Golden Era for Spine Advancements
Volume 1 | Issue 1 | Apr – June 2016 | Page 1-2|Ketan Khurjekar[1], Shailesh Hadgaonkar[1], Ashok Shyam[1,2]
Authors :Ketan Khurjekar[1], Shailesh Hadgaonkar[1], Ashok Shyam[1],[2]
[1] Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics &Rehabilitation, Pune, India
[2] Indian Orthopaedic Research Group, Thane, India
Address of Correspondence
IJS Editorial Officie
A-203, Manthan Apts, Shreesh CHS, Hajuri Road, Thane [W]
Maharashtra, India.
Email: editor.ijspine@gmail.com
Spine surgery is at the cross roads and spine healthcare in India is growing steadily. Indian medical system is golden combination of all medical systems across the globe. Today India is the second most populous country in the world and leader in healthcare provider. Spine surgery practices in tier 1 and tier 2 cities in India are at par with the world standard and surgeons from these cities are making spine surgery feasible and affordable in smaller towns and cities as well. Most of the Spine Surgeons have undergone vigorous spine surgery training in India and in Western countries. They have mastered the skill sets and are now delivering it back home in India. The volume of cases every health care professional is tackling is sharpening their skills and making them master on global platform. Structured training which every Spine Surgeon has gone through and seen across the globe has been accepted and also imparted in India. Organisations like Association of Spine Surgeons of India, National Board of Examinations and AO Spine India have started long term spine surgery training programme to impart knowledge to young aspiring surgeons. Strong leadership from these organisation has helped develop comradeship among spine surgeons and sharing of knowledge. Gaining knowledge and imparting it to eligible candidate, creates more knowledge. That is exactly happening in India. Most spine surgeons are following good practices, and are applying their expertise for betterment of the society. It is not enough just to have skills and man power, we need good operation rooms, and we need best of anaesthetist and intensivist to enhance the result of challenging spine surgery cases. More important, to sustain good results of any surgery, we need good quality armamentaria, high definition microscopic Systems, advanced instrumentation systems and well equipped operation rooms. Today we have most of these things available at centres where spine patients are routinely operated. Even the smaller Hospital units are well equipped with most of the above necessary things. For the instance, a scoliosis surgery done in New York or a Cervical pedicle screw surgery done in Japan is been carried out exactly in the same manner with the same precision, with similar armamentaria and with the same implants in India. This scenario is giving confidence to the society; it is helping people to accept Spine surgery. We believe this is one of the most important change where spine surgery is rapidly gaining acceptance amongst all strate of society. Spine surgery was considered as taboo for many years and today situation is changing fast. With expert surgeons, good infrastructure the spine surgeries have become safer and has invoked confidence from our patients. We are standing at the Golden Era of Spine Advancement in the Country. Why our setups are unique, special and also appreciated internationally? Because we are delivering World class health care at affordable price. We have seen steady growth of spine surgery but we need to do more to achieve excellence. We have to reach out to masses with same precision and equal efficacy. Task is daunting but not impossible. We neither have National Health system, nor do we have majority population having individual Insurance protection. In India around 10 % population has personal Insurance coverage. But every person has access to affordable world class medical system. Affluent class and higher middle class person from the society gets a spine surgery done from a corporate set up, lower middle class personal has easy access to nursing home and weaker section of the society goes to Government, municipal or public hospital. The health care professional working in a municipal hospital is of a meritorious background. The surgical skills imparted are of high standards. No one is deprived of his own right. In NHS, one may have to wait for more than six months to get the surgery done while in some other country the Surgery may not be possible without sufficient insurance protection. We are doing the service to society without diluting precision in the surgery. Excellence in medical practices can be achieved by expertise in that particular field, structured training of that specialty, advanced technology based armamentaria and research. We have achieved first three things satisfactorily but research is yet to be in motion. To do so, we need to inculcate the habit of maintaining our registry, we need to establish data keeping system and preserve the record of every surgery to learn from these experiences. The next generation will stand tall on the shoulder of its predecessors. We are on the right path, but a lot of distance is yet to be covered. Starting this, International Spine Journal aims at establishing strong roots of research. ‘Training and Research by Publishing’ is the main goal of the Journal. It will be an exercise to inculcate the habit of maintaining records. Training through research will be a motto for next decade. Documentation and Research, the fourth dimension of achieving medical excellence is paramount to achieve Safe Spine Surgery.
Dr. Ketan Khurjekar | Dr. Shailesh Hadgaonkar | Dr. Ashok Shyam
| How to Cite this Article: Khurjekar K, Hadgaonkar S, Shyam A. Golden Era for Spine Advancements. International Journal of Spine Apr – June 2016;1(1):1-2 . |
