OUR MENTORS

Prof SP Kalantri, MD, MPH is Director-Professor of Medicine at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sevagram, Maharashtra. Dr Kalantri did his medical training and medicine residency from the Government Medical College Nagpur. He obtained MD in 1981 and joined Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences Sevagram (MGIMS), where he has been working for four decades. At MGIMS, Dr Kalantri heads an internal medicine unit, teaches medical students and residents, and conducts clinical research. Between 2009 and 2022, he also served as the Medical Superintendent of the 1000-bed teaching hospital. In 2004, supported by funding from the Fogarty AIDS International Training Program, he completed Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Dr Kalantri edited MFC bulletin (1989-92) and was associate editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (2001-2004). His general interests include evidence-based medicine, medical ethics, public health, and palliative care. His research is mainly focused on the accuracy of diagnostic tests. At MGIMS, Dr Kalantri successfully campaigned against sponsorship of medical conferences by drug industry and introduced low-cost drugs in the hospital. In 2004, he helped the hospital design a digital Hospital Information System. Over the years, the system showed that quick access to accurate data and improved work efficiency leads to better and faster clinical decisions, hospitalwide. More recently, Dr Kalantri was involved in designing scientific policies for the management of Covid. He was extensively interviewed by the media for his views on a variety of issue related to covid care.