Associate Professor Sumit Raniga

The Roth MacFarlane Hand and Upper Limb Center (HULC) is a truly unique facility with a worldwide reputation as one of the best institutions of its kind. The HULC is a world-renowned centre of excellence in education, research, and the treatment of patients with complex conditions affecting hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Sumit had the privilege to work with Professor Graham King, who is regarded as one of the preeminent elbow surgeons in the world. His time with Professor King allowed him to focus on open and arthroscopic reconstruction of the elbow, as well as elbow replacement surgery. He also worked with Professor George Athwal, who has earned the reputation of being one of the best shoulder surgeons in North America. Assoc. Professor Raniga focussed on learning novel joint preserving surgery for the treatment of high demand patients with unrepairable rotator cuff tears. He also gained further experience in arthroscopic and open surgery, as well as more complex shoulder replacement surgery.

With a background in molecular medicine as well as biomechanical research, Associate Professor Raniga joined Macquarie University Hospital with a vision to develop a world-class orthopaedic research program that focuses on basic scientific research that improves prosthesis design, surgical techniques and rehabilitation to improve patient outcomes.To this end, Associate Professor Raniga has been awarded a research grant of $600,000 to build a the MQ Health Translational Shoulder Research Program. This funding has allowed the assembly of a multidisciplinary team that enables an intensive collaboration between academic shoulder surgeons, radiologists, physiotherapists, biomechanical engineers, basic scientists and industry to improve patient outcomes through translational orthopaedic research. His team has now built the most advanced six degree of freedom, eight muscle actuated, in vitro cadaveric shoulder simulator in the world. This sophisticated shoulder simulator will improve our understanding of shoulder biomechanics, develop new surgical techniques and rapidly evolve shoulder prosthesis design to improve patient outcomes.