AADO Asian Fellowship Programme 2014
Final Report from Dr Siddhartha Sharma
05 – 25 October 2014

It is a report from Dr Siddhartha Sharma, one of the successful applicants of AADO Asian Fellowship Programme in Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Hong Kong, who had a visit there on 05 – 25 October 2014.

It gives me immense pleasure to write this report as the AADO – Trauma fellow at Queen Elizabeth Hospital under Dr W Y Shen. The fellowship program has now entered 8th year since its inception in 2007 and having read all the previous fellows’ reports, I was really keen to take up this opportunity. I must say that my own experience was nothing short of outstanding.

      At the outset, I would like to thank my mentors and seniors in PGIMER Chandigarh who encouraged me for the fellowship, Prof Raj Bahadur, Prof M S Dhillon, Dr Sarvdeep Dhatt and Dr Vishal Kumar. I would also like to express my gratitude to the AADO secretariat for giving me this opportunity and Ms Terry Leung who guided me through the application process as well as the visa process. Thanks to her prompt and efficient assistance, I could manage the daunting paperwork quickly.

      I arrived on a Sunday and was provided accommodation at the Nursing Hostel, which is very comfortable and a stone’s throw distance from the hospital.

      Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a busy referral center for the whole range of orthopaedic problems. Dr Shen and his team provide expert care to a wide variety of trauma cases. Dr Shen is a wonderful teacher and a master orthopaedic surgeon. His expertise, insight, planning and meticulous approach to each case are exemplary. Even more remarkable is his ability to think out of the box and come up with elegant, yet simple solutions to the most complicated of problems. Every morning, we had excellent discussions on a number of cases where Dr Shen would emphasize the importance of careful pre-operative planning and discuss the possible treatment options with regards to pros and cons of each option. In the OT, I observed many surgical procedures; pertrochanteric fractures, ankle fractures, peri-articular fractures of the tibia and humerus, open fractures and polytrauma cases, to name a few. Dr Shen pointed out several handy surgical tips on patient positioning, surgical approach, reduction methods intra-operative imaging and many others. In each case I had the opportunity to discuss the treatment options, watch the procedure and discuss the post-operative regime. In the outpatient clinic, I had the opportunity to see and discuss several follow-up patients, not only the ones with excellent outcomes, but also those that were challenging.

      A special highlight of this fellowship was the power-point presentations on numerous orthopaedic trauma topics that Dr Shen had prepared for the visiting fellows. I especially liked the presentations on atypical femoral fractures and massive avascular necrosis after fixation of per-trochanteric fractures.

      My stay in Hong Kong was made memorable by the company of two other fellows and now dear friends from India, Dr Mohit Bansal and Dr Samarth Mittal. At no point during my stay in Hong Kong, did I feel that I was away from home, thanks to my co-fellows.

      All in all, I believe that this fellowship is an excellent learning opportunity for young surgeons. Incoming fellows can expect to learn the intricacies of pre-operative planning, intra-operative execution of the surgical plan and post-operative follow-up.
      A few suggestions for the incoming fellows:

Finally, I would like to thank Dr Shen and the staff of QEH, including Dr KB Lee, Dr Ivan Ip, Dr Diane Tai and Dr Iris for making my stay in Hong Kong educative, memorable and enjoyable.

Dr Siddhartha Sharma
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research
Chandigarh
India