Slew of events planned in memory of K.V. Thiruvengadam in centenary year

A year-long celebration of renowned clinician, teacher, and humanitarian, the late K.V. Thiruvengadam will kick off in his centenary year on Sunday (October 11, 2026). The celebrations, in memory of Prof. Thiruvengadam’s extraordinary impact on medicine both in Chennai and beyond, will focus on restoring the art of listening to the patient, examining at the bedside, thinking before ordering a test, and finally, and dwelling on the fundamental question of what it means to be a good physician in an age of extraordinary technology.

K. Vardachari Thiruvengadam, fondly known as KVT, was born in 1926. He graduated from Government Stanley Medical College in 1950 and taught for 31 years both at his alma mater and at Madras Medical College, and subsequently at private institutions. His core areas of specialty were chest medicine, allergies and infectious diseases. His career coincided with a period when medicine was rapidly expanding, but his students remember that he did not teach bedside examination as a ceremonial ritual — he taught it as a way of thinking, listening to the patient, and asking the right questions.

Prof. KVT was a scientist as well as a clinician. He received formal training in chest diseases in the U.K., under the Colombo Plan. He published nearly 100 papers in national and international journals. Among the many areas of his research were chikungunya fever, neurological complications following influenza and amoebiasis. He also investigated traditional medicines in allergic lung and skin diseases. He worked for decades in the government system, among the poorest in society, and believed that government service could achieve extraordinary things when doctors had the willingness to serve. For him, medicine was a social responsibility.

Enduring legacy

Prof. KVT’s awards and recognitions were numerous, and included the Padma Shri in 1981 and the Dr. B.C. Roy Award for Eminent Medical Teacher, alongside multiple other distinctions. But perhaps the most enduring aspect of his legacy is in the number of students who remember him and his teachings and went on to become teachers and leaders themselves, committing to his principle of what you learn and experience must be pblocked on to the next generation.

The centenary year celebration’s objective is not merely to celebrate him, but to translate his philosophy into medical education. The commemoration is not an argument against technology, but an argument against technology without context, and for the need for human clinical reasoning to be paramount.

The proposed celebration aims to take to medical students and postgraduate doctors the importance of history-taking, clinical examination, clinical reasoning and their role not only in diagnosis and management, but also in medical research.

On October 31, the third Prof. K.V. Thiruvengadam Memorial Oration will be delivered at Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, by S.R. Chandra, on ‘The Patient Speaks, the Doctor Thinks and the Research Begins’, alongside a national conference on movement disorders.

For details, contact Dr. Ramachandran at 9443238315 or Dr. Basheer at 9840217486.