Dr Dinesh Patel, chief of arthroscopic surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and associate clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the Harvard Medical School, will be honored June 14 with the unveiling of an Arthroscopic Learning Laboratory at MGH named after him.
Indians know Patel well for operating on cricketing legend Kapil Dev before he led India to victory in the 1983 World Cup. He has also treated baseball legend Ted Williams. Patel said that he had to thank Dr Harry Rubash, chief of the Department of Orthopedics at MGH, Thomas Gill, chief of Sports Medicine Service, MGH, and former chief of arthroscopic surgery at MGH Bertram Zarins, "who all worked tirelessly to make this teaching and training lab a reality and insisted that it be named after me."They had earlier sought an endowed professorship in his name at Harvard, but the amount required was prohibitive--$ 4 million to $ 5 million.
"Then they decided to establish this lab in my name, and it is indeed such an honor and I am so grateful to them," Patel says. "They wouldn't take no for an answer and wanted this lab named after me." They wanted to celebrate the contributions Patel has made to the field since 1974, and
for promoting associated technology not just in the US, but also in India. They set up the first lab of its kind in Asia in 2001 in Ahmedabad, where Patel got an American company to donate $ 300,000; the center has trained 800 orthopedic surgeons and is Asia's biggest arthroscopy lab.
"We will have dry models of the knee, shoulder, elbow, ankle and simulation machines for training and teaching," Patel said. "The main objective will be to teach and train orthopedic surgeons, residents, fellows, medical students, nurses, in all of the facets of arthroscopy surgery and in hand/eye coordination. The lab will also help show ways to reduce technical errors and also how to lower healthcare costs through these methods."
Among the several awards he has received is one from former Massachusetts governor William Weld: 'One of the Best New Immigrants in Massachusetts.' He also figured in the US News & World Report's acclaimed Best Doctors List in February 2002. He is also the founder of a non-governmental organization called A Leg to Stand On, which assists children who have either lost limbs or need artificial limbs to walk and write.
He is a longtime community and political activist and was among the founders of the Indian American Forum for Political Education--the oldest Indian American political organization, set up by Dr Joy Cherian--and also a stalwart of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.