Fellowship Name: Pune Travelling Fellowship 2017
Coordinator: Dr Ashish Babulkar
Duration: 2 weeks, Self sponsored.

One fine day, I woke up to an email stating that I was being offered an opportunity to join and observe the team of Dr Ashish Babulkar in the form of Pune travelling Fellowship. I immediately confirmed my spot by paying the required holding amount instantly. The next task was to coordinate with Dr Babulkar regarding the mutually convenient dates to both of us, and to my astonishment, he was too humble enough to reply to all the emails and every time lending the best helping hand possible. Finally, my dates of visit were finalised from 31 July 2017 to 12 Aug 2017, and I took off to Pune.

On the fine Monday morning as per the directions provided, I reported at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, shoulder and sports injury outpatient department. He has OPD days and Operating days alternating with Mon wed Fri as outpatients' days. I was wholeheartedly welcomed in the department by Dr Babulkar and the team. I was allowed to attend all his consultations, thereby learning different ways of shoulder examination and discussions leading to the diagnosis. He also has a proper teaching program for his team with morning lectures every week and journal clubs, which I attended delightfully. In the operating rooms, I was allowed to observe all kind of cases but was not allowed to be scrubbed in them. During my two weeks of fellowship, I observed all different kind of procedures starting with Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, bankarts repair, reverse shoulder replacement, shoulder arthroplasty, proximal humerus fracture fixation and most notably arthroscopic Latarjet procedure which we seldom get to see. I also saw a case of spino-glenoid notch decompression being done arthroscopically.

Overall, it was a fruitful orthopedic delight for me to observe all these different kind of surgeries in large numbers. In the end, I would like to thanks Dr Pushpinder Bajaj, Dr Lalit Maini and Dr Ashish Babulkar for providing me this opportunity to learn and clarify my doubts regarding shoulder diagnosis, procedures and rehabilitation. This fellowship brought a much needed change in my approach to patients in general especially in relation to shoulders.