People

Liver Cancer Award

The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association has announced the second annual Blue Faery Award (BFA) for excellence in liver cancer research. Founded in 2002, Blue Faery is the only non-profit-organisation in the United States solely devoted to fighting hepatocellular carcinoma. This year's recipient of the Blue Faery Award is Dr Jorge Marrero (42), Director of the Multidisciplinary Liver Tumor Clinic at the University of Michigan. Primary liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Blue Faery created the award to recognise medical professionals who develop innovative research in the fight against HCC, which currently has no cure. Dr Marrero has been selected for his outstanding achievements in liver cancer research. Dr Marrero published 23 articles on HCC-related topics from 2008-2009. Currently, he is involved in studies that examine new therapies for HCC, the most exciting of which inhibits blood vessel growth in tumors. In addition, Dr Marrero evaluates new strategies for the early detection of liver cancer. Dr Marrero will receive $3,000 toward his research to commemorate his achievement. Andrea Wilson started Blue Faery in honour of her sister, Adrienne, who died of HCC only 145 days after her diagnosis at the age of 15. Blue Faery announces the recipient of the BFA on April 8, 2010-Adrienne's birthday.

On AIIMS Governing Body

After leading a team of doctors to perform the re-do heart surgery on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Dr Ramakant Panda (55), cardiovascular thoracic surgeon and Vice Chairman at Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai has been on the role. After having picked up the Padma Bhushan (the third highest civilian honour in the country) in recent times from President Pratibha Patil, Dr Panda, who has performed more than 10,000 bypass surgeries, has now been nominated to the AIIMS governing body. This is part of health ministry reconstitution of AIIMS's highest decision-making group, the Institute Body (IB). Constituted for a span of five years, IB is a statute body in charge of making various administrative decisions about the country's premier hospital. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his capacity as president of the AIIMS, is the chairperson of IB. Says Dr Panda, who performs more than 99 per cent bypass surgeries by beating heart technique and most bypass surgeries using arterial conduits only, "As a former student of AIIMS, this is a great honour for me." After doing his MBBS from SCB Medical College, Cuttack, MCh in cardio thoracic surgery from AIIMS, he went to Cleveland Clinic for fellowship in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, working under the pioneer of by-pass surgery Dr Floyd D Loop.

International Honour

Spine surgeon Dr J Naresh Babu (34) of Mediciti Hospitals, Hyderabad has been honoured with the prestigious Asia Pacific Orthopedic Association International Spine Award for 2010. Asia Pacific Orthopedic Association (APOA) is an organisation of orthopaedic surgeons from 17 countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The objective of APOA is to advance research in the field of orthopaedic surgery. The APOA Spine Award is given once in two years to the significant research and clinical work done in the field of spine surgery. Dr Babu received the award for his pioneering work on treating low back pain with minimal invasive surgery. In contrary to the traditional open surgery which involves cutting the muscles and bones, he devised a new surgical technique and approach where in the surgery including placing the screws in to the bone could be carried out without cutting the muscles and bone. This is the first time that an orthopaedic surgeon from the state has been presented with this Award, which he received at the International Spine Training Centre, Chonnam National University, South Korea. He shares the honour with two other spine surgeons — from Japan and Hong Kong. Dr Naresh Babu had his advanced spine training at the famous Rush University, Chicago, USA and at National University Hospital, Singapore. He has been associated with Mediciti Hospital for over a year now, where much of his pioneering research work has been carried out. His research on skeletal fluorosis done at the department received Silver Jubilee Research Award from the Indian Orthopedic Association, last year. Along with the APOA award, Dr Naresh has also just been honoured with the prestigious ASSI Gold Medal given by the Association of Spine Surgeons of India (ASSI) for outstanding research conducted by surgeons less than 40 years of age. Dr Naresh has devised new surgical technique of correcting the hunch back deformities of the spine without causing injury to the nerves. This is also the first time that research conducted in Andhra Pradesh has been recognised with this prestigious award. For Dr Babu, the recent honours come in a long line of awards and recognitions— a total of 10 international and 15 national awards. Amongst others, his work on usage of Nimodipine to increase the blood supply to the spinal disc received the Euro Spine International Award by the European Spine Society at Geneva, while other research on scoliosis correction by keyhole surgery received 'Young investigator Award' given by the Singapore Orthopedic Association.