Leading cardiologist and educator from Udupi in Karnataka, Dr Belle Monappa Hegde has been named among the list of Padma Awardees announced by Government of India on Monday evening. Dr Hegde was awarded the third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, in 2010. The 82-year-old doctor has been conferred with the Padma Vibhushan for his contributions to the field of medicine.
Dr BM Hegde had trained as a cardiologist at the Harvard Medical School and also has a degree in Ayurveda from the Stanley Medical College, Chennai. Apart from being the Co-Chairman of the TAG-VHS Diabetes Research Centre in Chennai, Dr Hegde also has the distinction of being the chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mangaluru and former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University.
He is also a prolific author with 35 books in both English and Kannada on medicine to his credit. He is also currently the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes which is a medical journal. He has served on the boards of several medical and engineering colleges and universities across the country. Dr Hegde was the Emeritus International Advisor to The Royal College of Physicians of London and Edinburgh and also the first Indian examiner for the MRCP examination in the UK for 10 years.
The veteran doctor has published over 289 research papers both in India and abroad. But his career has not been without controversy, as he has often been accused of propagating pseudoscience as well. Topics of his well-publicised research papers include use of silver nanoparticles infused with water for curing malaria in three days and a theory that states that 'quantum healing' can bring sick persons back to normal which courted multiple controversies.
In February 2019, when Dr Hegde was a guest speaker at IIT-Madras’ seminar 'Matters that Matter', a group of research students who were opposed to his theories on quantum healing held posters and placards calling his a propagator of “pseudoscience and quackery" and had protested his presence on the panel.
By combining various forms of medicine including Ayurveda and allopathy, Dr Hegde practices what he calls a holistic treatment. A vegetarian by choice, Hegde has often spoken about not meddling with the body’s self mechanism unless absolutely required.