A Healing Touch

How an oncologist brought life-saving cancer care to remote Silchar, Assam with a pro-poor, people-first approach

- Chaitali Patel

“I NEVER WANTED TO choose surgery for a profession,” recalls Dr R. Ravi Kannan, a surgical oncologist at the Cachar Cancer Care Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) in Silchar, Assam. Nor was it his plan to move his family from their home in Chennai where he led the surgical oncology department at the Adyar Cancer Institute. But like most best-laid plans, life had a way of taking its own course, and in Kannan’s case, it was one that led him to a part of the country where his skills were needed most.

A specialization in surgery may have been an afterthought, but the jovial 59-year-old was certain about pursuing medicine. His passion for the field came from his mother, in whose eyes medicine was the ultimate career and her village physicians the ideal doctors. “She would see them going house to house delivering healthcare, having a cup of coffee, attending weddings and funerals—becoming part of the family. For her, a doctor was the epitome of everything that is gracious,” he says.

Having completed his MBBS from the Kilpauk Medical College, Chennai, Kannan went on to do his MS from Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi and further, his MCh in surgical oncology from The Cancer Institute, Adyar in Chennai. It was during his tenure at the Cancer Institute that Kannan met Dr Chinmoy Choudhury, then the Director of CCHRC, only the second cancer hospital to open in Assam, a state that grapples with a relatively high incidence of the disease. In 2007, Kannan, by then no longer at Adyar, decided to visit Silchar with his family at the behest of Dr Choudhury, who wanted Kannan to take charge of the facility. While he spent time at the hospital, his wife Seetha, then the Regional Officer at the United States Educational Foundation in India, visited and engaged with the local community.