Padmashree Dr KS Chugh is a world renowned Nephrologist and is known as the “Father of Nephrology” in India, a title endorsed by the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians of London.
He is an Emeritus Professor of Nephrology and a former Chairman (Department of Medicine) and, Professor and Head (Department of Nephrology) at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. He is currently the Chairman of the Institute’s Ethics Committee. Besides a string of qualifications and titles that he has to his credit, Dr Chugh obtained his MD in Medicine with Kidney Diseases in 1961 and became the first qualified Nephrologist of India. Regarded as a living legend in Nephrology, Dr Chugh has been a recipient of over 50 prestigious national and international awards.
The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) has included him amongst the 50 top nephrologists of the world who have made pioneering contributions and has made a video film on his lifetime work for inclusion in the World Nephrology Legacy Library. The American Journal of Kidney Diseases published an editorial on him as a World Leader in Nephrology in 1998 and the same journal has highlighted his lifetime work in an article entitled “Five Decades of Indian Nephrology – A Personal Journey” in the world forum of AJKD in 2009.
Dr KS Chugh has made a pioneering contribution to the development of nephrology in India. He took up this speciality in 1956 when he performed the first renal biopsy, which ushered in a new era of modern Nephrology in India and led to the recognition of this speciality as a distinct discipline. He set up the first department of Nephrology at PGIMER Chandigarh in 1963. He initiated the dialysis programme at the institute in 1963 and the Renal Transplant Programme in 1974.
He started the first superspeciality course in Nephrology for the award of DM degree at PGIMER in 1969 and the first batch of students passed out in 1971, one year before the first students in the United States completed their board certification in Nephrology. Dr Chugh has been responsible for training more than 75% of the senior nephrology consultants and teachers in the country, several of whom are currently heading various nephrology centres or are occupying important positions all over India and abroad, and several renal centres in the Armed Forces Medical Services in India. In recognition of his services to the Armed Forces he was made Honorary Senior Consultant to the Armed Forces Medical Services in 1980.
Some of his fellows trained at Chandigarh have become International celebrities in Renal Medicine – to name just two: Dr Brian Pereira has been the President of the National Kidney Foundation of USA and has been the President & Chief Executive Officer and Professor of Medicine at New England Medical Center, Boston, USA; and, Dr Ravi Mehta is a world authority on Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy. Dr Chugh founded the Indian Society of Nephrology in 1970.
With a membership of over 1000, it is recognised globally for outstanding contributions to the world of Nephrology. As a Chairman of the South Asia Committee of COMGAN, he has organised several CMEs and renal update sessions in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal with financial assistance from the International Society of Nephrology.
In addition, Dr KS Chugh has published more than 400 papers including 38 chapters, besides invited editorials and articles in international and national journals and textbooks. The textbooks include the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, Oxford Textbook of Clinical Nephrology, Textbook of Nephrology by Massary and Glassock, Asian Nephrology, WHO Classification of Tropical Renal Disease, Oxford Clinical Nephrology Series and several others. Dr Chugh is the Editor of 'Asian Nephrology', 'Postgraduate Medicine' and Co-Editor of the WHO Book on Classification of Tropical Renal Disease. He is also the Associate Editor of the API Text Book of Medicine and the Text Book of Nephrology for the Asian Physician.
He is on the Editorial Board of several journals including Transplantation (USA), Clinical Journal of American Society of Nephrology (USA), Nephrology (Australia), International Journal of Artificial Internal Organs (USA), Renal Failure (USA), Kidney (USA) and Journal of National Academy of Medical Sciences. Further, he has been the founding Editor of the Indian Journal of Nephrology and Associate Editor of the Journal of Association of Physicians of India. Dr KS Chugh has been a visiting professor to several academic institutions in the world, has chaired over 25 scientific sessions, besides delivering some 70 plenary and invited lectures in international congresses all over the world. He has also been an examiner for the post-graduate degree in Nephrology all over the country.
Dr Chugh has made several original contributions in the field of tropical nephrology which have received national and international attention. These include tropical acute renal failure, chronic renal failure, glomerular disease associated with tropical conditions like malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis, snake and insect bite induced renal disease, renovascular hypertension, Takayasu’s arteritis, Amyloid disease, tropical infections including fungal, viral and bacterial infections amongst renal transplant recipients and economical and ethical issues involved in dialysis and transplantation in developing countries.