Mohan M. Rajapurkar

Pioneer Award: ISN South Asia region

The ISN Pioneer Awards honor the ‘unsung heroes’ of nephrology: doctors who have made extraordinary efforts to advance nephrology in a specific country or region. Without their dedication, nephrology would be far behind its current state in their home country.

Dr. Mohan M. Rajapurkar is the director of Postgraduate Studies and Research at the Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital in Nadiad, Gujarat, India, and a member of the board of governors, Muljibhai Patel Society for Research in Nephro-Urology.

He established the first Clinical Nephrology, Maintenance Hemodialysis, and Live Donor Kidney Transplantation and Interventional Nephrology program at Nephrology and Urology institute (a non-profit organization) in Nadiad, a first for the state of Gujarat. He obtained accreditation from the National Board of Examination for Nephrology for teaching nephrology and has trained 64 nephrologists who provide kidney care services in all Indian states.

He set up a nephrology research facility recognized by the Indian government. His major area of active research is serum catalytic iron as a biomarker for acute kidney and cardiac injury. He has published 124 peer-reviewed papers in various journals, has several US and European patents for catalytic iron, and is developing a home hemodialysis machine in India.

Dr. Rajapurkar received the Dr. B. C. Roy National Award for 2007, the ANIO Distinguished Service Award USA for 2017, and Lifetime Achievement & Pioneer awards from the Indian Society of Nephrology in 2021 and 2022.