The Academic Feast Continues….

president's address

Indian Pediatr 2012;49: 437

	The Academic Feast Continues….
Rohit C Agrawal National President 2012, Indian Academy of Pediatrics Email: [email protected]
In continuation of relishing the unending academic feast, I am happy to inform you that one of the new module "Seizure and Movement Disorder in Office Practice" was successfully launched on 6th May at Mumbai by a team of experts in Neurology and Movement disorders with an overwhelming response. Two more new modules under IAP’s Presidential Action Plan namely "How do I manage?" and "Rational Antibiotics in Office Practice" are almost ready and raring to get launched soon. "How do I manage?" made by Dr. Shyam Kukreja et al. is an unique in the way that it dwells with rational approach and management of difficult cases commonly seen in office practice in the form of case based scenarios. Rational antibiotics therapy is the need of today or else there will be no cure tomorrow, particularly in this era of war between bugs and drugs and rampant abuse of antibiotics. This module by Dr Vijay Yewale and his expert team will be of immense importance in day to day office practice. National consultative meets were held at Gurgaon on 12th and 13th May to revise and improvise old popular modules ASOV and CDMP which are now ready to get rolled out as SOV and IAP EXODIAM. RTI – GEM is in pipeline to be revised soon. IAP’s guidelines on "Safe Injection Practices (SIP)" is a distinct achievement prepared by a team under the stewardship of Drs. SS Kamath, A Parthasarathy and others are getting released in collaboration with the Govt of Gujarat on 26th May at Ahmedabad and Govt of MP on 4th June at Bhopal. This guidebook will further get translated into a teaching module for pediatricians and all other healthcare providers from Govt and private sector. 42 – 46% under-five mortality in our country is due to malnutrition which was endorsed and slammed as "national shame" by our Hon’ble PM. To deal and address this issue, IAP under then presidency of Dr. Deepak Ugra, had initiated to make consensus management guidelines on severe acute malnutrition – SAM in 2010, but unfortunately were caught in a web of controversies and were in limbo. I am indeed very happy to inform you that I, with the help of Drs. HPS Sachdev, Panna Choudhury, Mrudula Phadke and Samir Dalwai could resolve them, reached to a consensus and SAM guidelines are ultimately ready. On the line of monumental success of "Color Atlas of Pediatrics" and "Textbook of Pediatrics", IAP Infectious Disease (ID) Chapter is coming out with "Textbook of PID" and "Color Atlas of PID" which should be released at PEDICON 2013. PEDICON 2013 – the golden embarkment of IAP is going to be inaugurated by the Golden Man of India H.E. Dr. A.P.J. Kalam. It was a dream come true for me when H.E. Kalam Saab interacted with me, CP Bansal, Sailesh Gupta and Jaydeep Choudhury for almost half an hour at his bungalow on various child health related issues. Other feathers in the cap of IAP and PEDICON 2013 are – Hon’ble. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dy Chairman Planning Commission is going to deliver a special "Swarn Jayanti Oration" at the PEDICON and Hon’ble Minister Kapil Sibal will release a special IAP stamp to commemorate IAP’s 50 years. Friends, IAP had forged an alliance with GOI at Gurgaon PEDICON 2012 in the form of PPP. To give shape to "Mission MDG4 – Vision IAP" we endeavored a consultative meet of Govt. officials from MOHFW and senior KOLs of IAP which was highly acclaimed by one and all present as a joint step put forward by IAP in child health related issues. Though it is Vision IAP, I must say it is passion for the incoming president Dr. CP Bansal. Lastly, I am delighted to inform you that "India National Asthma Congress" is going to be held from 8th to 10th June at Marriot Hotel & Convention Centre, Hyderabad under the auspices of IAP with a support of scientific grant from MSD India Respiratory. Around 300 delegates are being invited and a galaxy of national and international experts are going to deliberate extensively on Asthma, Asthma and Asthma only. A tribute to Asthma by IAP on World Asthma Day!