From the IRA:
Dr Rajiva Gupta, Secretary IRA
The State chapters of the IRA have been bustling with activities. While the SZIRACON ( South Zone Indian Rheumatology Association Conference ) was successfully conducted at Hyderabad between May 19-21, over the last 2-3 months, there were additional CMEs at AIIMS Hrishikesh, Rewa medical college, Rewa, MP, S.K. Medical college, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, the MP rheumatology update at Indore and the Rheumatology Association Gujarat annual update at Goa.
A new Jharkhand state chapter of IRA was started on June 3rd at RIMS, Ranchi with Prof R K Jha, HOD, medicine as the president and Dr Deonis Xess as the Secretary.
The ACR has chosen Dr Latika Gupta, SGPGIMS, for the ACR/IRA international Fellow Exchange program observership out of 11 contestants who had applied for the same. She’ll be going to the Univ of Pennsylvania.
Dr Latika Gupta
Last date of applications for the BSR/IRA fellowhip( Rs 1 lac) has been extended to 15th August
There were 10 applicants for the awards for IRA research grants this year out of which the following were successful ( based on assessment by members of academic committee, IRA). : PoojaBelani( JIMPER, Pondicherry), Phani Kumar ( NIMS, Hyderabad), DP Misra ( SGPGIMS, Lucknow), Saket Jha (PGIMER, Chandigarh) and Arvind G (CMC, Vellore).
The IRA elections will be held this year and nominations for the same will be invited in July.
SGPGI is gearing up for the IRACON 2017 with distinguished international and national faculty. The IRA extends a warm invitation to all to spend those few days of winter at the historic and Nawabi city of Lucknow !
SZIRACON 2017
Rheumatology Association Hyderabad chapter had organized 4th Annual South Zone IRA conference (SZIRACON) at Hyderabad on May 19-21, 2017 under the organizing abilities of Dr Raj Kiran. The theme for this year was “Evidence meets Experience“. The conference was attended by 306 participants which included 126 rheumatologist and postgraduates of general medicine, physicians and allied healthcare professionals. Attendees were predominantly from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka and few from rest of India. Fifty one talks spread across 3 days , one Musculo skeletal ultrasound hands on workshop on day 1 , pre conference CME material , criteria for rheumatic diseases booklet , daily conference news bulletin for 3 days and a souvenir book were provided to participants. Reputed faculty including Prof Y Shoenfeld (Israel), Prof Amita Aggarwal ( president IRA ) , Prof J Mason ( UK ) , Prof Carlo F Selmi ( Italy ) had been invited. Scientific sessions included Lectures, Free paper presentations, Debates, CPC, Rapid fire talks . Topics covered included novel aspects of autoimmunity, SLE, Biologics, large vessel vasculitis , Early RA and Economics in RA, Psoriasis, Primary immunodeficiency, career guidance in rheumatology etc.
MP Rheumatology update
On 30thApril, the 2nd MP Rheumatology update was held at the Brilliant convention centre, Indore under the banner of API, IMA, and Orthopaedic society, Indore. Dr Saurabh Malaviya and Dr Ashish Badika were the organizing secretaries.
Speakers of the programme were Dr. Sumita Danda, Dr. (Prof.) R. N. Mishra, Dr.Sujata Sawhney, Dr. (Prof.) Rohini Handa, Dr. (Prof.) Debashish Danda, Dr. (Lt. General) Ved Chaturvedi, Dr. Sapan Pandya, Dr. G. Narsimulu, Dr. Sumeet Agrawal, Dr. Rajkiran Dudam, Dr. B.D. Pandey, Dr. Reena Sharma and Dr. Vishnu Sharma.
Various topics were discussed during the programme from approach to rheumatic diseases, investigations to management of various diseases, as well as recent advances in Rheumatology.
In the post lunch session, a PG Quiz on Rheumatology was also conducted. Various medical colleges of MP had participated, MGM Medical College Indore; SAIMS Medical College Indore; SSMC REWA; GMC Bhopal and NSCB Jabalpur.
GMC Bhopal team won the Rheumatology quiz.
More than 400 delegates attended MP Rheumatology Update-2017 across MP.
AIIMS Rishikesh CME conducted by DrAmita Aggarwal, Dr DS Bhakuni and DrVenkatesh Pai
The Sun rises in the West - 1ST RAGCON, 14-16 th April, 2017 GOA
The Rheumatology Association Gujarat (RAG) hosted its first annual conference – the RAGCON from 14th to 16th April at Goa. Dr Reena Sharma had been the organizing secretary. Delegates from neighbouring states of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and upto Chattisgarh had attended. The theme of the conference, as decided by the scientific chair, Dr Banwari Sharma was "Seronegative Rheumatic Diseases". The event saw an overwhelming response with over 60 registrations. The academic event was marked by a very punctual and enthusiastic audience with great discussions at the end of each talk. But the highlight of the event was definitely the debate on “Using outcome measures in day to day rheumatology OPD – is it practical in India” between Dr Sameer Rajadhyakshe and Dr Sapan Pandya. A preliminary report of the Gujarat Biologic Registry was also presented by Dr Vishnu Sharma. The conference souvenir on “Untold stories of Rheumatology” which dealt with some interesting historical anecdotes related to rheumatology was also well appreciated.
