Keral.com

Although settled overseas during the past quarter of a century, he believes that "home is where the heart is" and has never missed a chance to show his affection and respect to the homeland. He has organized scores of cancer care update conferences in various parts of India, including the Tata Memorial Cancer Centre, Bombay, Kamala Nehru Memorial Cancer Centre, Allahabad, UP, and several international meetings at the Regional cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

In 1992, he was instrumental in organizing the first international conference on pain management in India, at the Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum. This conference paved the way for the establishment of pain and palliative care Centre in different parts of State.

Pillai also had the distinct honor to be actively involved in the silver jubilee and Golden jubilee celebrations of his alma mater (Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram), a rare fortune, for an alumnus.

It was his proposal to the alumni in USA that led to the establishment of the $150,000, Golden Jubilee memorial Learning Resource Centre in Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, which was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister AK Antony in December. The amount was raised from the alumni of TMC, in USA through AKMG.

Perhaps the most gratifying event for him during last year was the introduction of National comprehensive Cancer network for India (Inaugurated by the President, Dr Abdul Kalam, in Jaipur, Dec 22).

The idea for this was proposed by Pillai to the leading Cancer specialists in India, the Director General of Health Services, Health secretary at the central Govt and other senior officials. The project was partly funded by Indo American Cancer Congress, a professional and social organization of all cancer specialists of Indian origin now living in USA. Pillai is a member of the Board of Governors of IACC.

With this project Cancer care in all major cancer hospitals will be brought on a par with the care available in the top 19 cancer centres in USA. The treatment guidelines updated every year are published on the Internet and even doctors in the remotest parts of India can access it. China and Japan have also joined this network.

For providing the leadership to this project, Pillai received a memento from the President.

Dr.pillai has helped to train severel staff members of the Regional Cancer Centre at major US medical institutions.

In 1995 he was elected as the president of The Association of Medical Graduates (AKMG), a professional and social organisation of over 1,500 medical and dental doctors of Kerala heritage, now settled in Canada and USA. It was during his tenure as president of AKMG that the organisation made notable contributions to its links with Kerala State.

The American College of Physicians came to India for the first time, to hold their prestigious Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP) at the Kovalam beach in December 1995. The Mayo Clinic sponsored the course.
Following the successful completion of this program, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Government of Kerala and the Mayo Clinic in the USA, to set up the Indian Institute of Diabetes in Trivandrum as a center of excellence.
It was during his presidency that the AKMG took the initiative to bring the world-famous John Hopkins University to Kerala to establish the Asian Institute of Public Health. Although an initial MOU was signed between the government of Kerala and the John Hopkins University, the project was later abandoned due to political reasons beyond the control of Kerala government.
During the same year, nurses from Kerala Government were trained at the Loma Linda University, California, in critical care and emergency medicine as part of a long -range plan to equip the Kerala hospitals with state of the art resources in those specialties.
The cultural contributions of AKMG to its homeland were also of interest during this time. AKMG conducted a competition to compose a new "Keralaganam", and from among the 1,000+ entries, Kerala's celebrated poet, Sri Palai Narayanan Nair won the first prize. The song was dedicated formally by Mr. Yesudas and Ms. Chitra, at a formal function held in the concert hall of the famous Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC.

AKMG also organised a literary translation competition (Malayalam to English) for short stories, and the winner got the opportunity to attend a modern literary translation workshop in Washington DC, organised by the prestigious Writer's Center. This training helped the winner later, to translate some of the celebrated works in Malayalam to contemporary American English.