Rustom Jal Vakil: his contributions to cardiology.
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: Rustom Jal Vakil returned to India in 1938 after earning his medical degree from the University of London and focused on the treatment of heart ailments at a time when cardiology was not a distinct subspecialty in India. In 1949, after years of scrupulous collation and analysis of data, he published a watershed paper on the antihypertensive properties of Rauwolfia serpentina and effected a paradigm shift in the management of hypertension. Rauwolfia was the world's 1st successful blood-pressure-lowering agent, and its acceptance encouraged research scientists to pursue the development of other hypotensive drugs. Vakil was a prolific researcher whose contributions to Indian cardiovascular epidemiology--and to the whole of medical literature--were enormous. He was also a fine clinician with a remarkable gift for communication, be it with his patients, students, peers, or the lay public. All of this came together to make him the embodiment of a medically competent India.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Authors: Sumit Isharwal, Shubham Gupta
Institution: All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1523631328