Distinguished Alumni 2001

Dr. Reddy is Secretary General, SHARE (Science Health Allied Research & Education) and a graduate of Gandhi Medical College. It is almost impossible to find any one like Dr. Reddy. He single handedly undertook the global health initiative through the REACH program in India. Despite his professional commitments and his family responsibilities, Dr. Reddy took that bold, innovative step in creating the REACH concept through which thousands of indigent persons are receiving both health care and counseling in disease prevention and the importance of community health. Born September 15, 1936 in a small town in India to a family with modest means, Dr. Reddy attended medical school in Hyderabad and, in 1967, became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. UK, and migrated to the United States where he has achieved success as a clinician, researcher and teacher. In 1971 Reddy became a member of the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was appointed Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory of Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian University Hospital. He has authored more than 100 articles in journals as well as a book, ‘Pericardial Disease’. In 1995 the cardiology fellows awarded him the Fellows Teaching Award. He was elected President of the Laennec Society of the American Heart Association and appointed a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, U.K. However, P. S. Reddy’s professional career is only part of what makes him a recipient of the Most Distinguished Alumni Award. At the peak of his career he decided to reclaim the true meaning of medicine: service for the sake of service, not for glory or monetary gain. He has spent most of his time for many years in “giving back” to India. He co-founded and promoted a charitable foundation, SHARE, principally funded by North Americans of Indian origin. Under his direction SHARH built MediCiti, a nonprofit hospital, and a rural hospital as well as supporting infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh with the purpose of encouraging health careers, research, and service. He envisioned a replicable model of cost-effective promotive, preventive and curative health care delivery for the rural poor in India and has led its implementation. REACH (Rural Effective Affordable Comprehensive Health Care), launched in 1994 to develop a viable model of health care delivery so that “Health Care for All” becomes a reality. REACH may very well serve as a model that the World Health Organization is likely to embrace.

Dr. Guntupalli is an alumnus of Osmania Medical College class of 1972. After graduating from medical school she arrived in the USA to undergo training in internal, pulmonary and critical care medicine at Georgetown University and the University of Pittsburgh. She subsequently served as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Emory State University Medical School. She is currently at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas as professor of medicine. She is the director of medical ICU and chief of pulmonary/critical care at the Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, Texas. Dr. Guntupalli personifies a rare combination of excellent teacher, fine academician and a leading force in organized medicine. She has authored over 100 papers, is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Award, and is a sought-after speaker. She has served in many prestigious elected positions including Regent of President of the internal medicine section of the National Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is a trustee of the Chest Foundation and chair of the Women’s Network of the American College of Chest Physicians. Recently she was appointed to the critical care board by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the highest academic board that writes, evaluates and defines policies pertaining to the certifying examination of critical care medicine. She has served her home county well by organizing many CME courses, setting up the first school of respiratory therapy, and research on the respiratory illnesses in rural Andhra Pradesh women. With the help of a substantial grant from the Chest Foundation she has recently developed extensive educational material for combating the tobacco epidemic in India.