City son Dr Dua gets prestigious CBE, Queen’s Birthday Honours
| Date :14-Jun-2019 |
By Vikas Vaidya:
Professor Harminder Singh Dua will take up the role as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, from 2021
Dr Harminder Singh Dua, a Nagpur-born and an alumnus of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has been awarded with Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) during the distribution of Queen’s Birthday Honours. The award was given to him for his services to eye healthcare, health education and to ophthalmology. Professor Dua is working with University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals. In 2013, scientists from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust found a previously undetected layer in the cornea, the clear window at the front of the human eye.
The breakthrough has since helped surgeons to dramatically improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants. The new layer has been dubbed the Dua’s Layer after academic Professor Harminder Dua who discovered it. The Dua’s Layer now has been included in medical curriculum. Dr Harminder Dua, was honoured for Professional Excellence Award by Academy of Medical Sciences, Nagpur branch, during its golden jubilee celebration. He is recipient of the 2012-13 Rotary Foundation Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award. This innovation has made this procedure much easier to do. Under this layer one can do a whole cataract surgery during the graft process, because we know this layer is so strong.
It’s a big step forward in terms of avoiding another whole operation. When Dr Dua had been to Middle-East, students told him it was included in final MBBS examination. The 24 text books have the Dua Layer for studying. In 2014, he got Times Higher Education Research Project award which is very prestigious. It is the most prestigious scientific award for which people across all specialties from 132 universities competed. International Conference of Human Anatomy and Morphophysiology held at Argentina where a group from Paraguay wanted to make the model of the layer. On the basis of Dr Dua’s study they made a model, took skype interview of Dr Dua and won it. There had been 150 citations for Dua’s layer in three years. Recently in another scientific journal, a study published done by a group of Canada which did experiment on living eye showed Dua Layer.
Dr Dua got Vice-Chancellor’s medal of Nottingham University. Dr Harminder Dua is working on a project which could see the eyesight of soldiers saved, even after they have suffered serious wounds.A team of researchers - including Dr Dua - have found a way of preserving the protective barrier that surrounds babies in the womb so it can be transferred to battlefield hospitals to treat injuries such as burns to the cornea. It is using the amniotic membrane [the sac in which the foetus develops] which is normally only available frozen. The amniotic fluid has a lot of healing properties and that’s been well recognised for a number of years.
Dr Dua attributes credit to family Operating out of the Queen's Medical Centre for 25 years, Professor Harminder Singh Dua has helped thousands of patients, and is a leading world authority on corneas. The professor has also turned to education and run workshops all over the world on the subject. “I am absolutely thrilled by the honour. It was something that makes you feel the awe of what you have achieved,” this is what he told to Nottinghamshire Live, a news media. “For someone to have recognised what you have done is amazing. My wife has been my ultimate pillar of support and has helped me through all the challenges and sacrifices made,” said Professor Harminder Singh Dua.
Adv Anand Jaiswal overwhelmed Adv Anand Jaiswal, President of Vidarbha Cricket Association, former President of High Court Bar Association and a prominent legal luminary expressed happiness over the award given to Prof Harminder Singh Dua. Prof Dua happened to be a close family friend of Adv Jaiswal. They have still maintained the friendship.