Dr. Jyotsna Kulkarni

Leading surgeon in the specialty of laparoscopy, Dr. Jyotsna Sanjay Kulkarni has a distinguished career. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1982, and spent five years there between 1982 and 1987, after being born and reared in Mumbai. She obtained her MBBS and MS from Nair Hospitals. She became the world’s first female surgeon when she returned to India and performed the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Pune on November 19, 1990. Acknowledging the necessity for specialized training in this domain, she founded the first Animal Lab in India in 1992, whereby more than five hundred surgeons received ten years of training in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Kulkarni Endo Surgery Institute was established in Pune in 1995 by Dr. Kulkarni and her husband, urologist Dr. Sanjay Balwant Kulkarni. Multiple honors have been given to her for her groundbreaking work; in 2015, the Mumbai Medical Foundation honored her with the coveted “Sushruta Award” for her exceptional contributions to laparoscopic surgery in India. She received the “Dedicated Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2018 from Mimer Medical College in Pune and MIT World Peace University. She also gave the renowned “Dr. G M Phadke Oration” at Mumbai’s Masicon Festival. At the 16th International Congress of AMASI in 2021, she was most recently honored with the “Great Contributor in Laparoscopy” Award. Not only has Dr. Kulkarni given workshops and surgical demonstrations abroad, garnering her reputation in other nations, but her efforts go well beyond India.