Dr. VIVEK JAWALI, the pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac surgery in India, hails from Aland in Gulbarga district. He stood first in the final MBBS in 1974 and was honored as the “best all round outgoing student”. He completed his M.S. from JJMMC, Davangere and M.Ch. in CVT Surgery from KEM Hospital & Seth GS Medical College, Mumbai.

Dr. Jawali performed India's first minimally invasive bypass surgery in September 1994, and has since been actively promoting it in India. In February 2000, he also performed India's first awake bypass surgery on a fully conscious patient without general anesthesia or ventilator, using the technique of continuous high thoracic epidural analgesia. In July 2002, he performed the world's first awake open heart surgery, which involved an aortic valve replacement with a triple bypass on a 74-year-old patient. He has many indexed publications and the world's highest experience on this procedure.

Dr. Jawali has performed more than 15,000 surgeries, has presented more than 200 scientific papers, delivered six national orations, apart from conducting demonstrations of new techniques in heart surgery at various hospitals in India and abroad.

He is a founder member of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgeons and is currently the President-elect of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS). He has been the vicepresident of the Indian College of Cardiology and is on the editorial board of the CTS Net, the Journal of Indian Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Indian Journal of Cardiac Anesthesia.

He has many awards to his name, including the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, the Dr. B.C. Roy Award for Medical Excellence, the Kempegowda Award for Outstanding Citizen by the Bangalore City Corporation, the Citizen Extraordinaire Award by the Giant's International and the “Vachanashri” (Basava Jayanti) Award by the Govt. of Karnataka. In 2006, he received the Harvard Medical International Lifetime Achievement Award for Medical Excellence in India.