Specialty : Orthopaedic Surgery
City : Ahmedabad
Hospital : Shalby Hospital
Degree(s) : Director, Joint Replacement Surgeries MS, Orthopedics, Honourary PhD
Other Degree(s) : He has been awarded the prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy International Award for joint replacement surgery. He has also received awards such as the Hercules Award for Innovation (Gujarat Innovation Society) in 2014 for the Zero Technique. His work and Shalby Hospitals have been profiled in major international platforms, including TIME Magazine. His hospital network is listed publicly and has set benchmarks for volume, outcomes and cost-effectiveness in joint replacement surgery in India.
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Brief Profile :
A doctor by profession (M.S. Orthopedics) and a visionary entrepreneur, Dr. Vikram I. Shah is the Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of Shalby Hospitals, headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Back in the nineties, Dr. Shah realized that there was a dire need to bridge India’s orthopedic treatment gap by making joint replacement and related surgeries easily accessible and affordable to all. With this vision in mind, he acquired professional qualifications- A O Basic from London (UK), F.A.O.A.A. from Switzerland, and F.A. S. I.F from Germany, and returned to India in 1993 to bring international orthopedic expertise to his fellow citizens.
In 1994, Dr. Shah started his own medical center with six beds, one operation theatre, and a small staff in a low-rise building with their residence upstairs. From this humble beginning, his vision expanded, and today, he owns and manages Shalby Hospitals, a chain of 16 hospitals present in 13 Indian cities across 8 states with an aggregate bed capacity of over 2000 beds.
Dr. Shah’s journey to gift mobility to senior citizens of his country has been unstoppable since the day he returned to India. In 2008, he created a world record by performing 3000 joint replacement surgeries. Today, Shalby Multispecialty Hospitals (Shalby Limited) is renowned worldwide for orthopedic treatment and is the largest joint replacement center in the world, with a record of more than 1,50,000 joint replacement surgeries.
Dr. Vikram Shah’s journey is a testimony to the fact that there’s no limit to what one can achieve with hard work, perseverance, and resilience. He is a role model to doctors and medical students of the country who aspire to elevate the level healthcare industry in the country with their expertise and diligence.
Till the early 90’s Total Knee Replacement Surgery was one of the most dreaded surgeries globally. Dr. Vikram Shah revolutionized this and played a key role in improving and popularizing this surgery in India with his innovation of the OS – Operating Surgeon’s Needle and then of Zero Technique.
These innovations reduced surgery time from hours to just 8-10 minutes with the added advantages of minimal blood loss, speedy recovery, near-to-nil infection rate, and reduced hospital stay from 15 days to just 3-4 days. This contributed in easing the pain of millions suffering from joint pain, especially the elderly, improving their quality of life.
Zero Technique is called so as everything reaches almost to ‘zero’ level, be it surgery time, method, recovery, hospital stay, drugs, blood loss, patient and relatives’ mental stress, etc.
Dr. Vikram Shah invented “OS Needle” (Orthopedic Surgeons’ Needle) which can pass through both bone and soft tissue easily so that an orthopedic surgeon can finish repairing bone and soft tissues quickly.
Though many of the public profiles focus on his clinical and institutional achievements, there is mention that Dr. Shah has acted as Principal Investigator for various clinical research trials for over 15 years.
He also participates in professional bodies (e.g., Indian Orthopaedic Association, Indian Society of Hip & Knee Surgeons) and his institutional model provides a training ecosystem for orthopaedics surgeons. His role in developing novel surgical techniques and devices suggests involvement in innovation and research translation.