I am a trained rheumatologist. I belong to the first batch of DNB rheumatology trainees in the entire country. I am the first, trained, in house rheumatologist of Mangalore. (No Kidding!!)

MBBS- I belong to 1993 batch of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore.
MD in General Medicine- I have done MD from Jagadguru Jayadeva Murugarajendra Medical Collage, Davangere.
DNB in Rheumatology- I have completed DNB rheumatology from Nizam’s institute of medical sciences, Hyderabad.
After completing MD in General Medicine, I joined as assistant professor in the department of medicine in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal in December 2003. Initial six months I had worked in medicine department there. Subsequently Dr N R Rau, who was the HOD medicine, deputed me to department of immunology. Dr Vinod Chandran was heading clinical immunology then in KMC Manipal.

Dr Vinod Chandran who was timid, brilliant and a gentle man, as I was not keen on doing any subspecialty at that point of time, passively gave me an opportunity to look into rheumatology and clinical immunology. I worked under Dr Vinod for three months and subsequently he left for a fellowship in psoriatic arthritis at Toronto University, Canada. By this time I had learned good amount of subject and I alone continued to manage the department for one year. But at occasions, I could feel the gap in my knowledge and I felt the strong urge to undergo a formal training in rheumatology. Advanced training in rheumatology was available only in Madras Medical College then and it was reserved for students from Tamil nadu. So, i had to wait till Dr Dharmanand started one year fellowship program in rheumatology at Manipal Hospital Bangalore.

In KMC Manipal, I also had an opportunity to associate myself with Dr Nigil Haroon, whom I consider as one of the brilliant human beings I have associated with.
At Manipal Hospital Bangalore (MH), working with Dr Dhamranand was very rewarding and encouraging. I had learned many things from him including how to do a good private practice, which cannot be learned from academic institutes. He was very kind to me through out. After six months of my stint in Manipal, Nizam’s institute of medical sciences, Hyderabad (NIMS) announced DNB Rheumatology training program in rheumatology. Dr Dharmanand encouraged me to join DNB training program at Nizam’s for which I am extremely grateful to him. In MH, I had the opportunity to attend Bangalore rheumatology forum and present cases. This gave me an opportunity to interact with the entire eminent rheumatologist in the country.

In NIMS my colleague was Dr N V Jayachandran who again was very intelligent, industrious and disciplined. Being with him I had the opportunity to present papers in international journals. He has contributed significantly to my academics. At NIMS, my chief was Dr G Narsimulu. Under his able guidance, we could sail through many practical difficulties that we encountered as we were the first batch of DNB trainees in the country. There were lots of difficulties. Our registration numbers from the national board of examinations were issued to us only when we were in final year of the training program.

When the application forms for final exams were issued rheumatology as a subject was not mentioned in the application forms and we had to bring this to attention of top officials including the concerned ministers.

We had our theory centre in Osmania Medical College. We were not sure as to appear for three papers as in subspecialty or four papers in broad specialty. Even the inspector from the national board was not clear about the issue. So, we had to wait for thirty minutes past the fourth paper before sorting out the issue.

Our practical centre was All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Dr Rohini Handa, Dr Debashish Danda, Dr Chathurvedi and Dr Uma Kumar were our external examiners.
After clearing DNB exams I joined my alma mater, KMC Mangalore as assistant professor in the department of medicine. I thank my teachers Dr Sydney D’Souza and Dr Venkataraya Prabhu for this appointment.

To my surprise, initially, rheumatology was confused for dermatology and gynaecology. I used to get pregnant ladies and people with skin diseases as referred patients. It took some time for the scenario to change.

In an attempt to spread the work culture and awareness of rheumatology I was helped immensely by my alma mater. I could organize one regional CME and one national CME at KMC Mangalore with the help of Dean and the HOD.Dr M V Prabhu and Dr Raghavendra Bhat were instrumental and proactive in helping me for organizing CMEs. I have organized undergraduate national level rheumatology CME along with Indian Rheumatology Association (IRA) and department of medicine at KMC, Mangalore.

I run two OPDs in Mangalore. One in KMC Jyothi Circle between 11am and 1pm. Second one is my private clinic at Amritha Polyclinic, Balmatta, Mangalore.

Finally, I thank god, my parents and my elder brother Gopakumar Shenoy C for their contribution towards my profession. I will never forget my MBBS batch mates for helping out when I had a personal turmoil.

Hobbies- maintaining aquariums, reading books concerned with my hobbies, meeting people, cricket. .