There’s a particular kind of doctor who doesn’t just practice a specialty, but helps build it from the ground up. Dr. Sanjay C. Desai, is one of a handful of surgeons who did exactly that for vascular surgery in India. He trained in the field back in the late 1990s, when it barely existed as a recognised specialty in the country, when colleagues warned him to choose something safer, and when there wasn’t a single formal training course to enrol in. Nearly three decades later, he’s not only one of India’s pioneering vascular surgeons, but the man who built the country’s first M.Ch course in the specialty at a non-government institute, a credential that reshaped the field for everyone who came after him. That combination, pioneer and institution-builder, is exactly why he finds his place among the country’s most renowned vascular surgeons – year after year.
Born Into It
Dr. Desai jokes that he was born to be a doctor, his mother, he says, had her third child specifically to have one in the family. From early school, when asked what he wanted to become, his answer was always the same: surgeon, not just doctor. He moved straight from undergraduate studies into surgical postgraduation, initially weighing onco or gastro surgery, until a fellowship opportunity at his alma mater introduced him to vascular surgery, a field he admits he joined without really knowing much about it.
What followed was closer to falling in love than a career choice. He was drawn to the delicate, high-stakes nature of the work, the new procedures, the extreme challenges, and the chance to take on cases many considered hopeless. At the time, vascular surgery was, in his words, “a brand-new kid on the block” in India, bullied and booed by a medical fraternity that didn’t yet understand it. He continued anyway, later travelling to Cologne University in Germany, then among the largest-volume vascular centres in the world, for training unavailable anywhere in India, followed by a fellowship at the National University Hospital, Singapore.
Building From Nothing
When Dr. Desai returned to Ramaiah and was placed in charge of the newly forming Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, he was essentially starting from zero. It took years of sustained effort to build awareness, not just among the public, but within the medical community itself.
Once the department found its footing, Dr. Desai set his sights on something bigger, to establish a recognised training course in vascular surgery. At the time, the specialty wasn’t even formally listed, which meant convincing his college management to apply took years on its own, followed by university approvals and a rigorous assessment by the Indian Medical Council. The entire process, from data collection to final approval, took roughly three years of relentless work. The result was the first M.Ch Vascular Surgery course in the country offered by a non-government institute, an achievement that opened the door for other institutions to follow suit. Today, over 60 trained vascular surgeons graduate every year across the country, a legacy Dr. Desai takes visible pride in.
A Life Measured in Patients, Not Hours
Dr. Desai currently balances roles as Professor at Ramaiah Medical College, Lead Consultant at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, and Director of the Ramaiah Advanced Learning Centre, splitting his time between patient care, teaching, and academic administration. He believes strongly that every doctor should also be a teacher, describing medicine as much an art of compassion as a science, one that has to be passed down to the next generation.
That philosophy shows up in the moments he remembers most. He recalls a patient who, six years earlier, had been on the verge of losing his limb, walking into his clinic recently on both legs intact, folded hands, insisting he’d travelled hundreds of kilometres just to be seen. He also recounts, with visible warmth, a farmer from a village near Mysore whom he’d treated free of charge early in his career, and who later returned with a sack of peanuts grown on his own small plot, insisting Dr. Desai accept what amounted to nearly a third of his annual harvest. It’s these moments, he says, not the procedures themselves, that make the choice of this field feel entirely worth it.
Looking Ahead
Dr. Desai sees a genuinely bright future for vascular surgery in India, a field that’s had, in his words, “a dream run” over the last two decades. He’s watched more than 30 of his own students go on to establish successful practices, a milestone he counts among his proudest achievements. On technology and AI, his view is measured rather than resistant, useful for diagnostics and procedural precision, but no substitute for the human ear and touch that healing, for both patients and families, still fundamentally requires.
To younger doctors navigating a far more competitive, socially visible profession than the one he entered, his advice is simple – keep patient care as the genuine centre of your thinking, and the right methods will follow.
Away From the Hospital
Dr. Desai says he’s never really had to “balance” work and life, vascular surgery has simply been inseparable from his own. When he does step away, it’s to farming, gardening, and a deep passion for wildlife and trekking, with regular trips to the forest serving as his recharge. He speaks of his family, sister, brother, and their children, with the same warmth he brings to his patients, grateful, as he puts it, for a lively family carrying its values forward into the next generation.
