ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL details:
Bachelor of medicine and surgery and Masters in Orthopedic surgery from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram.
Diplomate of National Board certification in orthopaedic surgery in 2003.
Post Graduate Diploma in Medico Legal Systems. Symbiosis, Pune.
AO Trauma fellowship : Uppsala University, Sweden and
Joint replacement fellowship at Asklepios Klininc, Lindenlohe, Germany.
Have been involved in teaching and training undergraduate and postgraduate students since the last 17 and half years.
Area of interest – Hip and Pelviacetabular reconstruction and Medical education. AO National faculty for basic and advance trauma Courses and International Faculty for Soft tissue management courses.
Currently working as Professor and Head of Unit for Joint reconstruction at N K P Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Research centre at Nagpur and Director of Intergra Specialty Clinics.

REASON FOR JOINING Profession:
Belonging to a family with a defence background, a career in medicine was not even in consideration or fantasy in my early school days, I always wanted to be a pilot, specially a fighter pilot. Over the years I hardly visited a hospital or a doctor, maybe I visited a dentist more amongst the healthcare professionals. Whenever I did, neither my experience or memories of the visit were pleasant. So what happened that altered my course in life? I remember in the year 1989 or 1990, I read an advertisement in the Times of India, it carried a centre page photograph of a doctor called Dr. Christiaan Bernard, the caption read “ Till 1967 it was God who gave life, from 1967 God found an assistant”. Dr. Bernard was on a visit to India. This advertisement had an immediate impact on me and I started reading up about this man who had so profoundly changed the course of medicine and could actually prolong life for a dying man. The more I read the more motivated I felt and finally I thought it worth becoming a cardiac surgeon. So it was just not the desire to be a doctor but I had gone a step further of being a cardiac surgeon. During the punishing years of graduate training and then being exposed to the realms of other branches in surgery, I finally landed up being an Orthopaedic surgeon , but somewhere in my heart still quivers a desire to hold a beating heart and to cure it of its disease.

EARLY CHALLENGES:
The most significant role in the development of a surgeons life is played by a mentor, the biggest challenge is to find a mentor who trains you and makes you learn from your mistakes. Being the first in the medical fraternity from my family, it was tough for me. I feel the best way is to challenge yourself, learn and perform yourself. In my early years I started working alone in a medical college and had few seniors or mentors to teach me the art of surgery. I had great limitations in terms of access to advanced modalities like C T Scan and MRI as I was working in a small town near Nagpur. But gradually over time I gained confidence and experience.

INSPIRATION:
Another figure who still motivates me is AO foundation founder Dr. Maurice Müller, a Swiss surgeon who revolutionised orthopaedic surgery by his contributions in the field of Hip replacement and Techniques of fracture fixation. Being a surgeon during the second world war was not easy, it was largely his contribution that orthopaedic research, documentation and practice got streamlined. I often read his eulogy just to motivate myself, I am still intrigued by his desire to succeed and his commitment to his work and dogged determination to succeed . His life and work have been always inspiring to me, the subsequent advances in orthopaedic sciences that followed his work are nothing short of monumental and pathbreaking. It is sad that his legacy is little known to doctors let alone common people. My other inspiration has been my mother, for her nature, for her desire to serve others and for her desire to see me as a doctor.

MANAGEMENT THOUGHTS:
Having done leadership courses and being in senior positions both in the government and private hospitals, I have realised that apart from being a good doctor, you need to be an excellent manager. For me the key lies in
✓ Motivation, if you can motivate and inspire people to perform better than what they do even if it is in small increments I feel thats more than enough.
✓ Anticipate change and prepare for it. Those who change after change- Survive, those who change with change – Succeed and those who bring about change -Lead
✓ If we want to succeed in leading any enterprise or pursue a meaningful goal we need to take others along with us in the journey and then we need to transform ourselves into leaders, from manager of emotions to generator of emotions, from a follower of standards to a setter of standards, from a realist to a dreamer and for this transition to occur we need to develop ourselves, understand ourselves and understand others, to go beyond the routine and develop personalities which would make us become “ Change Agents”!!.

HEALTH CARE VISION:
With the requirement of doctors and specialist increasing all over the world, we must realise that India and China would be contributing to the highest extent, in terms of human resource in the medical sector. But are we prepared for it? Even after 71 years of independence we don’t have a fool proof and systematic examination system for the entry into the medical profession. Our rules and laws keep changing and with the newer acts and hostilities on doctors, fewer and fewer students wish to pursue the medical profession, and this in the long term can be a big threat to our society. Those who do choose to become doctors often leave the country. My vision is to focus on the future generations, work more into research and basic sciences research, empower and motivate medical educators and to create enduring channels not only for knowledge transfer but also for skills transfer.

MY MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITY IF I WERE HEALTH MINISTER:
✓ Fully modernise government hospitals, handsomely pay doctors working there and take full accountability of all doctors working in government hospitals. The government hospitals are the places where the poorest of the poor go and the condition of government hospitals across the country is pathetic and sad. Doctors are on roll but there is no accountability and in turn the poor suffer. There are no audit systems in place to evaluate the work of professionals in these systems.
✓ Protect doctors against violence.

FAMILY DETAILS:
My wife, Dr. Ritu Dargan is a practising Obstetrician and gynaecologist and we have two lovely daughters aged 14 and 10 years old. My parents are retired and live in Nashik.

HOBBIES:
Badminton : Travel and play at different levels.
Photography, Diving, Trekking.

BEST PLACE FOR VACATIONS:
In India: Ramgarh near Nainital : Lovely, isolated, serene and beautiful. No wonder Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote a few chapters of his masterpiece Gitanjali there.
Abroad : Paris: historic, majestic, stylish, safe and the boat cruise is awesome.