Dec 3, 2009
School of Medicine, Kochi
 

Dr. Dnyanesh Lad and Dr. Kiran*, postgraduate students at the Amrita School of Medicine in Kochi, won laurels for their alma-mater when they placed second in the nation-wide orthopedics quiz at Bhubaneshwar.
 

Twelve teams competed from all over India. These teams had won state-level contests earlier in order to earn a spot in the national quiz. The team from Amrita had placed first in a quiz that was conducted in January of this year, as part of the Kerala State Orthopedics Association’s Annual Conference.
 

The National Quiz was part of the National Conference in Orthopedics. A week-long event, the conference saw participation from over 2000 delegates from around the world. Several doctors from Amrita also attended the proceedings. The central theme of the conference was Disability Free Society.
 

“The conference provides a platform for young orthopedic surgeons to exchange scientific information and discuss emerging issues,” stated Shri. Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa at the inauguration. “It will contribute to the current knowledge of the practicing surgeons, and that will benefit a lot of people from across the country.”
 

The medical term orthopedics is derived from the Greek words orthos (straight) and paideion (child). Orthopaedia (The Art of Correcting and Preventing Deformities in Children) may have been the genesis of this modern medical discipline, but it is by no means limited to treatment of physical disabilities in children alone.
 

Today the discipline encompasses the treatment of developmental defects, nutritional and metabolic diseases, infections of bones and joints, bone tumors and degenerative joint disorders. Victims of road accidents are often attended to, by orthopedic surgeons. Amrita’s School of Medicine has a separate Department for Orthopedics.
 

The quiz covered questions from the medical discipline as well as the history of the field. “After the final round, we were tied with the team from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for the top spot,” shared the winning team of Dr. Dyanesh and Dr. Kiran. “A tiebreaker was arranged and the team from BHU won that.”
 

* Dr. Dyanesh completed his MBBS at Nair Hospital in Mumbai. He is a final-year DNB student at Amrita. Dr. Kiran earned his D’Ortho from Trivandrum Medical College. He is registered from Amrita to write his DNB exams.