Vice-President Launches India Valve Registry in Chennai

Key facts

• Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan launched the India Valve Registry on September 4, 2026, during the 'India Valves 2026' national conference in Chennai.
• The India Valve Registry is a clinician-led, multicentre, patient-level and longitudinal research platform focused on valve disease and valve interventions.
• Vice-President said India must generate evidence from its own patients and clinical experience.
• Tamil Nadu Health Minister K.G. Arunraj said the state will support the registry by encouraging every empanelled hospital performing valve interventions to enrol its cases and use the evidence to refine treatment packages.
• The CMCHIS provides cashless care to about 1.48 crore families at over 2,000 empanelled hospitals, and the annual cover was enhanced from ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh per family.
• Under the Tamil Nadu STEMI programme, 18 government medical college hub hospitals with cath labs are networked to 188 peripheral hospitals.
• The hub-and-spoke model of the STEMI programme was cited internationally as a template for heart attack care, and 10 more hub hospitals are being added.
• In the last 20 months, 2,590 patients received heart valve replacement surgery at 110 empanelled hospitals, with the government paying over ₹34 crore.
• The youngest patient was a four-year-old child and the oldest was an 83-year-old person.
• A majority of these patients — 53% — were women.
• Nearly four out of every five bioprosthetic valves implanted were manufactured in India.
• Nearly half of the case sheets still carry the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease, and one in four of these patients was below 40 years of age.