Prof. Chitranjan S. Ranawat: tips for young physicians

Hosted by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and the Department of Orthopedics Physicians Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the 9th Congress of Chinese Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (CAOS 2016) was held in Chengdu, China, from May 20th to 22th, 2016. Prof. Chitranjan S. Ranawat from Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), USA, was interviewed and willing to share his opinions with the young physicians (Figure 1).

Figure 1 A photo with Prof. Chitranjan S. Ranawat.

Profile

HSS is the birthplace of many physician masters. In the field of joint replacement, Prof. Chitranjan S. Ranawat is no doubt among the best. He is the attending physician in HSS, professor of the department of orthopaedics in Weill Cornell Medical College, and one of the main founders of modern knee arthroplasty. He is the major designer of Total Condylar Knee, DePuy PFC Sigma, Attune system, Ranawat-Burstein total hip joint system, and Stryker Accolade total hip joint system.

Jiangyi Wu: Once you said, “Everything in life can be improved”. Being a great master in the field of joint replacement, do you agree that the most effective and best way for osteoarthritis patients is to conduct joint replacement?

Prof. Ranawat: It depends on the severity of the symptoms of the osteoarthritis patients. For those with no obvious clinical symptoms, I think there’s no need for surgery. For patients with more serious clinical symptoms, joint replacement is the best treatment method. In addition, the two main factors which influence most the development of osteoarthritis are obesity and excessive exercise. So we should try to exhort patients to lose weight for avoiding obesity, and to persuade patients not to take excessive exercise.

Jiangyi Wu: The hospital you’re working at, i.e., Hospital for Special Surgery, has become the “sacred place” for physicians all over the world, and the number of the abroad visiting scholars is growing every year. What’s your opinion about the visiting projects?

Prof. Ranawat: I am for all the allying or togetherness in anything, because being together you are double, triple, unlimited. Being alone, you are single, and the score, therefore, of progress is small. So communicating with other surgeon, other part of the world, is a good thing to learn from each other and make it better. That’s one. Second thing I believe, is that all human being are allying. Whether you are Chinese, whether I’m Indian, or whether I’m American, we’re all allying. We look different, but our basic needs, and the basic desires are similar, so we should be together for a bigger cause of the humanity at large.

Jiangyi Wu: China is now facing the problem of population aging. What would be your suggestions to the young Chinese physicians?

Prof. Ranawat: I think either science or our knowledge in medicine is improving and getting better. We are living longer, and we will become more and more older. We’ll be dealing with more elderly population, and we should be prepared to deal with it both at the government level, at the hospital level, at the individual surgeon level, both financially and otherwise. And if you don’t, we will not be doing our job properly in the system.

Jiangyi Wu: As you may know, more and more Chinese medical students spent much more time on research than on clinic practice. What’s your opinion on this and any suggestions to give?

Prof. Ranawat: There are 24 hours a day, which, I think, is sufficient for most people. Scientific research and clinical practice are the two indispensable legs of medical students. What we can do is to allocate more reasonably the time, and also to improve efficiency in doing things.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Annals of Joint for the series “Meet the Professor”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/aoj.2016.08.04). The series "Meet the Professor" was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

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(Jiangyi Wu, Hunan provincial people’s hospital, wjy4199@163.com)