Critical Care hope command center in Jaipur (Photo: Critical Care Hope)
Dr Shailesh Jhawar, a participant of ISB’s AMPH Founding Class, has been awarded the 2026 Acumen India Fellowship. He is the Director of Apex Hospitals and Critical Care Hope. The fellowship recognises leaders who work on poverty, inequality and other systemic challenges through lasting solutions.
Dr Jhawar’s work begins with a simple belief: geography should not decide who lives. In India, advanced critical care is often available only in big cities. A patient in a smaller town may need an expert decision in the middle of the night, and the nurse looking after individual may have no specialist to ask.
Critical Care Hope is trying to solve this problem with considerable early success. It runs an eICU network from a central command centre in Jaipur, which works 24×7. Through it, hospitals across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, including those in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, get specialist critical care guidance at any hour. Patients can be treated well in their own town without being moved to a distant city.
The work is built as a partnership with each hospital. Along with round-the-clock support, it includes training to help nurses feel more confident, clinical protocols that reach the bedside in time, and open sharing of outcomes so the results can be trusted.
Dr. Jhawar sees the fellowship as a wider responsibility, not just an honour. His goal is to make advanced critical care a normal part of district hospitals. He also welcomes anyone who wants to help, whether by building, funding or practising, and invites them to visit the command centre and see the work first-hand.
The recognition also fits the aim of Apex Hospitals to make quality, specialised healthcare more accessible through innovation and responsible leadership.