Pune cardiologist Dr Shirish Hiremath, former Cardiological Society of India president, dies at 75

Dr Shirish (M. S.) Hiremath, a well-known senior cardiologist of Pune, has died at the age of 75. He passed away at his home in Sopan Baug at around 9 pm on Thursday. He was a former president of the Cardiological Society of India and was held in high regard in Pune.

He had been unwell for the past few years and was battling illness. People have expressed that his death leaves a void in the field of interventional cardiology, where he was a highly experienced and skilled doctor.

Dr Hiremath completed his MBBS and MD at B. J. Medical College, and later earned a DM in cardiology from the same institution. His medical career began in 1982 at Joshi Hospital in Pune. He later served at several well-known hospitals in the city, including Ruby Hall Clinic.

At Ruby Hall Clinic, he headed the cardiac cath lab for a long time and discharged that important responsibility well. He is also known as a former director of Ruby Hall Clinic. In a career of nearly four decades, he performed more than 40,000 angioplasties and more than one lakh angiographies. He is counted among the pioneering doctors who carried out successful angioplasties in the early years in Pune.

Dr Hiremath did not confine himself to treatment. He also made considerable efforts to make people aware of the prevention of heart disease, timely tests and proper treatment. He is credited with a major contribution to popularising the "pharmaco-invasive approach" in India, which enables prompt and modern treatment of patients who suffer a heart attack.

His death has caused deep grief in the medical world and among the many young doctors who were trained under his guidance.