QUIZ A THOUSAND and they would let you know that a hospital visit ranks as the numero uno of things “to avoid” in a lifetime. Unfortunately, we have to visit a hospital sometime in our lives; either for us or worse, for a loved one. Hospitals and associative indicators— sterilised corridors, antiseptic smells and an impending sense of doom—are stuff of nightmares. So much so that a 2012 report on the Indian health care, published by the Times of India, stated that, “... Educated Indians enjoying better access to cancer care should be able to beat the disease (cancer). But this is clearly not the case. ‘Women won’t come to hospitals to show a lump because it’s not painful. Men won’t get themselves checked after losing weight drastically. This is true in both urban and rural India,’ says a senior doctor.” What scares the Indian patients? A health care system that has been unravelling for long and has been existing minus dependable insurance plans. There is a reason why most Indians prefer to remain in the dark as to what ails them—once they know, A-class treatment requires A-list connections. But all is not bleak. There are a handful of doctors who are trying to change this reality. We featured one such messiah a while ago. While Dr Devi Shetty is our Saviour Surgeon, we have another Ace of Hearts in Dr Naresh Trehan. Dr Trehan is the main brain behind Gurgaon’s Medanta Medicity. His goal; to make medical care affordable, in fact downright cheap, by compiling different systems of health care— western and Indian—and work it to our advantage. Our two doctors are as different as they get. While Shetty is a bit of a media recluse, Trehan is nearly always in the news. Behind that gregarious façade is a pragmatic visionary; working on Duke Medanta Research Centre, Ayurveda Department of Integrative Medicine and operating on patients with equal elan. Trehan wants a world where Indians do not have to sell assets to avail A-list medical care. With a little help from the Centre and careful drawing up of insurance plans, that dream, too, might just be a reality. Like the rest of us, Dr Trehan, too, has been give 24 hours to make all his dreams come true. He and Dr Shetty succeeds where we fail—manage their time brilliantly and stay completely focused. This month we offer a glimpse into the life of a charismatic doctor changing the way Indians view hospitals—not antiseptic land of doom, but an efficient medical space where experts try as hard as you to get your loved one home.