Singapore: Professor Ajay Rane, Townsville hospital's director of urogynecology and James Cook University professor, who has been helping the women of Australia for over a decade has made his way to Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for his exceptional service in medicine.

"The work I do is mostly looking after women who suffer from terrible traumas of childbirth," says Prof Rane. Furthermore, he adds, "At the same time, I champion the world against female infanticide and foeticide, female genital mutilation and sexual assault against women. There are a lot of injustices done to women the world over."

His contribution to the field of urogynaecology includes developing awareness-raising initiatives like 'Beat the Bladder Blues' to help educate women; co-inventing the 'Perigee' - revolutionary mesh to repair prolapsed bladder; and producing Bollywood film 'Riwayat' that exposed the issues in India about female foeticide. His humanitarian work in India, Nepal and Malaysia is also noteworthy. He has been successfully training local doctors in these countries and co-founded the Gosha hospital in the slums of Chennai.

On receiving the award, he said, "I feel blessed to have the opportunity to serve the community and winning the award has only strengthened my resolve to provide with first-rate women's health care across North Queensland and the world over."

Professor Ajay Rane has dedicated his career to improving the pelvic health of women and is recognised globally for his contributions to Urogynaecology. Professor Rane grew up in a small rural town called Jalgaon in India, which made him develop a deep empathy to the health issues prevalent in towns of India. Dr. Rane teaches medical students and surgeons, as well as undertaking extensive research. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers, contributed to four books and serves on many international boards. Such is Dr. Rane's energy and commitment that in 2012, he completed his 11th humanitarian mission to India. He was also one of the finalists of the Australian of the Year Awards for 2012.