Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian on Friday said that deaths due to cardiovascular diseases seem to have noticeably increased in the past one year.
Launching the Electrophysiology and Interventional Cardiology at Medway (EPIMED) training programme of Medway Hospitals here, he said that research was under way in many countries to study such an increase and identify any impact of COVID-19 in cardiovascular health. However, no clear results on any such correlation have emerged yet, he added.
Highlighting the importance of preventive steps to be taken to avoid cardiovascular diseases, he said the Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam initiative of the State government had helped by identifying diabetic and hypertension patients who had the risk of developing cardiovascular issues and offering them medicines at their doorsteps.
He said the government had launched an initiative to screen all senior citizens visiting government hospitals for cancer. The possibility of a similar programme to screen all those visiting government hospitals for cardiovascular issues was being discussed by the government, he added.
T. Palaniappan, chairman, Medway Group of Hospitals, said the hospital had already performed a number of complex procedures for heart related ailments and the EPIMED programme would help in training next generation of doctors.
Veteran doctors from the field of cardiology, including K.M. Cherian, R. Alagesan, J.S. Satyanarayan Murthy, V. Jagannathan, S. Shanmugasundaram, Krishnaswamy Subramanian, I. Sathyamurthy and D. Vaidyanathan were felicitated.
