Sudi Devanesen

Sudarshan (Sudi) Devanesen, CM (born 1943), is an Indian-Canadian family physician and educator, public health activist, and member of the Order of Canada.

Devanesen studied at Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore, Madras Christian College of the University of Madras, and the Christian Medical College in Vellore, all in India. Trained as a surgeon, began his medical practice in remote villages in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

In 1972, he immigrated to Canada. After briefly practicing at Janeway Children's Hospital at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Newfoundland, he moved to Toronto, Ontario, and resumed studies to respecialize as a family physician. He began study at St. Michael's Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto in 1973; he would eventually become Chief of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael's, and is today an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He was medical director of the Broadview Community Health Clinic from 1980 to 1989. He also served as physician for the Fred Victor Centre, a downtown Toronto mission serving the homeless, and on the board of directors of Casey House, a hospice serving HIV/AIDS patients.

He earned his Master of Clinical Science degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1990, and is a Fellow of The College of Family Physicians Canada.

An advocate of holistic medicine, his practice integrates the medical and biopsychosocial models of health care. Particularly concerned with prevention of disease and interested in cardiovascular disease, he became founding president (1994–1997) of a South Asian Community Council of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and has both studied and educated on the risks of cardiovascular disease in the South Asian community in Canada.

He was appointed Member of the Order of Canada on May 30, 2001 and invested with the honour on December 4, 2001. His citation into the Order called him "a positive role model and mentor to hundreds of medical residents, family physicians and nurse practitioners." ^[1]

Devanesen practices family medicine in Mississauga and Toronto, Ontario . He practices alongside his wife, Asha Devanesen, also a physician. His brother, Dayalan Devanesen, is a primary care physician who has been awarded the Order of Australia. Their father Chandran Devanesan was the first Indian Principal of Madras Christian College and mother Savithri (Norma Amybelle) was a sister of Leslie Goonewardena, Trotskyist and independence activist.^[2]

References