Madras ENT Research Foundation (P) Ltd

 Dr. Raghu Nandhan MBBS, MS, DNB, MNAMS, FRCS(Ed), MCh, PhD

Dr. Raghu Nandhan is Consultant ENT Surgeon at Madras ENT Research Foundation (MERF), Chennai, a premier tertiary referral ENT training Institute in South India.He specializes in Neuro-Otology, Auditory Implantation & Skull-Base Surgery having received higher surgical training from reputed centers in the UK, namely Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

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He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, overseas member of ENT UK and the prestigious British Cochlear Implant Group. He has a decade of experience with Cochlear & Brainstem Implants at MERF, which is today one of the largest centers in the world for Implantation Otology and he is currently the clinical lead for Otology at this Institute.

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He holds a PhD in Cochlear Implant Audiology and is also the Research Lead at MERF with keen interest in spearheading the various ongoing and future research programs of the institution. He has around 70 publications in indexed medical journals and has presented research papers in international conferences around the world, where he has received prestigious awards including the APSCI Award, in Korea 2011; APCD Award in Singapore, 2012 and BSBS Award in Cardiff, 2017.

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He has co-authored 7 textbook chapters and is one of the very few Indian authors to write chapters in Scott-Brown and Logan-Turner. Apart from his passion to be a competent clinician and skilled surgeon, he dedicates his professional time to being a researcher, academic, medical leader, teacher and trainer for his peers and junior colleagues.

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Dr. Raghu started his medical career in 1994 when he joined MBBS in the reputed Kasturba Medical College Manipal, MAHE University, Karnataka. He was an avid academic during his undergraduate days and won the Anatomy Gold-medal along with awards of distinction in Biochemistry, Forensic Medicine, Pathology, Social & Preventive Medicine and Obstetrics Gynaecology.During internship he developed a keen desire to become a surgeon and he soon chose the field of ENT and Head & Neck Surgery.He joined Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai and completed his postgraduate training - MS(ENT)in 2004. He began his ENT career at MadrasENT Research Foundation (MERF), Chennai soon after completing his Master degree, starting as an observer and then progressing onto a Senior Registrar and then Otology Fellow with Prof. Mohan Kameswaran. During this time, he passed the Diplomate of National Board Examinations (ENT) in 2005 & was elected as a Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences(MNAMS) in 2006.

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He then traveled to the United Kingdom seeking higher training and obtained the Diplomat Membership in ENT andHead & Neck Surgery – DOHNS (Eng), from the Royal College of Surgeons Of England In 2006 and further passed the Intercollegiate MRCS (General Surgery)examination to be elected as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh – MRCS (Ed)in 2008.During this period he completed a clinical attachment with the reputed Otology- Skull Base surgeon Prof. Richard Ramsden at Manchester Royal Infirmary, UK and also visited centers of excellence including St.George's Hospital in Brixton and St.Mary's Hospital in London to gain a firsthand exposure of Advanced Otology.

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Upon return to India he took a sabbatical for one year from routine ENT practice to receive special surgical training in Cranio-facial, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and in Head & NeckOncosurgery from Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar, Chennai before joining back inMERF as a Junior Consultant. During this time, he pursued a PhD registered with Sri Ramachandra University and jointly guided by Prof. Mohan Kameswaran at MERF and Prof. A. Ravikumar at SRMC & RI. Thereby he became the first PhD scholar for both MERF and the ENT Dept of Sri Ramachandra University. He received his doctorate in Cochlear Implant audiology and auditory electrophysiology in 2014 after seven years of fruitful research and his thesis, the first of its kind in India, has received international acclaim with global citations in this field today.

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Dr. Raghu got a further opportunity to visit UK once again in 2014, when ENT UK and the Association of Medical Royal Colleges (AOMRC),jointly sponsored him through the Medical Training Initiative for International Medical Graduates scheme to undergo subspecialty higher surgical training in his chosen field of interest -Neuro-Otology, Auditory Implantation and Skull-Base Surgery in the UK. Thus he worked as a Specialist Registrar in the Manchester Skull Base Unit for two years with Prof. Simon Lloyd and Mr.Simon Freeman, Otology-Skullbase surgeonswho had then succeeded Prof. Ramsden in Manchester.

