Sign Me Up

After a quick nap and a call home through Skype i was picked up at my hotel and brought to Fortis Malar Hospital to meet Dr. Nandkumar Sundaram, the senior orthopaedic surgeon of the hospital. The professionalism, courteousness, and warmth sent to me by the entire staff was tremendous. The operations I observed were state-of-the-art with the entire orthopaedic team engaged and on point. I say that not because I expected less but in some sense, on the outside the hospital may not appear to an American to be palatial- there was no grand piano in the lobby, no grand marble entrance and other totally useless signs of American waste as there are in many of our Ivory Tower hospitals. Instead there was a complete focus on the medical and surgical care. In the end the patients received the exact same knee replacement (a Smith and Nephew Oxinium Genesis II) that the CEO of Goldman Sachs would receive here. Everything necessary was there, anything superfluous to the care was not.

If my knee was arthritic today I would have jumped on the table to be the third knee of the day. Luckily I was feeling just fine.

What I was most struck by were the many “doctors in training” surrounding Dr. Kumar. The system of training in India is quite different from the US. Younger surgeons after their general training do at least 4 more years in subspecialty training and then essentially apprentice for as many as ten years prior to entering as a fully independent surgeon. As I consider myself a more seasoned surgeon than I once was I actually find this approach one that makes more sense to me than a surgeon being allowed to operate independently after only 4 years of general Orthopaedic training and only one year of subspecialty fellowship. I can assure you that if I was just out of my subspecialty training and not 20 years out as I am now I would argue against this.

Enjoy the pictures and videos I posted.



© 2011 Ira Kirschenbaum Contact Me