A visit to the fellowship programme
Dr Ashish Gupta and Dr Kenneth Cutbush hosted Dr Radhakrishna Kantanavar in the fellowship programme. Dr Kantanavar is Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at MVJ Medical College, Bangalore Rural.
He came third in India's surgical entrance examination, which earned him a place in the orthopaedic programme at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. Entry there requires placing in the top 150 of approximately 100,000 candidates.
We look forward to him joining our fellowship in future.
What a shoulder fellowship involves
A fellowship is undertaken after a surgeon has completed specialist orthopaedic training. Where that training covers the whole of orthopaedics, a fellowship concentrates on one area of it. A shoulder fellow attends operating lists, assists and then operates under supervision, sees patients in clinic both before and after surgery, and takes part in the unit's research.
The clinic component is often underestimated. Much of the skill in shoulder surgery lies in deciding which patients should be offered an operation and which should not, and that judgement is formed by seeing a large number of patients assessed, treated and then followed up afterwards. Individual results vary.
Why places are competitive
Fellowship positions in any given subspecialty are limited in number, and surgeons apply for them from around the world. Units therefore select on training record, research output and references, and the examinations and selection processes a candidate has already come through form part of that picture.
Why units host surgeons from other countries
Taking fellows and visitors from other health systems brings different assumptions into the unit. A surgeon trained elsewhere will have used different implants, worked with different resources and been taught different thresholds for operating, and the questions they ask are not the ones local staff think to ask.
These arrangements are also how longer collaborations begin, including joint research and later exchanges of trainees between units. A surgeon who holds a teaching post in their own country takes what they have seen back to the trainees there as well, which extends the effect well beyond one visit.
Related information
See also our post on Dr Kantanavar completing his BSF and QUASR observership, and our shoulder fellowship and research pages.