Dr. MV Pillai was born at Harippad in Alleppey district as the eldest son of Sri. Kainikkara Madhavan Pillai, a senior research officer in Kerala University, Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library. His mother is Smt. Thankamma. Dr. Pillai did his primary schooling at the Model school in Thiruvananthapuram. He was selected to the Medical College, from among the top twelve students on a merit basis, after his pre-university class.

After completing his MBBS from Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram he joined the Kottayam Medical College as a tutor in medicine. He then did his MD in General Medicine from Kerala University, and subsequently worked as a tutor in medicine at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and later as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Calicut Medical College.

After returning to Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, he edited the Silver Jubilee Souvenir of his alma mater in 1976, a publication offering excellent reference resources about medical education in Kerala.

In 1977, he went to New Zealand under a commonwealth fellowship. He was trained in Hematology at Auckland University. He represented New Zealand in a combined Australia-New Zealand epidemiological study of iron deficiency among the indigenous population of Fiji Islands.

In 1979 he immigrated to the United States and had advanced training in Medical Oncology at the Medical College of Virginia. He then joined United States Air Force Medical Corps in Washington DC, where he subsequently became the Chief of Hematology/Oncology at the Malcolm Grow Medical Centre.

He was then recruited to do pre-clinical research on the effect of ionizing radiation on blood forming organs. It was during this time that Dr. Pillai was instrumental in organising the First International Consensus Conference on the Treatment of Radiation Injuries, a topic originating from the Chernobyl disaster. He has fond memories of his association with Hematologists from the then Soviet Union. The proceedings of this conference were later published with Dr. Pillai as the editor.

For the past twenty years, he is working as a consultant Hematologist Oncologist in the United States. He also holds the title of Clinical Professor of medicine at George Washington University.

Presently, he is the Director of Virginia Oncology Care, a program offering comprehensive cancer care to the coal miners.

He is married to Mrs. Padmaja. He has two children, Both of them are now working as attorneys in US corporations, Preetha in International Financial Law and Vinu, as a Health Policy Lawyer.