BHUBANESWAR: Odisha-born neurosurgeon Basant Kumar Misra has received the ‘International Lifetime Achievement Award in Neurosurgery’ conferred by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS). He is the first Indian to get this honour.
Misra, a native of Bhubaneswar and son of noted economist and litterateur Baidyanath Misra, is currently the chief of surgery, head of the department of neurosurgery and Gamma knife radiosurgery, PD Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai.
“The award is actually a recognition of the high quality medical care in India in the field of neurosurgery. The progress made in the country in the past one decade is phenomenal and on a par with the best in the world at a fraction of their cost,” Misra said. He added that the care in India is world-class and is rated very highly. “We have the best infrastructure, skill and technology. At the same time, there is also a huge shortage of neurosurgeons. There are only around 2,000 neurosurgeons for a country of more than one billion people,” he added.
He is also the recipient of the prestigious Dr BC Roy National Award in the category of Eminent Medical Person (highest medical award in India) in 2018. He is the world’s first surgeon to perform computer-guided aneurysm surgery.
Misra is the member of more than 20 associations or societies across the world. He is the first vice-president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), president of the World Federation of Skull Base Societies and honorary president of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurological Surgery.
He is the visiting professor of around 14 medical schools and hospitals, including the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. He is the reviewer of 10 medical journals across the world and recipient of several awards and honours. Misra, who has completed his MBBS from the Vimsar, Burla, was the best graduate of the Sambalpur University in 1975. He was the recipient of four gold medals in the MBBS course. Later, he received Master of Surgery (MS) degree from Delhi University in 1980 and MCh neurosurgery from AIIMS New Delhi in 1983.
