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Every year New South Wales Spine Specialists (NSWSS) welcomes an international spine surgeon to complete a 12 month fellowship alongside their team.

A fellowship in surgery or medicine can be undertaken by someone who has completed advanced medical training and plans on becoming a specialist in that field.

In 2020, Indian trained doctor Hussain Bohra was awarded the prestigious NSWSS fellowship. He relocated to Australia with his wife (a paediatrician) and 18-month-old son, Mustansir, for the opportunity to work with and learn from Dr Brian Hsu and Dr Bhisham Singh.

Dr Bohra completed his medical training in Mumbai, a city that is home to more than 18 million people. However, Dr Bohra had limited exposure to adult spine deformity surgery until recently.

“In Mumbai, we operate on many adolescent spine deformities but not much adult spine deformities,” Dr Bohra explains.

“Dr Hsu is attached to the kids’ hospital [The Children’s Hospital at Westmead] as well, so with him you also get exposed to paediatric cases.”

Dr Bohra previously completed spine surgery fellowships in Denmark and Singapore.

“I’m getting exposed to more [spine] cases here than I had even hoped for,” he says.

“Even in Singapore I wasn’t exposed to the variety and volume of the cases I have been with NSWSS.

“I had not seen the front (anterior) surgeries back home in Mumbai. Even in Singapore we only did those type of surgeries once every few months. But here we pretty much do these kind of surgeries once or twice a month.”

As part of his NSWSS fellowship, Dr Bohra conducts hospital ward rounds each morning before assisting Dr Hsu and Dr Singh in surgeries at Norwest Private Hospital, Westmead Private Hospital, Royal North Shore Private Hospital and Macquarie University Hospital.

Dr Bohra is also conducting spine research during his time in Australia.

“I’ve always been interested in research,” Dr Bohra says.

“I did some [research] in Singapore as well, and a project was published earlier this year in the European Spine Journal.

“Research adds to your knowledge and the treatment of spine deformities is an evolving science. If you find out something new it may change the line of treatment and how you do surgery, so research is very important.”

Dr Bohra and his family have been enjoying their time in Sydney despite the pandemic shutting down some of the city’s tourist attractions for a short period.

“Sydney is a vibrant city, except for the pandemic, it’s perfect,” he says.

“My son is enjoying the parks because back home we don’t have such big parks available in public places, and my wife is enjoying her work as well.”