Dr Seth who was awarded India's "Padma Shri" by the Indian President in 2003 is an honorary professor of cardiology of Bangladesh Medical College and he has been visiting the country every year during the past one decade to train our local doctors.

Dr Seth joined Max Heart & Vascular Institute of (Saket) New Delhi, India in November 2004. Dr Seth got MCRP, FRCP, FACC, FSCAI and gave up a prestigious appointment at the University Department of Cardiology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birminghum, UK to return to India and joined the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC), New Delhi, since its inception as Chief of Invasive and Interventional Cardiology.

Dr Seth is widely recognised as a leader in the field of interventional cardiology. He is a pioneer in the use of directional atherectomy and stents. Dr Seth, who was awarded numerous national and international awards, has performed the highest number of angiographies and angioplasties in the Asia-Pacific region. He is faculty member of several prestigious international scientific bodies and has been guest speaker at several institutions in India and across the world. He is currently serving on the editorial board of several internationally indexed medical publications of Cardiology and Internal Medicine.

During his recent visit he talked elaborately about plans to bring advanced medical technologies for the benefit of patients and common people particularly in the subcontinent. Dr Seth also discussed elaborately on the future of cardiac care in Bangladesh and his contribution to the sector.

Dr Seth trains Bangladeshi doctors at National Heart Foundation, Bangladesh Medical College, National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases (NICVD). There is also provision of regular training on angiography and angioplasty of Bangladeshi doctors in India. Dr Seth prefers to train doctors from government level to serve the common people.

Like the previous years he also has plan to train more Bangladeshi doctors, particularly young cardiologists who are able to return and contribute immensely. Because of its modern facilities at the Max Healthcare all the trainees would be readily exposed to use of the world's latest equipment.

As Dr Seth is familiar with the cardiac care of our country over the last one decade, he opined that the development in cardiology during the past few years is tremendous. The sector is growing fast and there are lots of reliable physicians in the respective field. Especially our doctors have developed immensely in angiography and angioplasty. This is why Dr Seth opined that there is no reason for Bangladeshi people to go abroad for cardiac care. The advanced technology is reaching the common people.

But the confidence on the local doctors still remains a major problem, he said. He is, however, very hopeful that because the young cardiologists have done so well during training, he is sure that in years to come they would be able to build that confidence to serve the local patients.

Talking about the cost of the medicine in our country, Dr Seth said that it is quite reasonable. He said that here are three important aspects of cost in cardiac care. One is until we are able to reach high tech-professional expertise in cardiac care to the middle class we are not reaching our goals. As far as cost is concerned I must say that all levy on life saving medical accessories must be withdrawn. Unless we are able to control pricing at this end middle class people who need cardiac care would continue to find it costly. The second is establishment of good hospitals with facilities to offer total care. A patient with heart disease should be able to confidently walk in to such hospital where they would be looked after. Here rich and the middle class both would be coming for treatment but while keeping the standard of services the same middle class and the rich get treated like in a cinema hall where they have separate sitting arrangements but watching the same movie. Here subsidising prices for those who cannot afford cost of all the services could be a good idea. Thirdly, third party payment or health insurance could be a good idea, which can make people afford such super-specialised healthcare facilities. The concept of private insurance for healthcare is gradually increasing in South Asia even in Bangladesh.

Dr Seth is also pioneer in the research sector. He expressed about the research of heart valves that could be implanted non-invasively like the intervention of stents. The fascinating technique is still on trial and on animal models, 25 experiments have been performed where the success rate is 75 percent. He is also trying to develop a low cost drug eluting stent (at a surprising cost of Rs 25000 only).