Dear Friends & Colleagues
Rela Hospital has been established with a vision to provide outstanding clinical care. Here, we have integrated highly qualified medical professionals, who are best in their respective fields, with state-of-the-art infrastructure. We have dedicated ourselves to transforming the health of people we serve. We aim to innovate and lead by maintaining the highest standards in patient care. We guarantee complete doctor and employee commitment. We may be regarded as one of the most scientifically advanced hospitals in India because we believe that technology bridges therapeutic gaps. Above all, we believe that compassion cures.
Mohamed Rela
Chairman & Managing Director
Rela Hospital
The sum and substance of a man is essentially routed in his origins but the raw material is moulded by the wealth of experience that life deals out. Prof. Mohamed Rela was born in a small village in the Thanjavur district which is known as the rice bowl of south India. It has also been the heart land of the Tamil culture for centuries. Essentially, this is who Prof. Rela is- a proud son of the soil with a native soul. He was moulded by an education at the eclectic Kalakshetra school in Chennai, an institute of formidable repute known for its deep rooted “Indianess”. After his formal medical education in Stanley Medical College, his sojourn to the UK and his subsequent life there honed his personality to include western ethics into Indian ethos. The man he is now, is a combination of keen intelligence, principles, diligence and generosity with a hint of vulnerability.
Prof. Mohamed Rela has many accolades to his credit. He stood first in the first ever state level postgraduate entrance examination, as he enrolled for the Masters in Surgery course at Stanley Medical College, Chennai. After completing another Masters in Surgery, he cleared the Fellowship exams of the Royal College of Surgeons in the UK. He spent his initial few years in the UK rotating across surgical specialities fine tuning his surgical skills.
Prof. Rela has spent close to three decades at the prestigious King’s college hospital, where he continues to be the Professor of liver surgery. Niche areas of liver transplantation like auxiliary transplantation, split liver transplantation techniques and live donor liver transplantation were pioneered by him at the King’s College for the world to emulate, and scores of patients to benefit. In a glittering career over 3 decades, Prof. Rela has performed over 4500 liver transplants, including one on a five-day-old baby, earning him an entry into the Guinness Book of world Records. Two decades later, the baby is now a budding lawyer, and the reunion of the recipient and her saviour surgeon was indeed heartening, standing testimony to the durability and success of paediatric transplantation.
With an intention to give back to his homeland, and help stimulate the growth of liver transplantation in India, Prof. Rela returned to Tamilnadu,India. He set up an extremely successful liver transplant unit, having performed over 1500 liver transplants in a short span of 8 years. He was also the catalyst in starting transplants in tier 2 cities in Tamilnadu, providing access to such high end medical facilities even to people from far flung places. With an eye on the future, he also started the post-doctoral fellowship in liver transplantation, providing a structured training to the next generation of doctors, and further the field of liver transplantation in India.
Further he has been honoured with Doctorate of Science degrees from three universities, recognising his service to healthcare. He was voted as one of the 20 Most Innovative Paediatric Surgeons Alive Today. With over 600 publications and a keen interest in basic research, Prof. Rela has been appointed as the Chancellor of the Bharat University, India.
Liver Transplantation is a complex procedure and requires high infrastructure, an expert medical team, preserving the organs, expensive drugs, prolonged stay in the ICU — all of which add to the cost. But, it is still cheaper in India because the cost of the personnel and hospital fees is comparatively low. In the USA, a liver transplant would cost $2,50,000 (Rs1.15 crore). With most healthcare services in India being privately funded, Liver Surgery and Liver Transplantation remains an expensive affair, limited to the corporate hospitals. One way to make it affordable is to rope in the government to subsidise it or to offer it free of cost at public hospitals. With an aim to make these services more affordable, Prof. Rela has undertaken training the Surgical Gastroenterology unit at his alma mater, Govt. Stanley Hospital, Chennai in liver transplantation. The unit now has 100% results, having performed over 30 transplants in a short span of 2 years. With a focus on a strong, dedicated yet ethical concept of healthcare, Prof. Rela has now ventured into an enterprise, he has set up a new healthcare facility, Rela Hospital.
The new centre, an International Medical Facility is a quaternary care hospital dedicated to fostering and responding to the needs of a diverse set of patients. The hospital is committed to being an internationally significant health care system with the state-of- the- art infrastructure facilities, functioning in a sprawling area of 36 acres of land located in Chromepet, Chennai, India. With the facility of 450 beds inclusive of 130 critical care beds, 14 operating rooms, contemporary reference laboratories and radiology services. This centre is located in close proximity of road, rail and air transport. The Institute is designed to provide highly expertised care in all specialties with special focus on care of critical illness and multi-organ transplantation. This hospital houses one of the world’s largest dedicated liver intensive care units. In addition to the quality quaternary care in all specialties, the Rela Hospital is committed to providing day to day ‘primary and secondary care’ to the local population with international standards.
Prof. Rela is now concentrating on developing techniques which could help do away with liver transplant. These include, cell therapy and stem cells. The third area is research on new immunosuppressant drugs, which will be better tolerated by the human body, and therefore reduce the rate of rejection. He believes in sharing of expertise, especially among developing countries. He has been personally involved in building up the infrastructure in some units apart from performing operations at different centres.
Prof. Mohamed Rela’s vision is to bring international standards to healthcare. He envisions a patient-centric system dedicated to transforming lives through excellent clinical quality, easily accessible to all. His focus is on complex diseases requiring extensive treatment as well as primary healthcare.