y Dear Chief Guest, Guest of Honor, Office
bearers, Organizing team of Pedicon–2017, all delegates, Past Presidents
of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), members of the media, and my
fellow IAPians; Good Evening to all of you. I thank all IAPians for
electing me as President–IAP–2017. It is a very big responsibility, and
I hope that I come up to your expectations. IAP is the apex body of all
pediatricians of the country for over 50 years. It has been looking
after the interests of the children of our country, and has been in the
forefront of all initiatives towards improving child health in our
country. It goes to the credit of IAP that its members initiated the
demand for exclusive breastfeeding for first six months, and also lead
the initiative for promulgating the proceedings for Infant Milk
Substitutes (IMS) Act – to just name a couple of things.
Let me first of all affirm and vow that I and my team
will maintain IAP mission and objectives. There is a very rich tradition
of IAP action plans in which each President brings-in his own ideas and
innovations – which is great – but for sustainable development, we
should let the traditions and the programs instituted by our
predecessors to continue. Through these action plans, one reaches out to
our members and to the public at large. Thus I will continue almost all
of the programs started by my predecessor Dr Pramod Jog, if the funding
permits. In addition, I will also be starting a few, which are close to
my heart. To go beyond the usual academic programs, strong advocacy will
be one of our main objectives and efforts so that IAP must be a partner
and voice in every decision regarding child health and other issues. To
go beyond immunization and advocacy regarding school health, misuse of
media for unscientific advertisements, and adolescent health issues are
some of the areas in which IAP should be involved. Partnership with
other stakeholders of child health, like National Neonatology Forum
(NNF), Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India
(FOGSI) and parent organizations, will also be our objective. We are
committed to strengthening of the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP),
Helping Babies Survive (HBS) and Anemia Prophylaxis programs. Making IAP
more transparent and member-friendly, acting in the interest of our
members, is also one of our main aims.
Indian College of Pediatrics (ICP) is an entity very close to my heart,
and we are making conscious efforts to bring it to its primacy.
Constitution above all; no anti-IAP activity will be tolerated. Sincere
efforts will be made for vaccine price rationalization. Bogus and
irrational drug combinations shall be identified, and the list will be
handed to the government for further action. Making ‘Child a consumer’
will be a movement for safeguarding the interest of the millions of
voiceless children. A robust website will be instituted. Parent
education material will be produced, and will be printed as well as put
on our website. Quality enhancement of all fellowship programs will be
ensured under the ICP. IAP’s own publications will be brought out with
the publication rights lying with the National Publication House.
We are envisaging opening two poison control centers
in the country to start off with. They will have 24x7 help-lines to
guide pediatricians. They will also have their pharmacy to store drugs
and antidotes for management of various poisonings. Another area close
to my heart is to link 25 Pediatric intensive care units across the
country for uniform data accrual and collation, so that we can come out
with data on the various aspects of the epidemiology, management and
treatment of the sickest of the sick.
IPAN (Indian Pediatrician Access Network) is another
action plan, which will change the whole scenario of Pediatrics. In
this, we will be providing the software for the Out Patient Department;
the prescription will be produced digitally, and the data will be stored
on servers. This will also help us to obtain epidemiological data for
all patients visiting outpatient clinics of pediatricians.
Short- and long-term courses, suitably certified by
the ICP, National Board of Examinations (NBE) and Medical Council
(Delhi) will be started for the benefit of pediatricians in updating
their knowledge. We are also planning to formulate protocols for the
management of various diseases and put them on the website.
I thank the team of Pedicon–Bangalore for giving us a wonderful
conference. I also thank the IAP Executive Board of 2017, all faculty
members, and all delegates and media.