TRK Varma, neurosurgeon

• Reference:GB 254 UR-SF 100
• Dates of Creation:1988 - 1998
• Name of Creator:
  TRK Varma
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  1 box

• Scope and Content

  Film of interviews with Varma, news cuttings, video and cassette tapes from Neuro-surgery Dept, Dundee Royal Infirmary. Digital copies of VHS and cassette tapes

• Administrative / Biographical History

  Mr TRK Varma was born and raised in Bangalore, southern India. He was a doctor in the British Army, having served with Montgomery in Africa and Italy during the second world war. Varma attended his hometown university and went on to work in a Delhi hospital. Having decided to become a neurosurgeon, he travelled to Liverpool with the intention of returning home after a brief period of study. Instead he spent five years there, where he met his wife Shirley, before moving on to Sheffield, and then Cardiff. He and Shirley had a daughter called Sulekha
  He arrived in Dundee in 1985 to take up a position as a consultant neurosurgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary, taking up the mantle from predecessor Joe Block. Varma worked with fellow consultant Ivan Jacobson and the two established a department recognised as one of the finest in the country.
  Varma completed many groundbreaking first-of-its-kind procedures in Scotland. He started offering psychosurgery as an alternate treatment for patients suffering with severe depression in 1992. In 1996 he performed a surgery with an Operating Arm using virtual reality assistance. He also developed surgery for severe epilepsy and in 1997 became the first neurosurgeon in Scotland to fit electrical implants.
  After 13 years in Dundee, TRK Varma moved south in 1998 to take up a position at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Liverpool, the only NHS centre dealing with Varma’s speciality

• Access Information

  Open for consultation subject to preservation requirements. Access must also conform to the restrictions of the Data Protection Act (2018), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2018) and any other relevant legislation or restrictions. Clinical information is closed for 100 years

• Acquisition Information

  Curator Museums & Galleries, UoD

• Note

  Mr TRK Varma was born and raised in Bangalore, southern India. He was a doctor in the British Army, having served with Montgomery in Africa and Italy during the second world war. Varma attended his hometown university and went on to work in a Delhi hospital. Having decided to become a neurosurgeon, he travelled to Liverpool with the intention of returning home after a brief period of study. Instead he spent five years there, where he met his wife Shirley, before moving on to Sheffield, and then Cardiff. He and Shirley had a daughter called Sulekha
  He arrived in Dundee in 1985 to take up a position as a consultant neurosurgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary, taking up the mantle from predecessor Joe Block. Varma worked with fellow consultant Ivan Jacobson and the two established a department recognised as one of the finest in the country.
  Varma completed many groundbreaking first-of-its-kind procedures in Scotland. He started offering psychosurgery as an alternate treatment for patients suffering with severe depression in 1992. In 1996 he performed a surgery with an Operating Arm using virtual reality assistance. He also developed surgery for severe epilepsy and in 1997 became the first neurosurgeon in Scotland to fit electrical implants.
  After 13 years in Dundee, TRK Varma moved south in 1998 to take up a position at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Liverpool, the only NHS centre dealing with Varma’s speciality

• Archivist's Note

  Arranged and listed by Lydia MacDonald, volunteer

• Conditions Governing Use

  Reproduction is available subject to preservation requirements. Charges may be made for this service, and copyright and other restrictions may apply; please check with the Duty Archivist

• Custodial History

  Presumably held by Varma who gave the material to the Medical Museum, from which was it transferred to the Archive

• Accruals

  Not known

• Additional Information

  Published

• Subjects

  Medicine

• Geographical Names

  Dundee