3 Medical Breakthroughs in India

1. A New Technique In Neurosurgery
One of India’s most innovative neurosurgeons, Dr Atul Goel of KEM Hospital in Mumbai, developed a technique that is becoming the global standard for treatment of basilar invagination (when the second cervical vertebrae migrates upward, potentially compressing the brain stem). He calls his technique the atlantoaxial facetal distraction and craniovertebral realignment, which is replacing the standard technique of surgery through the mouth.

2. Quick Bug Identification System
Doctors in Delhi can take pride in combatting the vicious strain of antimicrobial resistance that was named the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1. This year, Dr Raman Sardana of Indraprastha Apollo Hospital brought India its first MALDITOF-Vitek automated microbial identification system. The underlying science is mass spectroscopy that analyses the molecular signature of a specimen to identify the bug in minutes.

Image: Corbis

3. Changing Eye Colour Permanently
If you are curious what an eyecare hospital like Vasan Healthcare has to do with silicon implants, you may not have heard of the biggest (baddest?) medical breakthrough of 2012. This year, Dr Shibu Varkey performed India’s first permanent (yes, meaning forever) eye colour change in Trichy. He does it using silicon implants so small that they’d make even Smurfette snicker. The implants come in grey, green or blue in various shades. Dr Varkey delicately inserts an implant in the front of the eye to naturally unfold and cover the iris with the new chosen colour.