-bed branch in Vijayawada in 2011 featuring a 256-slice iCT scanner — the first of its kind in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Later, in 2015, he inaugurated a 350-bed green super-speciality hospital in Guntur, opened by former President Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Dr. Ramesh Babu’s contributions to cardiology include treating over eight lakh patients, conducting 97,422 coronary angiographic procedures — including 17,531 angioplasties — and performing more than 20,000 cardiac surgeries with a 99% success rate. He also established 24 telemedicine centres in rural areas to manage acute cardiac and neurological emergencies during the critical “golden hour.” A member of the National Board for Examinations (NBE) since 2019, he has participated in 20 international, USFDA-approved multicentric clinical trials and received multiple accolades, including the Dr. K. Sharan Award for Excellence in Cardiology (IMA, 2012). He is also a Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI). At the ceremony held on October 12 at the Shangri-La Eros Hotel, Dr. Ashok Seth, Chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, received the Lifetime Achievement in Interventional Cardiology & Innovation Award for his pioneering work in cardiovascular medicine, reportsThe New Indian Express.