Dr. Mahesh K

Dr. Mahesh Kappanayil has been working at Amrita Hospital Kochi since 2004. He serves as the professor at pediatric cardiology,  in-charge Amrita Medical 3D Printing, Extended Reality and Innovation Laboratories, Coordinator of Amrita Centre for Cardiac Engineering and Nodal officer of Amrita Telemedicine Unit. Apart from being an astute clinician, excellent cardiac imager and skilled interventionist, he is also a renowned healthcare pioneer, researcher and innovator. He is recognised as an expert in interpreting advanced cardiac imaging modalities like Cardiac MRI and CT and has been leading the pediatric cardiac MRI program at Amrita since 2010. This is the first such dedicated program for congenital heart MRI in India. He has published several research papers on genetic disorders in children with heart disease, and has played a key role in discovering a rare genetic disorder of children from northern Kerala (Malabar). Dr.Mahesh has a keen interest in genetic Aortopathy syndromes that include Marfan Syndrome.

As a healthcare innovator, Dr.Mahesh has helped develop mobile apps and other such technological tools to help provide safer care for patients. Among Dr.Mahesh’s most significant roles has been in pioneering the use of novel 3D technologies in cardiac surgeries. He helped establish South Asia’s first point-of-care Medical 3D Printing Lab at Amrita in 2015, and continues to lead it. This is an advanced laboratory where medical scan images are converted to physical prototypes that help doctors plan extremely complex procedures. Dr.Mahesh also pioneered the use of Extended Reality (VR/AR) in Healthcare by developing one of the first-of-its-kind XR Lab at Amrita in 2021. With his team of engineers, Dr.Mahesh helps create “digital twin” of patient anatomy from their scan images, which then can be seen in 3D in virtual reality, helping doctors digitally walk-through anatomy and do virtual surgical planning. Such technologies are available at very few centres globally.

• Advanced congenital cardiac imaging (Cardiac MRI, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality)
• Interventional pediatric cardiology
• Cardiogenetics and Aortopathy syndromes
• Quality Improvement initiatives

MBBS, DCH, DNB, FNB (Pediatric Cardiology)

• English
• Hindi
• Malayalam
• Punjabi

Dr. Mahesh K has over 20 years experience in Pediatric Cardiology, and over 10 years experience in using advanced 3D technologies in Healthcare.

• 1999 Best Postgraduate in Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
• 2005 Best paper: Cardiology society of India, Kerala Chapter, Annual Conference
• 2008 Korea Save The Children Travel Award, 2nd Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatric
• Cardiology/ Cardiac Surgery, Jeju, South Korea
• 2010 Young Investigator Award, Annual Conference of Pediatric Cardiac Society of India, Mumbai
• 2010 Helped established India’s first dedicated CHD-CMRI program at Amrita Hospital, Kochi
• 2012 Young Investigator Travel Award, World Congress of Cardiology, Dubai
• 2012 Best Paper in ICU category, Annual Conference of Pediatric Cardiac Society of India, Trivandrum
• 2012 Published the discovery of a novel lethal genetic syndrome (FBLN4 mutation) among Malabar Mappila children
• 2014 Best Poster (surgical stream), 2nd Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatric Cardiology/Cardiac Surgery, New Delhi.
• 2015-16. Led the establishment of India’s first point-of-care Medical 3D Printing Lab at Amrita Hospital, Kochi.
• 2016 Best Oral Abstract, Annual Conference of Pediatric Cardiac Society of India, Bangalore
• 2016 Felicitation for pioneering use of 3D Printing in healthcare, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Festival of Innovations
• 2016 FICCI Healthcare Innovation award for use of 3D Printing in Medical Technology category.
• 2018 Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Grant Award ($100,000) for creating novel mHealth application NeoPORT.
• 2019 3D Printing World award for innovations in 3D Printing in healthcare, Mumbai.
• 2021 Led the establishment of India’s first point-of-care Medical 3D/VR/AR Lab at Amrita Hospital, Kochi.
• 2022 MedicAll Healthcare Innovation Award - Jury Award for 3D+ applications in Healthcare - Rs.50,000/- plus citation.
• 2022 MedicAll Healthcare Innovation Award - Winners’ Choice for 3D+ applications in Healthcare - citation.
• 2022 Terry King Traveling Scholarship Award, Pediatric and Congenital Interventional Cardiac Society, Chicago, USA.
• 2023 Selected as “Eminent Jury” for MedicAll Healthcare Innovation Award 2023.
• 2023 Finalist at FICCI Health Awards 2023 in the segment ‘Digital Transformation of Healthcare’ [Finalist presentation on 14th September 2023] for breakthrough innovations in use of advanced 3D technologies - 3D Printing and Extended Reality in Healthcare and Medicine.
• 2023 Preliminary award of INR 1.5 crore research grant from ICMR - Investigator Initiated Research Project [Proposal Id “IIRP-2023-4240/F1] 
• 2023 Savitri Shrivastava Imaging Award, Pediatric Cardiac Society of India for best PG research thesis.
• 2023 1st Runner-Up - Indian Heart Journal CSI Thesis Award, Cardiology Society of India.
• 2024 Chancellor’s Research Publication Excellence Award.