Piramal Healthcare has awarded the 'Piramal Knowledge Academy Best Intervention Award 2009' to four eminent interventional cardiologists at the National Intervention Council (NIC) in Hyderabad.

The winners of the prestigious award this year are Dr Navneet Singh from AIIMS, Delhi for his unusual case of CoArc dilatation, Dr Bhanu from J J Medical College, Mumbai for her case on ballooning and stenting in peripheral and pulmonary artery stenosis, Dr Pankaj Jariwalla from Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad for his case on left systemic artery to pulmonary vein AV valve formation, closed by vascular plug & coil embolisation and Dr Harikrishna from Shri Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences, Trivandrum for Ductal stenting in a neonate. The winners were honoured with a monetary award of Rs 20,000, a certificate and an annual print subscription to an international health journal of repute.

Piramal Knowledge Academy supports the cause of the Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) Registry and is aimed at promoting unique Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) by interventional cardiologists. PTCA Registry is a mid-term scientific fiesta which is organised every year, where more than 100 pre-selected cases are shown and discussed for everyone's benefit over the course of the three days of the Registry. Piramal Knowledge Academy will continue to honour and acknowledge the best angioplasty cases in the country every year.

Piramal Knowledge Academy conducts a host of Advisory Panel Programmes, Skill Upgradation Programmes and Collaborative Educational Programmes with the medical fraternity. Dr Swati Piramal, Director Communications & Strategic Alliances, Piramal Healthcare Limited said, "Piramal Knowledge Academy was conceptualized with the belief that sharing of knowledge with the medical fraternity is an imperative to alleviate the lives of the end patients and thereby the status of healthcare in India. It is our humble attempt at recognizing and felicitating stellar achievements in interventional cardiology."

The medical fraternity unreservedly appreciated this initiative from Piramal Healthcare. "It is a great honour for me to receive this award," said Dr Harikrishnan. Around 500 interventional cardiologists attended the program. Dr Sarat Chandra, chairman, National Intervention Council was instrumental in integrating this award in NIC. He presided over the conference and headed the jury that chose the winners.