Bhimsen Singhal

Bhimsen Singhal heads neurology at Mumbai’s Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences and has worked in the field for six decades. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of medicine, from Maharashtra ^[1].

Training

Singhal was born at Mount Abu on 23 January 1933 ^[2]. He took his MBBS and MD at Grant Medical College, Mumbai, in 1956 and 1959, and the MRCP in Edinburgh in 1960 and London in 1961; he later became a fellow of both royal colleges ^[2]. Before Bombay Hospital he headed neurology at Grant Medical College and J. J. Hospital ^[2].

Research and leadership

He is known for his work on demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica, and on myasthenia gravis ^[2]. With international colleagues he identified the gene defect behind megalencephalic leukodystrophy, a condition found especially in the Agarwal community ^[2]. He was a founder member of the Indian Academy of Neurology, president of the Neurological Society of India in 1986 and of the Indian Epilepsy Association in 2000–02, and regional director for Asia and Oceania of the World Federation of Neurology ^[2].

Free care

He set up the Neurology Foundation in 1998 and the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society in 2001, to give free care from many kinds of specialists to people with neurological conditions ^[2]. The society runs free sessions at more than 65 support centres across India ^[2]. Since 1996 he has also organised the yearly “Neurology Update” meetings for doctors ^[2]. He received the Dr B. C. Roy National Award in 1999 ^[2].