Dr Ashok Seth shares his experiences with TAVR at the Sentient Summit 2019

Dr Ashok Seth discusses the future of TAVR and more with Dr Dr Maulik Parekh, at the first edition of the Sentient Summit on 8th & 9th of June 2019
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Transcript:
Dr. Maulik Parekh: Good morning everybody. We are here at the Sentient Summit. I welcome you all once again and we have Dr Ashok Seth, the doyen of cardiology of India with us. He is a legend in the field of cardiology in our country. He has established a center of excellence in the field of cardiology and interventional cardiology. Dr. Ashok Seth, we welcome you.
Dr. Ashok Seth: Thank you Maulik, pleasure being here.
Dr. Parekh: Yeah, so my first question…how do you feel (about) the environment around this Sentient Summit? How's the tempo? How's the pace and how is the scientific content?
Dr. Seth: So, firstly let me just say that I think it's a tremendous meeting. Meetings have to be designed for exchange of ideas, as a learning experience; as something which people enjoy being inside the hall rather than outside the hall. I must say that we are holding this meeting in a resort and yet 100% of the people are inside the hall…100% of attendees are listening with attention, following every talk and asking questions. There's a lot of interaction.
So, the message from Sentient and the ethos of Sentient is being well represented, which means exchange, interact, think and deliver the best to your patients. I think this is a great meeting. It's a pleasure for me to be here. It's a pleasure for me to be part of this meeting and I think that everyone will go home after these two-and-a-half days of interaction progressively doing better and bette. Actually at the end of the day what are we doing this for? Learning… educational experience which affects outcomes for the patient and I'm sure our patients in India are going to be benefiting from such meetings.
Dr. Parekh: I strongly agree with you sir, that's the whole idea of having such meetings.
Dr. Seth: I agree
Dr. Parekh: So, what do you think about the current status and what do you think about the future of TAVR in India?
Dr. Seth: Yes, it's very fascinating because yes I was part of the first in human studies of TAVI. The first-ever self-expandable valve was done with me in 2004, September, I still remember. That was a transformational moment for me to actually ever believe, that a transcatheter and non-operative can actually cure aortic valve disease. There have been very few transformational movements in the 30-years of leadership in interventional cardiology and that was one. It will stay in my mind forever to be believed that this could actually be done. It was a proof-of-concept. It happened for the first time in the world and was just amazing.
Therefore it steered the path for many others and I'm happy that India is now growing in the field of transcatheter valve replacement, though we've had our own hiccups over the past years relating to the approval processes. We then introduced TAVR in 2012 as a part of compassionate-use, special access approval from the Government of India which finally, gradually, as experience increased in this country, led to its approval two-and-a-half years ago.
Having said that…there are still 50,000 patients out there who actually need this life-saving therapy. And the third aspect of all this growth which is going to happen in this country always will relate to how much can we get the cost down of this procedure. How much more can be make it affordable for the common man? When all the three fall in together, we're going to see a much greater growth together on a single focus. How do we deliver this important life-saving treatment of transcatheter aortic valve therapies to the common man and at affordable costs and therefore it should benefit a large number of patients.
Dr. Parekh: So, sir as you just said that 2004 you did the first in-man self-expanding valve in the country. So, what keeps you going? What's your passion in your life? I mean what's your career and passion?
Dr. Seth: It's interesting as always, yes, pioneering technologies over the last years always (has) been a passion of doing more and more. I think that's continuing…you know at the end you go to deliver it to your patients, then you deliver it in the best possible manner and you can't be half at it. You can't be not an expert at it and outcomes do matter. Therefore, I think that as you said senior, I always will start worrying when people start calling me too-senior because they soon learn that perhaps he doesn't do anything and yet you know that day will probably not come because yes, we could continue the passion around it
Dr. Parekh: It was very nice having a chat with you and it was a really nice message that you've given us and we hope that you have a very good summit.
Dr. Seth: Thank you so much, thank you Maulik. It is a pleasure talking to you.