Indian-origin physicians, a dedicated and erudite lot

In the AMA House of Delegates, the principal decision-making body of the American Medical Association, nearly one in 25 physicians were of Indian origin.

Indian doctors have made extraordinary contributions to the American medical system, Emmanuel G. Cassimatis, president and CEO, Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), has said.

Inaugurating the scientific session of Diamond Medcon 2012 organised by the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College (TMC) Alumni Association as part of the college’s diamond jubilee here on Sunday, Dr. Cassimatis said Indian medical professionals provided quality service in all specialities of medicine in the United States.

Jeremy Lazarus, president of American Medical Association, delivering the Diamond Jubilee Oration, said one in four physicians practicing medicine in the U.S. had attended medical school in India. In the AMA House of Delegates, the principal decision-making body of the American Medical Association, nearly one in 25 physicians were of Indian origin.

Mani Menon, Director, Vattikutty Urology Institute, Henry Ford Hospital, USA delivered the Dr N. Balsalam Memorial Oration on ‘Surgeon controlled robotics – a paradigm shift’ while Kalpalatha Guntupalli, former president, American College of Chest Physicians, USA delivered the P.K.R. Warrier Memorial Oration on ‘Emerging Concepts in Management of ARDS’.

The V.S. Mony memorial seminar that followed the orations dealt with prevention of suicide with Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, president, Indian Psychiatric Society, leading the seminar along with C.J. John, Consultant Psychiatrist, Kochi.

M. Krishnan Nair, founder-director of Regional Cancer Centre, moderated a subsequent seminar on recent advances in management of cancer, which had Dattatreyudu Nori, professor of Radiation Oncology, New York Presbyterian Hospital, M.V. Pillai, clinical professor of Oncology, Thomas Jefferson University, and P. Venugopal, associate director, Hemo-oncology, RUSH University Medical Centre, United States, as speakers.

The scientific sessions also had presentations by Sanjeev Kothare, Harvard Medical School, Boston, on recent advances in paediatric sleep disorders and by Shrikant K. Mishra, UCLA Medical Centre, Los Angeles on the history of neurology in India.

A session on diabetes, moderated by Sreejith N. Kumar, chairman of Indian Diabetics Education Association, brought the scientific sessions to a close.

This had Sreekumaran Nair, Professor and Head Diabetology, Mayo Clinic, USA and R.V. Jayakumar, Professor Endocrinology and Diabetology, AIMS, Kochi, as speakers.

K.V. Krishnadas, former Head, Department of Internal Medicine, TMC and R. Kasi Visweswaran, former Head, Department of Nephrology, TMC, also spoke among others.