Viswanathan Mohan: a dynasty of diabetology

Abstract

Diabetes runs in some families but it’s the study and treatment of diabetes that runs in Viswanathan Mohan’s. His father, Moopil Viswanathan, earned himself the title of India’s ‘father of diabetology.’ In 1948, he established the country’s first diabetes clinic in post-independence India at the Stanley Medical College, a government-run institute in Chennai (then known as Madras). “It’s a mystery to me why he chose to do that,” says Mohan. “There were only a few people with diabetes in the whole city.”