Dr. Marthanda Varma Sankaran Valiathan, renowned cardiac surgeon and the founder director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), passed away in Manipal on July 17 at 9.14 p.m. He was 90.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed condolence at the passing away of Dr. MS Valiathan.
• He was instrumental in establishing SCTIMST as an institute of national importance in 1976.
• He headed the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery for twenty years from the inception of SCTIMST till May 1994.
• One of the highlights of his long career at SCTIMST and a flagship enterprise of the Institute, was the Indigenous development of the first-ever mechanical heart valve prosthesis of the nation, the TTK-Chitra valve — a product of 12 years of his labour of love. Dr. Valiathan himself and his team implanted the first valve at SCTIMST in 1990.