Radha Krishan Dhiman

Radha Krishan Dhiman is a hepatologist and director of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of medicine, from Uttar Pradesh ^[1].

Career

He was born on 4 June 1960 and studied medicine at King George’s Medical College, Lucknow, before training in gastroenterology at SGPGIMS ^[2]. He then joined PGIMER, Chandigarh, rising to professor and head of hepatology, and returned to Lucknow in 2020 ^[2]. At PGIMER he started India’s first DM course in hepatology, a liver ICU and the liver transplant programme ^[2].

Hepatitis C

Dhiman devised a low-cost way of treating hepatitis C and trained primary-care doctors and pharmacists in all 22 district hospitals and three government medical colleges in Punjab to use it ^[2]. Building on that experience, the Government of India launched its National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme in 2018, offering free testing and treatment, and he chairs its technical resource group ^[2]. In Punjab he also guided the introduction of syringes that cannot be reused in government hospitals ^[2].

Other work

During the Covid-19 pandemic he chaired Uttar Pradesh’s advisory boards on Covid and on Covid-related mucormycosis ^[2]. In Chandigarh he helped make pledging organs for donation part of the driving licence ^[2]. He received the Dr B. C. Roy National Award in 2008 ^[2].