A top Europe-based Kashmiri colorectal surgeon has launched a fellowship programme for JK doctors to enhance their skills and connect them to best known health institutes of the world,The Kashmir Monitor reported.
As per the report, ‘Malik Amin Travelling Fellowship’ is the brainchild of Dr Arshad Malik, a Kashmiri doctor who is one of the topmost colorectal surgeons in Europe. The report states that Malik named the fellowship after his father to honor his commitment and dedication towards healthcare and education in Kashmir.
“My father, who passed away in 2019 due to dementia, has been an inspiration to me in what I could achieve in my life for being focused and showing perseverance and caring for those around you with honesty. Therefore, I gave it my beloved father’s name—Malik Amin Fellowship. I am hoping that the opportunity will help improve much needed health care in my homeland,” Dr Arshad was quoted as saying in the report.
This fellowship, according to Dr Arshad, is applicable to all doctors in the valley and will be awarded yearly across all specialties.
Under the fellowship, a bursary of 1000 euros will be paid to the selected candidate. It will be awarded every year.
“The purpose is to help expose the doctor to world-renowned centers of excellence in the care that he provides, to learn there and bring changes back into the system in Kashmir so that our patients do not have to go outside the valley. They can get reassured that their doctors have good exposure to current best treatment options that they can discuss and offer to patients,” he said.
Dr Arshad said the selected person will also develop future collaboration with the world-renowned centers of excellence in research and education, and get timely advice in complex cases.
“Not only many people get a chance to work at these centres as these positions are highly prized,” he said.
It’s worth mentioning that this year the fellowship process started in march. With an active participation from the doctors, Professor Rouf Wani from Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, SKIMS, Soura has secured the travelling fellowship, including a £1000.
Wani, who works at colorectal centre, Kashmir, has an active research interest, supervises post-graduate colorectal trainees and has more than 100 publications in indexed journals.
“He has full UK GMC registration and MRCS which helped in the selection process. He will spend two weeks at the world-renowned colorectal center of excellence at Basingstoke that gave the world curative TME rectal cancer operation, besides being known for its expertise in appendiceal malignancies,” Dr Arshad said.
He emphasized that Dr Rouf will also spend two more weeks at another well-known health institute. “He will benefit from updating his practices and bring in changes that will help to reshape his department besides fostering research collaboration within two centres of excellence,” he said.
He noted that the fellowship process for next year (2023) will be advertised for interested applicants in February 2023.