Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Senthil Nathan


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. Ron Ritzman (talk) 01:51, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Senthil Nathan

 * – ( View AfD View log  •  Stats )

A Urologist. Claim to fame is he performed one of the first surgeries with a robot, named PROBOT. I'm unable to find that he had anything to do with the robot. I can only find the same sentence over and over again that appears in the Robotic Surgery article, "In 1988, the PROBOT, developed at Imperial College London, was used to perform prostatic surgery by Dr. Senthil Nathan at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London". I'm unable to find any reliable refs that back this up. I'm unable to find any independent and reliable refs about him. There are several other Senthil Nathan that show up, especially Google Scholar. There is an environmental engineer and neurosurgeon that show up the most, so I could have missed something. Prod was contested for unknown reasons. Bgwhite (talk) 16:14, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Medicine-related deletion discussions. Bgwhite (talk) 16:15, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 19:08, 22 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Comment Thank you Bgwhite, after getting your comment to my article I tried to find some reliable sources, contacted to Dr Nathan's office and can get a video(broadcasted by BBC tomorrow's world) which clearly says he perform first robotic surgery in the world. I got Marquis who is who bookm, his name is named there. I got some paper cuttings of the leading UK news paper. I don't know how can I provide reference to Wikipedia? Any suggestions regarding the matter is highly appreciated. Thank you- Rajesh Parallelly I will try to edit the article when I will have time. Thank you  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rajesh Mani Lamichhane (talk • contribs) 13:53, 23 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete pending verification of the large claims made in the article (that he was actually the first person in the world to carry out robotic surgery on humans). It is verifiable that he has something to do with surgical robotics, which he teaches at University College London Hospital - though apparently as a clinical professor (a private practitioner who also teaches) rather than full time academic staff. The article cites several newspapers but they are not available for viewing. I could not find a single published work by him at Google Scholar or at PubMed (screening together with the word Robot or Robotics to eliminate namesakes). It's hard to believe that he could have done something so groundbreaking but never published it! Google News Archive finds only this Wikipedia article. --MelanieN (talk) 15:06, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * P.S. This article in Wired gives a brief history of the PROBOT, but it does not mention Dr. Nathan. --MelanieN (talk) 15:08, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment The first robotic surgery was performed three years before Dr. Nathan in 1985. Robot was called PUMA 560.  Reference for the surgery and a reference for two other surgeries performed before Dr. Nathan.   A book on robotic surgery briefly mentions the PROBOT as being developed in the early 1990's.  The same book mentions the PUMA 560 as being the first in 1985. Bgwhite (talk) 21:09, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you saying that the article's claims are not merely unverified - they are false? --MelanieN (talk) 23:19, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * "His contribution to the development of minimal invasive techniques and robotic surgery for urological diseases is well recognized" I'd say this statement is false as he is not well recognized and appears to not have contributed.
 * "In particular he carried out the first robotic surgery in the world to actually remove human tissue" I'd say unverified.  The first robotic procedure did not remove human tissue, but I don't have a clue what the other procedures performed before Nathan involved and I can't find where Nathan removed any human tissue.  He clearly wasn't the first to use a robot during surgery. I can't find any independent and reliable reference that he did the surgery at all. Bgwhite (talk) 23:51, 23 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete The article cites 3 newspaper articles. The article from The Independent mentions him as being involved with development of the robot, and quotes him, but there's not much more on him, and certainly nothing about him originating/inventing it.  I found the Express article on UKPressONline, and it says much the same.  I can't find the News of the World article, but would guess it's almost identical.  He was just one of many people involved in the work.  I searched many other news archives without getting anything. Doesn't seem enough material for WP:GNG. --Colapeninsula (talk) 16:00, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.