German Military Hospital permits lone Indian doctor for prestigious AO Foundation fellowship / Rashmi Talwar

German Military Hospital permits lone Indian doctor for prestigious AO Foundation fellowship 

Rashmi Talwar 

Amritsar 15thMarch 2023 —–

The Military Hospital Ulm, University of Ulm, Germany, accepted Dr. Nitin Verma, the first Indian doctor after a gap following the covid19 pandemic years, for the prestigious AO CMF Foundation fellowship. The Amritsar-based Dr. Nitin Verma Prof and Head, Punjab Government Dental College and Hospital Amritsar was the first selectee in 2022, after covid19, out of a total of 75 selectees, the world over.

He is the only doctor from the country, selected for the prestigious AO Foundation fellowship program, after the year 2019.

The selected fellow, Dr. Verma after his return to India last month elaborated his experience of the fellowship program that lasted for six weeks, to ‘Kashmir Images’-“Imagine where militaries world-over are so secretive and protective over their facilities and programs, their techniques and usage, a German Military Hospital openly displayed all its latest techniques in the field of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, to enhance patient care in developing countries”. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in other words is a highly specialized, sensitive plastic surgery after trauma dealing with a facial correction due to cancer or accident or disease, or some other reason for facial reconstruction. 

In 30 years, the 496-bedded Military Hospital in Ulm has been a medical center of competence for the armed forces of south Germany with key aspects of activities being trauma care, orthopedics, angiologists / vascular surgery, and craniofacial surgery. 

While elaborating on the fellowship program, Dr. Verma who won the fellowship and underwent training and experience under the supervision of Professor Dr. Dr. Alexander Schramm, MD DDS PhD; explains- “AO CMF Foundation’ stands for –‘A world of Opportunities (AO)’ created by 13 visionary surgeons, 60 years back.” 

Laying bare his extraordinary experience in the Military hospital, Dr. Verma gave two outstanding examples of cranium Maxillofacial surgery- “I could call them the ultimate surgical techniques, which could fast pace us in India at least 50 years ahead. One was –“The eyeball lift, operating from the floor of the eyeball. The second was the ‘free fabula graft’ surgery where the bone and tissues are taken from the leg to replicate the jaw bone, for instance after a cancerous surgery or deformation due to accident or disease. 

Dr. Verma has a close Kashmiri connection. He is born to a Kashmiri mother Nancy Kalpushu, so he belongs to two neighbouring states of India, Jammu &Kashmir and Punjab. Talking about Ulm, he said –“The city founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions,   as a former Free Imperial City in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg on River Danube. Ulm, is best known for being the birthplace of one of the greatest Physicist Albert Einstein marked by a memorial at the site of his house in Bahnhofstrabe; however, the house and the whole district were destroyed in the firebombing of 1944, and then restored. 

Ulm, as an ancient settlement is also known for the old ‘Fischerviertel’ or the fishermen’s quarter, on River Blau, with half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, picturesque footbridges, the ‘Schiefes Haus’ or the ‘crooked house’ and the ‘Alte Münz’ or the Old Mint, an astronomical clock dating from 1520 that still chimes in this city hosting  – AO – A world of Opportunity!

 As many as 75 top doctors are chosen from 124 countries annually for hands-on training and exposure to new techniques for enhanced patient care by the University of Ulm, under AO Fellowship program.

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