Yoga Raja "Raj" Rampersaud is a Canadian orthopedic surgeon at

Toronto Western Hospital The Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) is a major research and teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the University Health Network (UHN). It has 256 beds, with 46,000 visits to its emergency department annually. It is known fo ...

. Theresa Boyle
"Renowned spine surgeon is transforming the way Ontario deals with back pain"
''Toronto Star'', 6 October 2018, page IN6 He is known for his advocacy of interprofessional models of health care. He is a professor at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Early life and education

Rampersaud was born in British Guiana; his father was a dentist. He immigrated to Canada with his family as a young boy and lived in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. His parents, working in Canada as a janitor and a seamstress, encouraged him to attend medical school. He studied orthopedic surgery at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

, graduating in 1992.

Career

Rampersaud joined Toronto Western Hospital, specializing in spine surgery, and later lead a surgical team conducting minimally invasive of "keyhole" surgery. In the 2000s, Rampersaud began speaking out about a problem in the health care system: many of the people with back pain who were referred to him by their family doctors were not candidates for spinal surgery. The result was wasted time for both the surgeon and the patient, and wasted money for the taxpayers. In 2010, Rampersaud took part in a pilot project at TWH which determined that a specially trained nurse practitioner could assess patients with back pain as accurately as the surgeons at the hospital." Nurse-led clinic wins approval"
''Nursing in Practice'', 23 November 2010 In 2011 Rampersaud developed a proposal which he sent to the Ontario government describing a process of pre-screening which would separate out those in need of surgery from those who could best be helped by other therapy."Canada's costly spine-surgeon backlog"
''The Globe and Mail'', Lisa Priest, May 12, 2011 The proposal pointed out that pre-screening could save money by cutting down on the number of unnecessary visits to specialists and MRI tests, as well as helping patients receive appropriate care sooner."Spine surgery can become much more efficient"
''The Globe and Mail'', May 15, 2011 In 2013, Rampersaud began organizing a project to set up a series of Inter-Professional Spine And Assessment Clinics, staffed with diagnostic experts and therapists. The clinics have been able to reduce wait times, unnecessary diagnostic tests, and referrals to specialists, while providing patients with more targeted and effective treatment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampersaud, Raj Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian orthopedic surgeons University of Western Ontario alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto