Distinguished Awards

Most Distinguished Physician Award

Onaly A. Kapasi, MD a nominee for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery’s Humanitarian Service Award recently received the Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award from the Indian Medical Association of New England (IMANE) on November 21, 2009.in recognition of his humanitarian services in Boston, India and Africa. He is also a recipient of the 2004 Leadership Award from IMANE.

Dr, Kapasi came to Boston as a pediatric orthopedic fellow at the Harvard affiliated Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 1975.

Whilst in Kenya his puritan streak came to the forefront in August 1972 as he organized relief efforts for the 60,000 plus Indian refugees fleeing Idi Amin’s Uganda

This passion to assist the less fortunate resurfaced in 1980 when he and a fellow surgeon delivered very large bags containing a few hundred loaves of bread each Friday to a shelter for the homeless in Boston.

He received a humanitarian service award from the Himalayan International Institute in 1998 for dedicated services to the indigent Himalayan community where he has continued to serve in person, kind and money for the past fifteen years. In Himachel he is fondly referred to as the Dhamad of Mandi

He received a dedicated service award in 2000 from his peers at the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) for assisting Indian American Physicians practicing medicine in the U.S.A.

Again in 2001 he received a special presidential award from the AAPI president, Dr. Naik for assisting Indian physicians fight peer review abuse

He has traveled to India where he has carried out free orthopedic surgeries in Bombay and Pune, conducted orthopedic camps, given continuing medical education courses in Patiala at the National Sports Academy, presented papers at orthopedic meetings in India and also traveled to East Africa on medical missions. He collects surplus medical equipment from the Boston hospitals that he repatriates to needy countries

He received the coveted Ethicon prize for meritorious academic performance in the Master of Medicine in Surgery program in Kenya, his research paper; “Psoriatic Hands� was acclaimed as the best paper of the year at the American Hand Society Meeting in September 1980. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine in 1991 where he served as the chairman of the licensing committee and Joint Committee on Graduate Medical Education. He has also served as a physician member of the Massachusetts Acupuncture and Alternative Medicine Board. He has served as the chair of the AAPI Federation of Licensing Boards, Ethics and Grievances Committee, for two consecutive terms, and Awards Committee and member of many key committees. He is an appointed member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon’s Ethics Committee.

His passion for humanitarian work resounds also in his personal poetries some of which are published. And he states that he is planning to publish a book of his personal poems some day.

When asked about his passion he is quick to mention that he derives an inner strength from a family that is very supportive and also very giving. His brother a physician in the U. K. is a recipient of M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire) that was bestowed by the Queen of England for his services to the British Health Care. He believes that the need for giving was ingrained by his parents who also lived by an example of giving.