In the pursuit of the pledge, I had made at the swearing in
ceremony, my main thrust would be to direct IAP towards Academics –
Rationality and Reaching the Unreached and to strive hard to achieve
MDG-4. The most precious "Golden Jubilee" outcome would be to reduce
child mortality.
To tackle child mortality, neonatal deaths,
malnutrition, vaccine preventable diseases and tuberculosis need to
be addressed aggressively. Add on to them the issues of Adolescents
that need delicate and precise handling. Poor maternal health gets
directly translated into the neonatal mortality. It is indeed a
matter of shame that though reduced, neonatal mortality rate is
still high. When China can reduce its NMR to 15 in a span of 5 years
using the neonatal resuscitation program (NRP) strategy, why not
India? NRP brought in India in 2009 by IAP has been very
successfully disseminated across the country and well taken up by
the Govt in the form of Navjat Shishu Suraksha Karyakram. NRP
in 2012 is in an improvised mode with the new 6 th
edition guidelines ready to take off as "Basic NRP" for medical
officers and ANMs; and "Advanced NRP" for pediatricians and
obstetricians. The landmark achievement of 2012 as far as NRP is
concerned is the forging of "IAP – NNF partnership" for a joint
execution of art and science of neonatal resuscitation, which will
go a long way in the history as vision of both organizations
ultimately to save the lives of tiny tots. I must congratulate and
thank the NNF leadership for this alliance and must admire with deep
appreciation the philanthropic outlook of Mr. Swamy Raote of JnJ.
"PPP – Private Public Partnership" which was
forged between the IAP and GOI during Gurgaon PEDICON started
bearing fruits too early. Myself and the president elect, Dr. CP
Bansal were summoned by the additional secretary of health and
family welfare recently on 16 th
March at Delhi for a meeting and showed her keen interest with full
funding on many child health projects with the IAP. Her key focus
being adolescent anemia with a slogan "Anemia free pink India".
Recently the health minister at the World Polio
Summit declared that WHO has taken out India from Polio endemic
region. Indeed it is not only fascinating news but a great national
pride and the credit goes to all the missionary organizations, Govt
– Non Govt including IAP, who are the crusaders in this noble
mission. We are planning to celebrate this achievement under the
banner of IAP. It was a proud privilege for the president, and some
key opinion leaders from IAP to get invited at the 26 th
India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) at Delhi on 15th
and 16th March where the
issue of Polio Eradication was deliberated at length and many vital
consensus recommendation were made by a group of experts from across
the globe like: India should not become complacent; to maintain zero
polio status is a challenge; trivalent OPV needs to be replaced by
bivalent OPV; rounds of NIDs/SNIDs/SIA to be continued; sequential
switch from OPV to IPV in post eradication phase; and ensuring and
encouraging the production and supply of the vaccines.
Amongst the many educational modules envisaged
for the year 2012 under IAP Presidential Action Plan, two very
important and interesting modules are getting launched on 25 th
March at Mumbai and Bangalore. The modules are centred on the theme
of Office Practice – Difficult situations in an office setup.
1. "Difficult Adolescent in Office
Practice" a comprehensive module with clinical precision
being developed by a team of experts from IAP – AHA under the
guidance and directions of the chairperson Dr CP Bansal and
national convener Dr JS Tuteja. The module will train the
pediatricians in dealing with and addressing the difficult
issues and scenarios encountered in day to day office practice.
Following this launch around 12-15 such workshops will be
conducted across the country.
2. To prepare a practicing pediatrician to
deal and negotiate with an unforeseen but common emergency
encountered in an office setup. "Office Preparedness for
Paediatric Emergencies [OPPE]" is a wonderful concept
capsulized in a very interesting case based scenario module
being developed by a team under the chairmanship of Dr Jagdish
Chinappa.
TIPPS – Training in Practical Pediatric
Skills, especially for the post graduates is an extensive but very
unique module developed by a group of academicians across the
country under the coordination of Dr S Sanjay, S Balasubramanian,
and Baldev Prajapati is also due to be launched on 22 nd
April at Hyderabad.
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