AADO Asian Fellowship Programme 2009
Final Report from Dr. Mehul shah
21 April – 09 May 2009

It is a report from Dr. Mehul shah, one of the successful applicants of AADO Asian Fellowship Programme in Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Hong Kong, who had a visit there on 21 April – 09 May 2009.

Punctuality, planning and perfect execution; these are the words by which I would like to remember Dr Shen and his trauma team.

Punctuality I saw not only in day to day work when I came here but it was evident from the moment I first time mailed dr shen about this fellowship application. He was used to reply my each mail promptly and without delay or failure. And this punctuality continued when I came here for the fellowship. At 8.00am sharp Dr Shen was used to be in the ward and even if you reach by 8.01am you are late!! Dr K B Lee was also very meticulous in replying mails and asking for necessary documents required for fellowship.

My thanksgiving started before fellowship on receipt of a very easy to understand welcome package which removed a lot of my apprehension and it also made it very easy to reach to hospital and also helped in day to day living during my tenure in hong kong; which otherwise could have been difficult.

I have never seen pre-operative planning to this great extent not only by using computer but also putting in a lot of thinking in it. They used to perform surgery mentally many a time before actually performing it on table. I found Dr Shen having an indepth understanding of musculoskeletal injuries and its healing and also difference of healing using different treatment modalities. Their understanding of geriatric hip fractures and its management was quite clear and I cleared many of my doubts during my interaction with Dr Shen. They are using digital images, CT scans and various softwares and combination of all to the best possible way to plan perfectly and also to execute according to their plan.

I have observed that during surgery Dr Shen and his team members are very methodical with each step without being in any hurry to complete the procedure. They were used to proceed to next step only when they were completely satisfied. I see o compromis?attitude from Dr Shen and his team.

During discussion in the ward I observed a very good thing from Dr Shen that he was ready to listen to even junior most of his team member plan and thoughts about a particular case even if it was not in line with his own plans and thinking- an uncommon virtue to be found in team heads!  He was used to give enough scientific reasons and justification for each of his plans.

Also need to mention the perfect documentation. Each and every case and x-rays were documented so meticulously using ePR(electronic patient record) system that the whole history, x-rays and other management details were available just on a click of mouse. I found this documentation to be one of the most important learning in this fellowship especially in today scenario of increasing litigation against orthopaedic surgeons.

I must thank Dr Shen for providing me an indepth knowledge on many topice like geriatric hip#, distal humerus #, peri-prosthetic and peri-implant #, bisphosphonates associated femoral #, impaction bone grafting in revision total hip surgeries and femoral head # to mention a few though this list is very long. I also thank Dr Lee for explaining me hemi soleal flap and reversed sural fasciocutaneous flap in great detail using power point presentation.

I have one suggestion to be made is that the fellows should be allowed to assist in surgeries so that they can better understand the surgical procedures rather than just observing.

Lastly I extend my sincere thanks to AADO to allow me to attend AADO symposium-2009 in OLC, Prince of wales hospital. It was a wonderful programme with presence of orthpaedic giants like prof. Holz, prof. Leung and prof. Morgan. I learnt a lot during those two days.

I also extend my thanks to mrs. Kellan cheung for helping me in administrative and immigration procedures.

Dr. Mehul shah