Spine surgeon Dr J Naresh Babu of Mediciti Hospitals, Hyderabad, has been honored with the prestigious Asia Pacific Orthopedic Association (APOA) International Spine Award for 2010. He shares the honor with two other spine surgeons from Japan and Hong Kong.
APOA is an organization of orthopedic surgeons from the 17 countries of the Asia Pacific region. The objective of APOA is to advance research in the field of orthopedic surgery. The APOA Spine Award is given once in two years to the significant research and clinical work done in the field of spine surgery.
Dr Babu received this year’s award for his pioneering work on treating low back pain with minimal invasive surgery. In contrary to the traditional open surgery which involves cutting the muscles and bones, he devised a new surgical technique and approach where in the surgery including placing the screws in to the bone could be carried out without cutting the muscles and bone.

Dr Ekkundi becomes R&D head of Hikal
Hikal, a contract manufacturer for global life sciences and specialty chemicals companies, has appointed Dr Vadiraj Ekkundi as the head of its R&D facility in Bangalore.
Dr Ekkundi comes with over 26 years of experience in the field of research and development activities. His experience encompasses a mix of scientific, technical as well as managerial roles. He has occupied various top level positions in leading multinational companies such as Hindustan Lever, Wyeth Laboratories, Atul Products, and Ciba.