Standardization of medical care for obese essential, says new IBC director B Ramana

IBC has appointed the leading Indian bariatric surgeon Dr. B Ramana as the Director of IBC Asia.

"Standardization is fundamental to improving quality in healthcare," said Dr. Ramana, who in his new role,  will have independent charge of Asia for IBC, the world’s fastest growing medical body of surgeons specialising in obesity and diabetes surgery.

With more than 2,500 members, IBC is poised to become the world’s largest surgical society.

“Obesity and diabetes are the two sides of the same coin. While in the rural areas of India, people are dying out of malnutrition and low weight, urban Indians are falling prey to obesity and obesity related illness like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, infertility and organ damage conditions affecting heart, kidney and liver.”  Dr. Ramanath told IBNS.

Dr. Ramana, who is a senior bariatric surgeon of Bariatric & Metabolism Initiative (BMI), one of India’s most respected names in bariatric surgery, will be responsible for helping with training, teaching, mentoring and communicating with the Asian bariatric surgical community. IBC is planning to step up activities in academics in the rapidly expanding field of surgery for weight loss and diabetes control.
 
 Dr. Ramana told a press conference  here recently:  “Since the surgeons stay very busy in their daily patient handling and operating, it becomes a herculean task, for them to revise their skills on a day to day basis and keep themselves upgraded to the latest developed researches and technologies in bariatric and metabolic surgery.

"Thus they might lag behind in learning the best international standards, but IBC would stand beside those surgeons, in the Asian region, to overcome this challenge and educate them at home through various initiatives and use of social networking sites.”
 
Bariatric surgery has now reached even smaller towns of India, with around 250 surgeons performing bariatric surgery across the country.

“It might not be possible for busy surgeons to attend international conferences or workshops to hone their skills and to keep abreast with the latest developments in bariatric and metabolic surgery,” Dr Ramana said.

“This might mean they could fall behind in the best international standards. IBC will help such surgeons in the Asian region to overcome this challenge by educating them at home through various initiatives and communication channels including use of social media,” he says.

For instance, IBC has thousands of Facebook posts dealing with important issues that provide free, instant education to surgeons. The IBC community connects over Facebook, sharing complicated surgical issues faced by surgeons, with experts from across the world contributing and commenting.

“This is an entirely new way of learning surgery, by combining one’s reading and experience with the consolidated experience of the world’s foremost experts. It is dynamic, and utterly disruptive in its scope. This kind of integrative learning is the future of medical education,” Dr. Ramana pointed out.
 
IBC was established in 2010 by Dr Tomasz Rogula, a surgeon based in Cleveland, the USA’s world-famous hospitals. Accompanying Dr Rogula on the Board of the IBC are Dr Haris Khwaja and Dr Cynthia Borg from the UK, Dr Ariel Ortiz of Mexico and now Dr Ramana from India.
 
Dr. Ramana said obesity and diabetes are twin problems consuming healthcare in urban India. While rural India continues to struggle with malnutrition and low weight, urban Indians are increasingly falling prey to obesity and obesity-related illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, infertility and organ damage conditions affecting heart, kidney and liver.
 
The problem with diabetes and obesity exists in other Asian countries such as China and Taiwan. The difference between the Asian diabetic population and the Western one is that Asians fall to diabetes at a lower Body Mass Index or BMI (body weight in relation to height). This means that getting even slightly obese would make one more vulnerable to getting diabetes. To this effect, the so-called ‘Asian phenotype’ has led to a recommendation for comparatively less obese patients of diabetes to be offered surgical cure with metabolic surgery.
 
Metabolic surgery is high-end laparoscopic surgery on the stomach and intestines, using sophisticated stapling devices. The procedure is done bloodlessly and painlessly, with a very quick recovery and brief hospital stay. Research on the subject from high-end centres such as the Cleveland Clinic has confirmed the benefits and safety of these procedures for Type II diabetics.
 
Dr Rogula in a statement said: “We are excited with the prospect of Ramana’s leadership making huge changes in the field of bariatric surgery education and communication between surgeons, especially in Asia,”  
 
Dr Jaideepraj Rao, Senior Consultant & Head, Upper GI, Bariatric & Minimal Access Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, said: “IBC is a fantastic initiative to bring global bariatric minds together to discuss one of the biggest health problems affecting the world today. We are happy that now Asia is a big part of this and having this chapter with Dr. Ramana as the first Director will propel the activities to new levels.”
 
Mr. P. Tondon, CEO of Belle Vue Clinic, stated that the Hospital was one of the best equipped centres in India for the obese and diabetic patient. He said that he was proud of his Hospital’s association with the BMI Team represented by Dr. Ramana.
 
(Reporting by Aninnya Sarkar)