Dr Vivian Srinivas Rambihar, a 1969 Guyana Scholar, is a world renowned cardiologist based in Toronto, Canada and one of the foremost thinkers in the world today, with ideas transforming medicine, science and society globally.
He is a pioneer in “Chaos and Complexity Science”, which the celebrated Stephen Hawking says will be the new science for the 21st century. Dr Rambihar has also been a pioneer in ethnicity and health disparities; being among the first in North America to raise awareness of the high rates of premature heart disease and diabetes in South Asians and other populations. He is currently working on global grass roots engagement for change in all populations and specifically in improving health across the South Asian diaspora.
Born in 1951 in Beterverwagting, East Coast, he attended Queen’s College from 1962, excelled in math and physics and was awarded a Guyana Scholarship in 1969, which entitled him to study for a profession, free of all fees and ancillary expenses. He taught mathematics at Queen’s College for a year, then uncertain of a career choice, went to Canada to study math and physics while considering a career in medicine.
He entered the University of Toronto, where he obtained his BSc in two years – a shorter time than the usual period of three years for a degree. In 1975, at the young age of 23, he graduated from the McMaster University Medical School. He continued further studies at McMaster where he completed cardiology training, following this with sub-specialist training at the Toronto General Hospital.
He progressed rapidly in his profession and soon held the position of president of the Medical Staff and, member of the Board of Governors and Medical Advisory Committee at Scarborough General Hospital. He is an adjunct professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is extensively involved in research, teaching and community outreach.
Dr Rambihar’s exemplary work in the field of cardiology is prominently featured in his Alma Mater’s McMaster University website headed “Profiles of the Founders of McMaster Cardiology”. His daughter Dr Sherryn Rambihar has followed in his footsteps training in cardiology at McMaster 30 years after he started.
He remains true to his East Indian heritage and is actively engaged in the East Indian community. He served on the Board of OSSICC, the Ontario Society for the Study of Indo Canadian Culture and other community organisations. He helped to start the Indo-Caribbean World newspaper in Toronto.
As Health Co-Chair for GOPIO, the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin, he helped establish a Health Summit in New York City in 2010, after advocating for GOPIO to extend its mandate to health.
At the 20th Anniversary Convention of GOPIO in New York in August, 2009, Dr Rambihar warned that the South Asian community is at risk if it does not address health issues now.
This warning comes on the 50th anniversary of the first report of excess and premature deaths of Indians settling abroad, which has gotten worse all across the diaspora since. (They underlined World Health Organisation predictions that most of the world’s heart disease and diabetes will be in India by 2015, affecting young people in the prime of their lives. This will cause US$237 billion in lost productivity in India over the next ten years, and proportionately similar across the South Asian diaspora.)
Dr Rambihar has proposed that the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in New Delhi coordinate the response to the health crisis across the diaspora. He considers this an Urgent Call to Action, with diabetes and heart disease an epidemic that risks the economic future of India and the diaspora, based on WHO (World Health Organisation) data. He advocates novel and grassroots approaches like using community, religious and social occasions for health we can all start now, while awaiting policy and other changes.
Dr Rambihar invites Indians to do much more for health, starting earlier, because of our sensitivity to and higher levels of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes at an earlier age, especially with early family history. He emphasises the tremendous value of using the extensive South Asian networks to improve health.
The doctor’s efforts address health for all within our diversity. After pioneering research showing ethnic health differences, he had the courage and conviction to bring the taboo subject of diversity and health to attention. His 2010 American Heart Journal editorial “Race and Ethnicity: A New Challenge for Cardiology for the 21st Century” and other publications, changed the way we envisage health.
His Health Promotion initiative started in the 1980s filled an unmet need, as did his Valentine’s Day for Heart Health initiative, now over 25 years. The Valentine’s Global Heart Hour invites us to turn on hearts like we turn off lights for Earth Hour. His scholarly publications and books usually break new ground, such as “South Asian Heart: Preventing Heart Disease”, “Tsunami Chaos and Global Heart,” and “Chaos from Cos to Cosmos: a new art, science and philosophy of medicine, health…and everything else,” republished later as “Chaos 2000 from Cos to Cosmos: Making a New Medicine”, a tribute to James Gleick’s landmark book “Chaos: Making a New Science”.
Dr Rambihar has been the recipient of numerous awards for his outstanding work. He was awarded the prestigious CCS (Canadian Cardiovascular Society) 2007 Segall Award of Merit for his “significant contribution to the prevention of cardiovascular disease or to the promotion of cardiovascular health in Canadians.” CCS Awards are granted for excellence in research, teaching, exemplary care, prevention of cardiovascular diseases and overall career contribution.
At the Guyana Awards Gala held on May 26, 2007, Dr Rambihar was honoured with the Community Service Award. He was among ten winners, recognised for their “special contributions…toward the promotion and development of Guyana, Guyana’s heritage and culture, as well as acknowledging the achievement of excellence by Guyanese individuals and community.”
He was one of the first recipients of the Newcomer Champion Award, which was presented by the Government of Ontario, Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The awardees were named on Canadian Multiculturalism Day. Dr. Rambihar was honoured for “his involvement in the social, cultural and health needs of newcomers for 25 years and is a passionate activist for the health rights of newcomers”.
The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) honoured him with the Award of “Humanitarian of the Year”. The presentation was made at the ICCC Annual Gala held on Saturday June 14, 2008, in the presence of about 1000 distinguished guests and members. The award was presented on behalf of the Chamber by India’s Minister of Science, Technology and Earth Science, Hon. Kapil Sibal and Canada’s Minister of Human Resource and Skills Development, Hon. Monte Solberg.
The award he cherishes most, however, is the “Guyana Scholar Award” in 1969, without which he would not have been able to study medicine.
The Rambihar family is an example of leadership and success through education and hard work. Six of his siblings attended Queen’s College and 3 of them taught there for a year. His brothers Brian and Compton also became doctors, with Brian now a leader in medicine, lecturing widely across the United Kingdom.
Dr Rambihar credits the family’s success to his mother Iris, who provided guidance and wisdom, despite not being able to pursue higher education herself. Dr. Rambihar credits his achievements to his wife Perdita, and their three children, who have all followed him in medicine.
Dr Rambihar was inspired by his father William, who worked through illness to become a headmaster and subsequently an Education Officer with the Ministry of Education in Guyana. He was in the first graduating class at the University of Guyana, working fulltime during the day and attending classes in the night, while raising eight children. He was much appreciated and inspired others with his extensive volunteer activities and community development. (First published in Horizons 2011)
