“Around 75% of medicine is about reassurance,” says Rajaratnam Mathialagan, a consultant physician and gastroenterologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust in Norfolk.
“Practising as a gastroenterologist for the past 25 years, I’ve found that most patients seeking medical help are worried and anxious—and what they need is for you to reassure them.
“Taking time to explain their conditions and symptoms so they can understand them better, and tackling their concerns in detail is very rewarding,” he says.
While there have been huge advances in technology and diagnostic techniques in medicine, the basic skills—like clear communication, taking a thorough history, and physical examination—remain central to providing good patient care, Mathialagan says. “As clinicians responsible for the future generation of doctors, it’s our role to make sure trainees are taught these important skills.”
Passionate about medical education, Mathialagan shares his love of gastroenterology with trainees. “Two thousand years ago, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, stated that all disease begins in the gut. Modern medicine is only just beginning to catch up,” he says. “The gut plays a huge role in our health. Gastrointestinal symptoms are some of the most common reasons patients see a doctor in primary care.”
“It’s an exciting field and there are so many developments, like how the gut microbiome impacts on overall health. We weren’t aware of this when I went into medicine.”
Mathialagan grew up in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka. His parents, who were teachers, told him that he should go into medicine. “I followed their advice and didn’t question it,” he recalls.
After attending Jaffna Medical Faculty it was during his registrar training in the early 1990s that he became interested in gastroenterology. “It appealed to me as a physician. You could ‘fuse your skills,’ doing endoscopic procedures as well as practising general medicine,” he says.
He then travelled to the UK for postgraduate medical training and went on to become a research fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, researching Helicobacter pylori under the supervision of the professor of gastroenterology John Calam. “He was very approachable and made the complex simple. I wanted to emulate his approach to medicine and teaching,” says Mathialagan.
Mathialagan completed his training at the Oxford Deanery, “where I was lucky enough to work with one of the leading specialists in inflammatory bowel disease, Derek Jewell.”
Now semi-retired, but still working three and a half days a week, Mathialagan has enjoyed every part of his career. When not working, he is involved with Jaffna Medical Faculty Overseas Alumni UK—a charity supporting medical education and training in northern Sri Lanka, of which he was the founding president. He also goes hiking every month, and every morning spends an hour listening to Tamil songs—“the music of my childhood.”
Mathialagan is grateful to his parents for believing that out of their five children, he should be the doctor in the family. “When I asked my mother why, she said I had ‘a bit more patience.’
“My father died in 1992, before I came to the UK for postgraduate training. But I know he would have been extremely pleased that medicine was right for me.”
Nominated by May Thway Ko
“I met Dr Mathialagan, known as ‘Dr Mathi,’ during my post as an internal medicine trainee in Kings Lynn. He is a role model for many trainees, and a well recognised and respected consultant.
“Although he is highly accomplished, he is also warm, kind hearted, and easily approachable. Despite his busy clinical and educational commitments, he always finds time to support trainees.
“Dr Mathialagan has devoted a great amount of his personal time and hard work to promote medical education and training in Kings Lynn. He is passionate about education and massively involved in training future generations of NHS physicians.
“He is a great inspiration for many trainees, and he will remain as my idol and mentor who has given me a prodigious amount of support, both clinically and mentally.”