Early Life
Devi Prasad Shetty was born on May 8, 1953, in Kinnigoli, Karnataka, India. He was one of nine children and developed a strong drive to succeed, inspired by the story of Christiaan Barnard, a South African surgeon who performed the first heart transplant. He completed his schooling at St. Aloysius School in Mangaluru. He received his MBBS in 1979 and a postgraduate degree in General Surgery from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. He later earned an FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons in England.
Rise to Success
Shetty began his career in India in 1989 at B.M. Birla Hospital in Kolkata. In 1992, he performed India's first neonatal heart surgery on a 21-day-old baby. He then became Mother Teresa’s personal physician. In 2001, he founded Narayana Hrudayalaya (now Narayana Health) in Bangalore, with the mission of making high-quality healthcare affordable. His innovative strategies, such as economies of scale and streamlined processes, significantly reduced the cost of cardiac surgeries.
Key Business Strategies
Shetty's success is rooted in his ability to provide high-quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost. He achieved this through several key strategies: buying cheaper scrubs and using cross ventilation. Narayana Health performs a high volume of surgeries, and he has focused on keeping costs low to increase accessibility to medical care. Shetty has also expanded his operations, including a hospital in the Cayman Islands, and has plans to expand further. He focuses on streamlining costs, by providing efficient solutions, and by drafting and training patients’ family members to administer after-surgical care. Surgeons in his hospitals perform 30 to 35 surgeries a day compared to one or two in a US hospital.
Philanthropy
Devi Shetty is known for his dedication to philanthropy. He founded the Yeshasvini Micro-Health Insurance Scheme in Karnataka, which offered affordable health insurance to farmers. The program was designed to help farmers and peasants access medical care at a nominal premium of 5-7 Indian Rupees (approximately 6-8 cents in US dollars) per month.