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During this period he was part of the higher surgical training program of Northwest England, under Training Program Director Prof. Nirmal Kumar completed his FRCS (ORL-HNS) to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2016. Of note, he was the only overseas Indian doctor in his batch to pass this prestigious exam in the first attempt, which helped to uphold the regional UK record for a decade of 100% pass rates for FRCS trainees appearing from Northwest England.He also simultaneously pursued the RCSEng accredited MCh ENT course at Edge Hill University, Lancashire, UK during this period under Prof. Nirmal Kumar's supervision. He is the first international MCh student of Edge Hill University and upon graduation, he has now been appointed as an Overseas Faculty of the MChcourse of Edge Hill University and coordinates with the University from India to select and guide prospective Indian ENT surgeons who wish to visit the UK for training in future.

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Dr. Raghu subsequently got the prestigious International Neuro-Otology, Auditory Implants and Skull-Base Surgery Fellowship for 2016-2017 at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospitals, Birmingham (the biggest hospital in UK and the largest Implantation and skull base center in UK) where he trained with Prof. Richard Irving, one of UK's eminent Otology-Skull Base surgeons and was also part of the West Midlands Hearing Implant Team for one year. He has now joined the elite Alumni Club of Birmingham Fellows who hail from different corners of the world including Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, South Africa, Oman, Malaysia and Australia. During his tenure in Birmingham he was elected as an International Member of the prestigious British Cochlear Implant Group (BCIG) for his contributions in the field of cochlear implantation which includes his PhD doctoral thesis, along with a series of International and National accolades for original research awarded in the APSCI 2011 (Korea), APCD 2012 (Singapore)and a hat-trick of medals at CIGICON from 2010 to 2012 in India. He is one of the very few Indian ENT surgeons to possess life time International Membership to BCIG and ENT UK associations with full voting rights apart from being an overseas Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During his fellowship in Birmingham he also got the coveted UK National award at the British Skull Base Society Annual Conference, BSBS 2017 for his work on Lateral Skull Base Cancer Management - a unique honor for an overseas doctor working in the UK.

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He has around70 publications in indexed peer-reviewed international medical journals till date and has presented research papers in various International conferences around the world and across India. He continues to coordinate ongoing academic and research projects with the Faculty at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and scientists at the University of Birmingham. He has co-authored 7 textbook chapters and is one of the very few Indian authors to get the honor of writing a chapter in the next edition of Scott-Brown's Otolaryngology Textbook (considered as the Bible of ENT surgery) and also in Logan-Turner (one of the oldest ENT textbooks published from UK).

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After successfully completing his higher surgical training, he recently returned back home to Chennai, to take charge of the Dept of Otology & Auditory Implants at MERF. He is currently involved in setting up a state-of-the-art Skull-Base unit at MERF with multidisciplinary inputs from a team of Neurosurgeons, Plastic Surgeons and Maxillofacial Surgeons, in order to provide comprehensive care for patients with complex skull-base pathology. He is also the Research Lead at MERF with keen interest in spearheading the ongoing and future research programs of the institution. Apart from his passion to succeed as a competent clinician and skilled surgeon, he dedicates his professional time to being a researcher, academic, medical leader, teacher and trainer for his peers and junior colleagues. His current commitments include;

1. Consultant at Madras ENT Research Foundation, RA Puram center, Chennai

2. Teaching faculty, MERF Institute of Speech and Hearing, Chennai.

3. Theory & Clinical teacher in ENT for undergraduate students - BASLP Course.

4. Course coordinator for the Implantation Otology Fellowship Program at MERF.

5. Overseas Faculty, MCh Otorhinolaryngology studies, Edge Hill University, UK

6. Visiting professor in SRMMCH and SRMC