News

Cardiologist welcomed to hospital staff at Wood Fire

By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Friday, May 30, 2008 10:41 AM EDT

Dr. Srinivasan Dhatreecharan - Dr. Sri Dhatree - a board-certified cardiologist, has officially joined the Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital staff.

A reception officially welcoming him and his wife, Geetha, took place Thursday evening at Wood Fire Italian trattoria.

Joy Strand, administrator and chief operating officer, Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital, welcomes Dr. Sri Dhatree and his wife, Geetha, at Wood Fire Italian trattoria May 29.

The St. Joseph residents have two daughters - one who will be a senior in high school and the other in middle school.

"For eight years, Dr. Dhatree has allowed us to provide comprehensive cardiac services to our patients - without the need for out-of-town travel," said Joy Strand, administrator and chief operating officer, Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital. "We are thrilled he has renewed his commitment to our community and look forward to him bringing the latest technologies and treatments to our hospital."

Dr. Dhatree offers access to experienced, close-to-home cardiac care through Borgess Lee Cardiology,420 W. High St., Dowagiac.

Physicians interested in making a referral may call (269) 783-3017.

Dr. Dhatree, born May 25, 1959, in the Tanjore District of India, first came to Dowagiac from Connecticut in March 1999 to join Dr. J.N. Patel's Michiana Medical Surgical Clinic on Main Street.

Even then, he was integrating computers into his examination of hearts and said, "Technology is really advancing. If computer people and medical people get together, there's lots more we can do."

Nuclear cardiology looks for ischemia, or lack of blood supply to the heart muscle, but his computer enabled him to gather more information while being less invasive.

The procedure used to involve punching a catheter hole in the groin near the femoral artery.

Medications could stimulate the heart to simulate exertion without the body actually being active, so "you get the same amount of information as if they were walking on the treadmill," he said.

Radioactive material injected into the bloodstream made its way to the heart.

Photographic images that looked like rows of pulsating, colorful Cheerios were analyzed by computer, creating cross-sections vertically and horizontally.

"The left ventricle is the main pumping chamber for the whole body," Dr. Dhatree told the Daily News in 1999. "You 'slice' the heart from the apex (bottom) to the base (top). Then come the valves. They're not muscle, they're tissue. The muscle needs more blood. You can't do this on a living heart like we can on a computer. If you have a problem, you have more than one view to confirm it. You're able to say, number one, whether they have sufficient blood supply and how well the heart is pumping. Put together, they give the doctor a lot of diagnostic information. It's amazing, actually, how much information you can get without getting into the body."

Echocardiography is an ultrasound for the heart.

"It's the same as what you use to look at the fetus in pregnant women, so it's not harmful," he said.

"How I ended up in Michigan is a very good question," he also said in that 1999 interview. "Coming from India, I had a federal obligation to serve in an underserved area for a period of three years. I'm here because this area is underserved and, hopefully, I may continue to do this beyond three years."

As to what influenced him to become his family's first doctor, he said, "In India, doctors are held in very high esteem. In India, doctors are like God and people follow whatever they tell them. People bring you their personal family problems, which you're not qualified to handle as a doctor."

His father, who suggested his medical career, retired as a clerk for a company that made soaps and detergent.

"I come from a very middle-income family with four brothers and a sister. We come from a very rough and poor background," said Dr. Dhatree, the fourth-born son. "In America, I wouldn't say a rural area is really a rural area. What don't you have? You have 24-hour department stores, computers, the Internet. I can communicate with my brothers and sister through e-mail. There are telephones and cable TV. The good thing about a small city is I don't have to face drive-by shootings, drugs and shootings in schools and stuff like that. Big cities in India are like big cities here. I don't miss city life. I'm not somebody who's into a lot of social activities like drama or cinemas. Most of the time it's long working hours and the time that you're off, sharpening your skills by doing a little reading. I don't think the (rural) area itself is a drawback."

Besides his interest in computer programming, Dr. Dhatree enjoys cricket, tennis and international politics.

He earned his M.D. in internal medicine in 1984 from Stanley Medical College and completed his first residency in India in 1988.

He attended Sri Ramakrishna Mission Boys High School (North) in Madras, India.

He won a number of prizes for academic proficiency, including: the Maxwell O. Phelps, M.D., Award for scholarship at the University of Connecticut internal medicine program, 1994-95; the Lord and Lady Willington Prize for proficiency in clinical medicine; the Lt. Col. R.B.B. Foster gold medal for the highest mark; the second certificate of honor for success at the examination of tuberculosis; the Dr. C. Nadarajan Prize for proficiency in leprosy; the Hind Kusht Nivaran Sangh Prize for proficiency in leprosy; the Maharaja of Travancore Prize for proficiency in surgery; the Dr. S. Chandrasekara Mudaliar Gold Medal for proficiency in clinical surgery; and the Stanley Medical College Old Students' Prize for proficiency in microbiology.

In addition to his postgraduate professional experience in India, Dr. Dhatree spent from April 1989 through June 1992 in the United Kingdom, including 13 months at King's College Hospital in London.

He arrived in Connecticut in 1992. After a three-year residency from July 1, 1995, to June 30, 1998, he was a Fellow in cardiology at the University of Connecticut in Farmington and then a Fellow in echocardiography at St. Francis Hospital Medical Center in Hartford.

"I did my medical residency again, for the third time," he said.

And ranked No. 1 out of a group of about 70.

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