The 52nd Annual National Conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics aims to explore the latest developments in the field of pediatrics
The 52nd Annual Conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics, PEDICON 2015, was inaugurated in the presence of Lov Verma, Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, the Chief Guest. In its 52nd edition, the conference is taking place from Jan 22 – 25 at the Samrat Ashok Hotel Complex in New Delhi.
Dr Ajay Gambhir, Organizing Chairperson PEDICON 2015 and Dr Anupam Sachdev, the Organizing Secretary addressed the conference. Other dignitaries present included Dr SS Kamath (President, IAP), Dr Pramod Jog (President – Elect, IAP), Dr Vijay N Yewale (Immediate Past President, IAP), Dr Pravin Mehta (Secretary General, IAP), Dr Krishan Chugh (Org. Chairperson, IAP) and Dr NK Anand (Reception Chairperson & Organizing Secretary). The inaugural ceremony also witnessed a dance recital by world-renowned Kathak dancer, Shobhna Narayan and by a troupe of extremely talented special children.
Reportedly, the four-day conference will see major issues discussed, such as the gaps that exist in healthcare implementation, the lack of interface between public and private players, child survival strategy in a tribal set up and decoding of the IAP growth chart coming to the forefront. To encourage young talent, 40 scholarships would be awarded to young pediatricians presenting the free papers.
Congratulating the Indian Academy of Pediatrics on successfully organising PEDICON 2015, Verma said, “Complete transformation of the health sector through research, latest technology and innovation is the aim of our government. Conferences like this contribute a lot in raising the bar of healthcare. Children are the future of the country and we are committed to ensure that their health is taken proper care of through rational health policies, healthy lifestyles and, most importantly, doctors who are skilled and updated with the latest advancements. We strongly need the support of bodies like Indian Academy of Pediatrics to fulfill our commitment.”
Speaking about PEDICON 2015, Dr Gambhir said, “We are happy and proud to announce that over 8000 delegates are attending the conference, thus, making PEDICON the largest conference on paediatrics in India. We have over 800 free paper presentations, 150 free paper oral presentations, 650 poster presentations and this year we have introduced E posters too.”
Adding to this, Dr Sachdev said, “The conference is an excellent platform for knowledge sharing. A convention of such scale wherein doctors from all across the country have come together would surely help in bringing forward the latest technology and advancements happening in the arena of paediatrics. I thank Lov Verma for his support and presence today and hope that together we can bridge the gap between the functioning of the public and private sector towards providing better healthcare facilities for children.”
On the occasion, Dr Kamath said,” It is unfortunate that India has the highest new born mortality. What is more concerning is the fact that the health budget has come down and in the healthcare field, 30 per cent goes in manpower development. Also, India is not getting much pediatricians in spite of increasing medical seats because people are choosing to go for specialisations like radiology and other fields instead. Thus, PEDICON provides a good opportunity to bring together the leading healthcare experts in the field of paediatrics who can brainstorm about the future of healthcare and more specifically paediatric healthcare.”
According to Dr Chugh, “Quality development of every child is only possible when quality medical care is provided at every point in their lives, both when they are unwell and when they are healthy. While to some extent the private sector has succeeded in achieving this, it is only possible to attain International standards of medical care when there is a strong public private partnership. I really hope that we can in the coming future work towards building highly advanced children’s hospitals based on this model.”
Recognising the importance of skill and educational training for doctors and the lack of available public sector programs for the same, a special focus was given to these in the pre-conference and inaugural sessions. As a pre-conference initiative, about 40 workshops on skill training were held at various reputed hospitals of Delhi NCR on subjects like primary immunodeficiencies for practicing pediatricians, computers in paediatric practice as well as the role of imaging ultrasound in paediatric intensive care. On the inaugural day, seven parallel continuing medical education (CME) programmes were held wherein national and international experts discussed topics like immunology of vaccines, status of adolescent health in India, social media and internet addiction and congenital diaphragmatic hernia among many others.
EH News Bureau
