Media Release
Mangaluru, June 1: Dr Hamsaraj Shetty, who was born & brought up in Mulki was recently awarded the 'Member of the Order of the British Empire' by the royal family, United Kingdom.
This award is equivalent to the India's 'Padma Awards' in the United Kingdom.
Dr Shetty has had a distinguished career as a senior consultant physician at Cardiff University Hospital of Wales. He has been a prominent figure in stroke care services in Wales for nearly three decades.
Hamsaraj Shetty graduated from Mysore Medical College, India. He trained as a lecturer in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics and senior registrar in general/geriatric medicine in Cardiff. After working in Southmead Hospital, Bristol as a consultant physician for a short period he returned to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff in 1995.
He is currently a consultant physician at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. He gained specialist knowledge in stroke medicine when he went on a sabbatical to Beth Israel and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston and the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
He was instrumental in initiating and leading the developments in stroke services at the Cardiff & Vale UHB. Dr Shetty contributed significantly to the development of stroke services across Wales, in collaboration with his colleagues, through the Welsh Association of stroke physicians, which he initiated in 1998. He was its founding secretary and later the chairman between 2005 & 2007.
He was a member of the stroke implementation group of the Welsh Government until 2014, a member of the service development and quality committee of the British association of stroke physicians (2006 to 2009) & a founding member of the UK stroke forum national committee and was also a member of its conference organizing committee since inception until 2015.
Dr Shetty edited hthe Welsh stroke bulletin between 1998 and 2007. He was the Royal College of physician’s regional advisor for stroke medicine in Wales until 2015. He has contributed to a few key multicentre stroke trials.
He was the chairman of the stroke research interest group of the Old People and Ageing research Network (OPAN), Wales between 2007 and 2010. He was given the “Life After Stroke” national award by the stroke association, United Kingdom in 2016 and the inaugural “Welsh Stroke Excellence National Award” by the Welsh association of stroke physicians in July 2018.
In 2007, he became the first ever non-European president of the Cardiff medical society in its 137-year history. He was elected as a Fellow of the prestigious learned Society of Wales in May 2022. He received the MBE for stroke services in Wales from His Majesty King Charles on May 14.
Dr Shetty, is the son of the late Gundalu Mahabala Shetty, a retired principal, Mulki and Ratna G M Shetty.
He completed his primary education at UBMC SCHOOL, Karnad, Mulki and high school education at Government High School, Mulki. He went on to finish his PU education & BSc at Vijaya College, Mulki.