T. Dhinakaran MBBS, MD, MNAMS, DM

Dr T Dhinakaran is Director and Chief Nephrologist at Madurai Kidney Centre & Transplantation Research Institute in Madurai. He has vast experience as a Kidney specialist, having been in this field for three decades, since 1984. His Kidney Centre is a 60-bed exclusive Nephro-Uro centre, which has been offering total nephron-uro care since 1992.

Dr Dhinakaran started his practice in Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation at the Govt. Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, where he was a Professor and Head of the Department of Nephrology from 1984 to 1992. He was responsible for setting up the department and organising the dialysis and transplantation services. Earlier, from 1976 to 1982, he had served as Assistant Surgeon and Physician at the District Headquarters Hospital in Nagercoil.

Dr Dhinakaran has been very active in the Association of Physicians of India (API) and the Indian Society of Nephrology and was largely responsible for setting up state- and regional-level chapters of these organisations. He is also the Founder-Secretary of the Nephrology Association of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry (NATPU). He has considerable teaching experience, and is also a regular speaker at Continuing Medical Education (CME) programmes in Madurai; he himself has been conducting an Annual CME update in Nephrology for Physicians, for over a decade now.

Dr Dhinakaran has done much research, and a number of his research studies have been presented by him and his research colleagues at leading Nephrology conferences in India and internationally, which he attends regularly. Dr Dhinakaran focuses a lot on patient awareness and education. He conducts group counselling sessions for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients twice a month, covering topics regarding CAPD, Hemodialysis and Transplantation. The Madurai Kidney Centre has a regular screening programme for Diabetes patients, under the project "READ" - Renal Evaluation Among Diabetics. There is also a regular screening programme for Hypertensives, called "REACH" - Renal Evaluation Among Chronic Hypertensives.