Rattan Lal Mittal

Rattan Lal Mittal is a former head of orthopaedics and principal of Government Medical College, Patiala, and a former director of research and medical education for the Punjab government. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of medicine, from Punjab ^[1].

Career

Mittal was born on 23 April 1937 and took his MBBS in 1960 and MS in 1966 from Punjabi University, Patiala ^[2]. Besides heading his department and the college, he was a dean at Punjabi University, a member of the Medical Council of India from 1993 to 1995, chairman of the ESI medical board and a sports medicine teacher at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala ^[2].

Low-cost tools

A strong believer in affordable technology for poorer countries, he invented a range of orthopaedic instruments, among them the Patiala biopsy needle, a low-cost ring fixator, a scoliometer and a universal nail extractor ^[2]. He developed new surgical techniques and described new conditions, publishing 135 papers ^[2].

Clubfoot

His lifelong special interest has been severe clubfoot ^[2]. Over half a century he published eleven papers on it in leading journals, describing the different layers of tissue abnormality and developing a combined “4 in 1” surgical approach ^[2]. He was the first to win all three of the Indian Orthopaedic Association’s research awards for this work, in 1988, 2013 and 2018, and in 2018 he wrote a book on congenital clubfoot published by Taylor and Francis ^[2]. That year he was named emeritus professor at his old college ^[2].

His honours include the Dr B. C. Roy National Award in 1994 and an ICMR national award in 1991 for his work on skeletal fluorosis ^[2].