Expertise
After completing his M.B.B.S. at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Gujarat, India in 1988 and his MS in general surgery in 1992, he went to Germany as a clinical fellow and trainee in advanced therapeutic endoscopy and endosonography at the Department of Endoscopic Surgery of University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany under Prof. Nib Soehendra and Dr. Kenneth Binmoeller. In 1998, He performed the first ever interventional endosonographic procedure in India and pioneered diagnostic and interventional endosonographic ultrasound in this part of the world.[3]
During his career in Mumbai that spans almost two decades, Rathod has performed more than 18,000 EUS procedures including more than 8500 interventional EUS procedures apart from over 35,000 various diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic andendoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedures.[4] His vast experience in advanced therapeutic ERCP has complimented his EUS skills in diagnosis, for desired clinical outcomes. He has found the role of combined approach of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and ERCP to be of great value in patients with acute, recurrent acute and chronic pancreatitis apart from pancreatic tumors.[5] Rathod is recognised as one of the world leaders in endoscopic ultrasound and has represented India in over 50 countries as international faculty, speaker and demonstrator in leading gastroenterology and endoscopy conferences and workshops.[6] In 2006, he was invited as a visiting professor at Yale University, New Haven, US and was also awarded a fellowship as Fellow of American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (FASGE) for outstanding contribution in the field of Endoscopy.[7]
Rathod is the promoter and director of Endoscopy Asia which was inaugurated in 2008 by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation. .[8] In July 2013, Rathod set a record for the first-of-its-kind giant polypoidal lesion measuring 8 cm x 2.5 cm endoscopically without any form of surgical intervention.[9]
In 2015, he was appointed the secretary of the Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India (SGEI) [10] and he also founded World Gastroenterology Institute in Mumbai which is the first and only dedicated hospital for gastrointestinal diseases in western India. [11]
Rathod has trained over 350 aspiring gastroenterologists and endoscopists and more than 75 international fellow gasteroenterologists from as far as the US, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Philippines, Slovakia, Syria, UAE, Oman, Iran, Libya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia and South Africa[12] He is held in high regard in the Indian society and respected as an exemplary role model for the youth in his field.