Helping Hand - Dr. Ilyas's Visit to Pakistan (Part 2)

On this most recent trip to Pakistan, Dr. Ilyas had a tight schedule once on location. In October, his trip to Pakistan was broken down like this:

• Day 1- Review patient cases and determine who he could help
• Days 2-5 – Operate on as many patients as possible while teaching and demonstrating different techniques to the assembled physicians and students
• Day 6 – Postoperative teaching rounds of patients operated on and come up with a plan for their continued care
• Day 7 – Half-day teaching symposium at the local medical university for local surgeons, residents, and students.

Common problems treated by Dr. Ilyas on these trips include new and old fractures, fractures that have healed in poor alignment or not at all, limb dysfunction from cut nerves or tendons, and also some congenital or birth related developmental problems.

“This last trip was unique for me as it was my first at a teaching hospital and medical university. “Not only did I operate on many patients, which is always my first priority on these trips, but being at a teaching facility gave me the opportunity to also instruct and share my expertise with the local medical team. It is my hope that this instruction will pay dividends in the future.”

For now, the future will contain more trips to help the less fortunate. However, the secondary goal is to increase physician training overseas, and even have some visit us here in the United States to learn from some of the best orthopaedic doctors in the world at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute.
“Ultimately, I’d like to establish an international hand surgery fellowship program,” said Ilyas. “Instead of me going to them, their physicians could come here, to the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute to learn. Then, once formally trained they can return to their part of the world, wherever it may be, and give the best care possible to their local communities.”