Devi Prasad Shetty is an Indian cardiac surgeon. He is chairman and Founder, Narayana Health. He was born on 8 May 1953 in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada, Mysore State, India (now Karnataka, India). He completed his graduation in Medicine and post-graduation in General Surgery from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. He trained in cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom at Guys Hospital. In the year 1989, he returned to India and initially worked at B.M. Birla Hospital in Kolkata. After some time, he moved to Karnataka and started the Manipal Heart Foundation at Manipal Hospital in Bangalore. Shetty wanted to start his career as a cardio surgeon and made plans to join hands with the Pai family of Manipal. He had plans to start working in a cardiology hospital. He started his career as a cardio surgeon. In the West Midlands Cardiothoracic Rotation Program he had gone through basic training in cardiac surgery. He obtained heavy capital from reliable sources and from the government to start with his project and thus on May 8, 2001, Dr. Devi Shetty founded Narayana Hrudayalaya (NH).

Devi Shetty has helped quite a lot in reducing the cost of heart operations. He is the first heart surgeon in India to venture into the complex processes of a neo-natal open-heart surgery. He performed the first open-heart surgery in the world to close a hole in the heart with the help of a microchip camera. He used an artificial heart for the first time in India and performed the first surgery in India using the blood vessels of the stomach to bypass the blocked arteries of the heart. He also performed Asia's first dynamic cardiomyoplastyoperation. He is also responsible for introducing the concept of an assembly line heart surgery, which aims at reducing the cost of surgery and achieving zero mortality. His success has been greater with kids. He launched a special scheme named Yashasvini. This scheme is most possibly the worldâ??s cheapest health insurance scheme. It is for the poorest of poor. Only Rs. 5 per month is taken from people for this scheme. The scheme is supported by the Karnataka government and it has already millions of members. He has performed over 15,000 heart operations. He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2004, followed by the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 2012, by the Government of India for his contribution to the field of affordable healthcare.