Dr Annapoorna Kini

Dr Annapoorna Kini, who was born and brought up in Puttur, has made her native place proud with her rare accomplishment. Kini, who works as the assistant director at Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, USA, has been conferred with the rare honour of the 'two-star' recognition, for her distinguished achievement in the medical field. The state health department chose Annapoorna ahead of many senior doctors, taking into account her skills, professionalism and rare success rate in surgeries. Dr Annapoorna conducted about 3,800 angioplasty surgical procedures between the years 2006 and 2009. The total number of angioplasty procedures undertaken by the surgeon exceeds 8,200 so far.

The state health department in New York has been collecting the 'public safety information' about the treatment procedures in hospitals, since the year 1994. Out of them, individual details of the angioplasty procedures conducted by different surgeons are also recorded. The department analyzes the details of the patients who die while undergoing the procedure or in the subsequent 30-day period. These figures are published once in three years. The figures for the period between 2003 and 2006 were recently published in New York. Based on the results, Dr Annapoorna, who conducted the highest number of safe angioplasty procedures, has won the 'two-star' recognition. During this three-year period, she had conducted 2,473 angioplasty procedures, out of which, only eleven had failed to produce positive results. This ratio is only 0.30% of the total such procedures attended by her, which happens to be only one third of the New York's average of 0.80%. Out of the 400 interventional cardiologists functioning in New York, Dr Annapoorna ranks third among the surgeons who have conducted highest number of such procedures. Although there are two other doctors who have conducted more angioplasties than her, they have not been chosen for this honour. Dr Annapoorna, daughter of the late Namadev Prabhu and Pushpalatha Prabhu, completed her medical education from KMC Mangalore with gold medal, and continued her higher education in Cardiff, England for six years. After marrying Dr Subhash Kini from Mysore, who is a surgeon working for Mount Sinai Medical Centre, she moved to USA.