From A. Vaidheesh, Managing Director, Johnson & Johnson Medical India, a Division of Johnson & Johnson Ltd, India.
The other week, my colleagues Gary Fischetti and Michael del Prado joined me to open the DePuy Institute for Advanced Education and Research in Chennai in the southern part of India. DePuy, a Johnson & Johnson Company, is one of the world's largest orthopaedic and neuroscience device companies.
This new facility is the first of its kind outside the U.S. and it comes in response to a severe shortage in India of skilled surgeons to meet the country’s growing health care needs.
Knee arthritis is widely prevalent in India. This painful, degenerative condition can rob people of the simple things in life that so many of us take for granted – visiting family, going to work, walking up stairs. Joint replacement surgery could be a good option for many of India’s five million knee arthritis sufferers, but only with the involvement of skilled surgeons.
Today, we estimate there are only about 1,600 well-trained joint surgeons in India. If current health trends continue, we’ll need 4,500 joint surgeons within the next five years – or nearly three times as many as we have now.
The DePuy Institute is expected to train 1,000 surgeons a year in the latest techniques and technologies, significantly improving access to top-class medical care throughout India.
The opening of this new institute comes during the 125th anniversary year of Johnson & Johnson, and it continues one of our company’s oldest traditions: working to meet unmet health care needs. We’ve been serving the patients in India for more than 50 years, and are proud to play a role in bringing the promise of good health to even more people as the country continues to thrive and grow.