Shirish Hiremath

Shirish Hiremath, known throughout his career as Dr Shirish (M.S.) Hiremath and to many colleagues simply as MS, was one of the pioneers of interventional cardiology in Pune and western India. Over a career of more than four decades he performed, according to Pune news reports published after his death, more than 40,000 angioplasties and over one lakh (100,000) angiographies, and he served as President of the Cardiological Society of India (CSI) for 2016 to 2017.

He was born on 17 July 1951. Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Pune, Maharashtra. He studied medicine at B.J. Medical College, Pune, attached to Sassoon General Hospital, where he completed his MBBS and MD, and he went on to a DM in Cardiology. Pune news reports place all three degrees at B.J. Medical College, while his Wikipedia biography and profiles from cardiology bodies list the DM under the University of Mumbai. He later held the MNAMS and fellowship of the Indian Society of Echocardiography.

Hiremath began his cardiology career in 1982 at Joshi Hospital in Erandwane, Pune. In 1985 Gentleman magazine named him the most promising young cardiologist, and from 1987 he was performing coronary angioplasty, at a time when the procedure was new to India. He spent most of his career at Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune, where he was Director of the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory, and he also served as Managing Trustee and Director of the Aundh Institute of Medical Sciences in Pune. Profiles of him credit him with several firsts for Pune, including early use of dual chamber pacemakers, balloon mitral valvotomy and coronary stents, and with early carotid artery stenting in the region.

He became widely known for complex coronary work, including chronic total occlusions (CTO), and for teaching. He performed live CTO cases for the India Live conference, relayed live angioplasty demonstrations from Ruby Hall Clinic to international meetings, proctored doctors in Malaysia, China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, and gave more than a thousand invited lectures. He was regular faculty at international meetings such as EuroPCR, the ESC Congress and TCT, and took part as an investigator in global clinical trials. Colleagues credit him with promoting the pharmaco-invasive approach to heart attack care in India, where early clot-dissolving treatment is followed by timely angioplasty, an important strategy in a country where many patients cannot reach a cath lab quickly.

Within the profession he held senior leadership roles. He led the National Interventional Council of the CSI in the mid-2000s and chaired the Cardiovascular Society of India, which ran the Asia Intervention Summit. In 2016 he became President of the Cardiological Society of India, the first president from western India outside Mumbai, according to the Cardiology Club Association of India.

Hiremath also cared about public awareness of heart disease. In May 2009 he and his brother, cardiologist Dr Jagdish Hiremath, staged a humorous awareness play, Heart by Hiremaths, written by Satish Kulkarni, at Balgandharva Rangmandir in Pune, explaining heart disease through everyday situations. He frequently spoke to the media about stents, heart attack warning signs and the need for patients not to delay treatment, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his final years he posted a note on his website announcing his retirement from consulting and procedures, while urging people to lead heart healthy lives.

He was married to Leena Hiremath. He had been diagnosed with a brain tumour a few years before his death and had been unwell for nearly two years, according to Pune Pulse and Medical Dialogues. He died at his residence in Sopan Baug, Pune, at around 9 pm on Thursday 29 October 2026, aged 75. His colleague Dr Rahul Nagda confirmed the death. Ruby Hall Clinic chairman Dr Purvez Grant paid tribute to his kindness and compassion, and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and former minister Harshvardhan Patil were among those who posted condolences. Funeral arrangements were not widely reported.

His legacy lies in the thousands of patients he treated and in the generation of interventional cardiologists he trained and mentored across India and Asia.