RAK Hospital, a flagship brand of the Arabian Healthcare Group, has signed a joint venture with India’s Shalby Hospitals, strengthening its positioning as the region’s new medical tourism destination.

As part of the agreement, Dr Vikram Shah, chairman and head of Orthopaedic Department at Shalby Hospitals and his experienced team members will be regularly visiting RAK Hospital to conduct procedures in the area of joint replacement, especially Total Knee Replacement (TKR) and Total Hip Replacement (THR).

Dr Shah has introduced and innovated the Zero ‘0’ technique through which he can perform a joint replacement surgery in 10 minutes against two hours taken by other doctors worldwide to perform the same surgery.

Considered a surgical revolution in the healthcare history, it is a total knee replacement with minimum of every step, and the best part is patient starts walking within three hours of surgery.

Dr Shah has also developed the ‘OS Needle’ (Orthopaedic Surgeons’ Needle) which can pass through both bone and soft tissue easily so that an orthopaedic surgeon can finish repairing bone and soft tissues quickly.

This invention has greatly reduced the surgical time and failure rate in orthopaedic surgeries. Before the invention of the OS Needle, surgeons had to use complicated soft tissue procedures in which the failure rate was high.

Dr Raza Siddiqui, executive director of RAK Hospital and chief executive officer of Arabian Healthcare Group, said: “RAK Hospital has been attracting a large number of patient’s from African countries for various surgical procedures and now we are here to offer the best in joint replacement at an attractive and affordable cost to local as well as international patients.

“Patients in need of Total Knee Replacement (TKR) and Total Hip Replacement (THR) in UAE, GCC and African countries will have the most advanced treatment offered in a convenient location in UAE at RAK Hospital.”

“We are extremely delighted to now offer Shalby’s expertise through RAK Hospital to UAE and other destinations. We at our Ahmedabad International Patient Care Centre cater to almost 200 patients every month from Middle-East and Africa,” said Dr Shah.

Medical tourism has been a prime focus and RAK Hospital’s efforts are geared at attracting a larger share of patients that visit the UAE annually for treatment. The hospital, in fact, is among the handful of medical institutions in the UAE that combine the best of nature with outstanding medical services and care – extending an excellent opportunity to tourists to combine their holiday with top-notch medical care.

To offer the best deals to its patients, the hospital has tied up with leading hospitality players and airlines. The packages are designed to keep the needs of the patients in mind and take care of all travel related aspects, including air travel, travel documents, premium hospitality, sightseeing etc. along with treatment at an internationally accredited premium hospital, managed in association with Sonnenhof Swiss Health, a Switzerland-based healthcare company famed for Swiss hospitality and healthcare offerings.

The ‘zero technique’ is a TKR surgery procedure with the minimum of every invasive step. It is done with a minimal incision and minimum exposure. This results in the minimum of surgical time, exposure, hospital stay, drugs, side effects, blood loss, stress on patients and relatives and so on, said a statement.

Meanwhile, Dr Shah has also been appointed the joint international faculty for development of a new joint by Zimmer, US. Zimmer is one of the largest orthopaedic devices manufacturing company in the world.

The aim of developing this joint to allow the patient bend his/her knee fully after TKR surgery. Till recently the artificial knee joints, which were developed in the western world, did not allow TKR patients to sit cross-legged, which is an Indian traditional way of sitting.

The good knee bending possible after surgery at Shalby is solely due to good surgical technique and due to the new joint. - TradeArabia News Service