Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy didn’t plan to leave the operating room. As a liver transplant anaesthesiologist trained in India and the UK, his career was built around precision, trust, and care at the most critical edge of medicine.
But over time, something changed.
“I realised I was spending more energy fixing systems than treating patients,” he says. “And I could either complain about the system – or step up to change it.”
That moment sparked a transformation. After returning from the UK and building a liver transplant programme from the ground up, Dr Ilan gradually moved from the operating room to the boardroom. Today, as CEO of Apollo Hospitals – Chennai Region, he leads not just to deliver care – but to reimagine how it is delivered.
The transition wasn’t easy, but it was purposeful. “As a doctor, you touch 20 patients a day. As a leader, your decisions touch thousands,” he reflects. “I still carry that clinical lens – the nurses’ fatigue, the patient’s anxiety, the young doctor’s doubt – into every strategy meeting. That’s where empathy becomes policy.”
His leadership philosophy is rooted in listening, systems thinking, and an unwavering focus on patient outcomes. He’s particularly excited about the integration of AI into hospital management – not as a buzzword, but as a real tool for efficiency, access, and safety.
His time at ISB played a catalytic role. “I came to ISB to understand the language of business. I left with a new way of thinking. It gave me the confidence to lead outside the comfort of clinical identity.”
To fellow doctors at a crossroads, he offers this clarity: “You’re not stepping away from medicine – you’re scaling it. If you care about changing healthcare, don’t stay on the sidelines. We need more doctors in rooms where systems are shaped.
”Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy is an alumnus of ISB’s PGP MAX Class of 2020. This story part of the series curated on the occasion of Doctors’ Day 2025.