It was an incidental visit to the Enron power project that led Dr. Mahesh Joshi to identify Emergency Medicine as the important missing link in the Healthcare system and he decided to pursue it as his career. After observing in USA for a short duration he came to Apollo Hyderabad and established Emergency Medicine (EM) in India. The other side of him is ‘Mahajosh’, the talented musician who is steadily gaining popularity in the city.
Dr. Joshi always wanted to be a doctor since his childhood days and probably the inspiration came from the family physician who used to visit his ancestral home at Jalgaon. He did his MBBS from PDM Medical College Amravati in Maharashtra and thereafter went to Mumbai and did his further studies at the Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.
As CEO of Apollo Home Healthcare, his biggest challenge in the sector so far has been to make the healthcare providers and the patients understand a difference between high quality professional healthcare and general duty assistant services.
Earlier Dr. Mahesh’s role was largely handling the patients and taking care of their problems as a clinician. As a CEO now, his responsibilities have grown manifold. “I have been fortunate to have been in a situation when people needed desperate help. The number of lives we have been able to save/make difference to is the greatest satisfaction I have in life. Also, I take great pride in the fact that more than 300 doctors and paramedics who at some time were my students are practicing EM in India and other parts of the world,” says the doc proudly.
“It’s been my privilege and pride having been able to represent EM development in India at institutions like Stanford and Mayo Clinic-USA,” adds Dr. Joshi. Dr. Mahesh Joshi idolises quite a few people for their various traits like Dr. VR Joshi, Amitabh Bachchan, Kishore Kumar and looks upto his wife Varsha, for her efficiency in multitasking and perseverance.
Dr. Mahesh Joshi aka Mahajosh always had a keen ear for music. It was during his MBBS days that he discovered his talent when he got a lot of appreciation from his seniors and colleagues which made him pursue music more sincerely.
“I have participated in various contests and won awards. There was a time when I had to choose between medicine and music; but having spent close to six years studying medicine I decided to choose medicine first but ensured that I keep the creativity in me intact. Now after having reached a certain stage in my professional career as a doctor, I feel I must give a little more time to my passion for singing. The feeling of entertaining an audience you hardly know and taking them along into a world of happiness and joy is unparalleled,” confesses Mahajosh.
Dr. Mahesh Joshi beautifully balances his two worlds of profession and passion and takes inspiration from each to enhance the other. “For me being an artist keeps the human being in me alive. This is very essential for Healthcare providers, particularly doctors. Because, we see so much of illness on a long term basis, we tend to get de-sensitised over time. I think creativity/music keeps your sensitivity alive.
As long as your priorities are clear, multitasking is usually not a problem. Yes, sometimes when you have back to back performances etc., and you need to travel; things do get demanding. In the process of balancing – the sleep gets sacrificed!” admits Mahajosh.
Dr. Mahesh Joshi is also the proud recipient of quite a few awards such as – the Life time achievement award by the SEMI (Society for Emergency Medicine India) for Excellence and dedication to specialty of Emergency Medicine India, the Kalakriti award for Excellence and Achievement 2014 and the Rotary Club SACE- Vocational Excellence award 2016.
The plan in the pipeline for Apollo Home Healthcare is to introduce chronic disease management programs like Home dialysis and home chemotherapy in the coming year. “We will be integrating technology to enable an easy access to any kind of healthcare service at home including video consults with specialists etc., in the next year,” says the doctor.
Five years hence, Dr. Mahesh Joshi hopes to see Apollo homecare as the biggest and the best home healthcare provider in this part of the world. The musician in him hopes to release his first album, ‘Mahajosh’. Apart from this he also wishes to do a tour across India to support a genuine cause.
