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presidential address

Indian Pediatr 2017;54: 97-98

54th National Conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics
18-22 January 2017, Bengaluru


Anupam Sachdeva

National President – 2017, Indian Academy of Pediatrics.
Email: [email protected]

 


M
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.


 

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