Ian Smillie MCh (Orth) Award 2017

Dr Pritam Kumar Agrawal was presented with the Department of Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery’s 24rd Ian Smillie Class Award of Distinction from Professor Rami Abboud at the TORT Centre on 29th May 2017. This prestigious prize is awarded annually to the Master of Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery (MCh Orth) degree student who has attained the highest overall mark for the year.

Dr Agrawal’s research, “Dislocation of primary total hip arthroplasty, relationship of surgical approach and surgeon’s experience” was supervised by Mr Faz Alipour (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon) and Mrs Linda Johnston (Clinical Audit Services Manager).

This class award of distinction is named after the late Professor Ian Smillie who was the founder of the Department of Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery at the University of Dundee in 1968. He gained a worldwide reputation in knee surgery and the role of the meniscus. In 2007 Professor Smillie was posthumously awarded the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) highest honour - entry to the ‘AOSSM Hall of Fame’ for his significant contributions to the specialty of Sports Medicine.

Dr Agrawal Left: at an upper limb surgical workshop; Centre: with his wife, Dr Sanjana Khemka and Professor Abboud; Right: participating in cadaveric using computer navigation.

Other recipients of the award include two of our consultant orthopaedic surgeons at Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, Mr Manhal Nassif (Class of 1996) and Mr Arpit Jariwala (Class of 2003).

Professor Abboud, MCh (Orth) Course Director and Head of the Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, added: “Dr Agrawal is joining a small but exclusive group of 23 previous winners from amongst over 400 graduates by winning the Ian Smillie Class Award of Distinction. It is always difficult to predict who will be the ultimate winner of this prestigious award until the last day of the course but for some reason the batch seemed to have predicted that Pritam would be the winner! They predicted that as 10 of the 11 candidates studied and ate together creating a lifetime friendship knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and this bond amongst the candidates is heartening and priceless. I wish them all the best of luck in their evolving careers.”