doctors from five countries watched Barriatric Surgery live, KREAD makes it happen

By Vikas Vaidya

Dr Kishor Taori, Chief of Advisory Council and Chairman of Maharashtra Medical Council along with Dr Nirmal Jaiswal, noted Critical Care Specialist opened the live workshop of barriatric surgery and Kunal Karnik along with his team members heaved a sigh of relief. They all spent sleepless nights till the programme concluded. It was a huge responsibility and everybody worked with the sense of commitment that borne the fruits. All youths are from Nagpur. They had conducted such workshops earlier but those were seen within India. This workshop was held at Pune and Ahmedabad, broadcast live supposed to be watched at Kuwait, Dubai, Nepal, Bangladesh and India (Nagpur). It was KREAD Foundation’s first such mega project. Briefly the 1st Medicon Workshop was conducted successfully; wherein the topic that covered was Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery. Live Surgeries that were executed at Pune and Ahmedabad broadcast live across five countries.
Doctors based at 5 countries have not only executed but also interacted with the Surgeons. The doctors Dr. Mahendra Narwaria- Chairman, Asian Bariatrics from Ahmedabad and Dr. Shashank Shah- Director, Lapro-Obeso Center from Pune performed surgeries. The event was coordinated by Dr. Prashant Rahate. CEO of KREAD Foundation Kunal Karnik and his team members worked hard.
Karnik said, “KREAD Foundation through its Medicon Series has brought a first of its kind in the world of medical sciences a live conference and workshop. Touted as the world’s largest live surgical workshop of bariatric and metabolic surgery, this interactive had connected doctors across five countries. The conference got endorsement by all the ministry of health and related medical association and councils across these countries, to ensure reliability and seriousness.”
Dr.  Shashank Shah and Dr. Mahendra Narwaria, demonstrated live surgeries out of two teaching Centres. Dr. Shashank Shah is director, LaparoObeso Centre, Pune while Dr. MahendraNarwaria is Chairman, Asian Bariatrics, Ahmedabad. Both these doctors of international repute are pioneer in Indian bariatric surgery and have honed their scientific skills to precision art in their fields. These teaching centres were connected to five different learning centres in five different countries, where Kread has its learning centres.
The live surgeries commenced at 10 am and continued through various sessions till 7 pm on January 8, 2015. “The highlight is apart from actual surgery and a session on pre and post-operative diagnostics and care, the foundation launched a virtual mentoring platform. The virtual mentoring platform enabled a learner to have a world class specialist to be virtually present during his surgery to handhold him through the complete surgery. This completes the learning curve and reduces the time to make specialists in the respective countries,” pointed Karnik.
Medicon Series is not just another medical conference. It’s the largest, brought knowledge to the door step of the various countries and made sure that it is not just a showcase of new procedures and practices in medicine, but ensured aspirants get help at their doorstep while performing surgeries from the best. These teaching centres were connected to a venue in Nagpur in India, Shahbagh in Bangladesh, Dubai in UAE, Kathmandu in Nepal and Kuwait. So doctors interested in enhancing and continuing their medical education participated at any one of these venues. These learning centers were mobilized with active help from the Indian embassies, in the respective countries.
Obesity and diabetes and related problems have become the main health hazard for Asian countries in last 2 decades. Bariatric surgery has been well accepted as a treatment for morbid Obesity and Diabetes, however as compared to the number of people requiring bariatric surgical treatment there is a paucity of trained centers offering this skillset. Previously this treatment was only available in US and Europe and surgeons had to visit those countries for training, which was not possible financially or otherwise for most. Bariatric surgery is not so well developed in these countries and both these centers are surgery centers performing more than 800 surgeries in a year.
Pioneering surgeons Dr Shashank Shah and Dr Mahendra Narwaria have already trained over 200 surgeons from India and abroad, contributing towards making India as one of the most sought of countries’ for this treatment. Hence looking at the need in all these countries for an affordable learning and treatment, KREAD foundation has taken the first lead to offer such proctoring or menntoring virtually, which is the first of its kind in the world. It is unique because it not only enables showcasing of latest procedures and practices but also ensure that the surgeons’, in these countries have an opportunity to learn live and interact from the best in the specialty, while performing surgeries. This module was extremely well appreciated in all the countries and their respective medical bodies. Hence the first work shop in Bariatric and metabolic surgery.
India has an enviable pool of specialists in Medicine and services in medical fraternity and research. The Indian government and leadership believes that to take the goal of our country further, it is important to share expert knowledge with neighboring countries to promote bilateral ties. This will serve to enhance not just medical health or the patient to doctor ratio defining the medical health of the country but also increase the number of specialists through virtual mentoring in their respective countries.
Various associations in all countries supported this unique event. In India: Indian Medical Association; Association of Surgeons; Academy of Medical Sciences; Maharashtra Medical Council and    Diabetic Association of India . In Bangladesh: Society of Laparoscopic surgeons of Bangladesh. In UAE: Dubai Health Authorities; Emirates obesity and metabolic surgery interest Group In Nepal: Nepal Medical Association and Society of Surgeons of Nepal. In Kuwait: Bariatric Department of Al Sabah Hospital, Government of Kuwait.
The KREAD Foundation is an organization working with an incubated and funded company of Science and Technology Park, an organization promoted by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. As a non-profit organization, the mandate is to promote medical education alongside showcasing infrastructure and talent of India across CIS, GCC and SAARC. The foundation has completed more than 200 Continual Medical Education workshops and educated more than 28,400 doctors in the last 2 years.

What Dr Taori has to say?

Modern Medicine is developing leaps and bounds. To disseminate knowledge of expertise such conferences should continue connecting different centres with learning centre spread across the globe in different time zones language will bring the young learners together. This modern way of learning instituted by KREAD foundation is laudable, therefore has been well-supported by Maharashtra Medical Council.