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‘Knowledge is Power; Skill is our Strength’
President’s Theme for 2012 |
Dr S Rajasekarn
President, IOA |
Dear Sirs
Greetings and best wishes
I take this opportunity to share with you the main agendas for the forthcoming year of my Presidency. I apologise for this lengthy note but it would be helpful to have your feedback on the following plans. I would like to share with you the various programmes that are being planned under the following headings:
1. General Plans for IOA
2. Educational Plans for IOA
3. Plans for IOACON
4. Miscellaneous
I) General Plans for IOA
Strengthen the Membership Base of IOA:
Our Former President Shri APJ Abdul Kalam mentioned “Our strength outside depends on our strength within”. It is very important that IOA truly represents the entire orthopaedic community of India. At present, IOA membership involves only 30% of the orthopaedic surgeons in India and only 30% of them are closely involved with the activities of IOA. A good example is reflected in the election process conducted every year. Although there are more than 9000 members in IOA, with all the efforts and struggle, voting does not cross 3000 any year. This shows that there is a major disconnect between IOA activities and its members. It is important that we take measures to increase the membership of the parent body and channelize our activities so that it will rekindle the interest of our members in IOA.
Towards this aim, I propose the following to increase the membership.
The anomaly of orthopaedic surgeons being only a member of the State Association or the IOA must be abolished and a compulsory provision made for combined membership of every member of every state. We have to request the Presidents of all State Associations to ensure that every single member of the State Association will be a member of IOA. States which have 100% membership of IOA must be given special recognition and special credits for the ‘Best State Trophy’.
In future, all states must have an application which includes IOA membership and the State association membership as a combined application so that all new members will apply to both the State and to the Central IOA together.
There should be many advantages in being a member of IOA. There should be a substantial cost difference in all educational activities between members of IOA and non-members. For example, IOA members must be charged at least Rs.1000 less than non-IOA members for the IOACON. I am also trying to get subsidised membership in international organisations like SICOT for members of IOA.
I will be very grateful to have your feedback on how to increase the membership and how we can increase the involvement of our members in IOA activities.
Celebrate an “Indian Orthopaedic Day”
We now have a special day for almost everything - Osteoporosis day, cancer day, anti-smoking day etc etc. I strongly feel we should have an ‘Orthopaedic Day’. On this day, every member of IOA will do something for the cause of orthopaedics in our country and we can exhibit the concern and responsibility that our members have for our society. I suggest that we have the 4th of August as our Orthopaedic Day as this was the day that the IOA Charter was signed in 1971. We will utilise this day to pay our respects to the Creators of this great association and also initiate new programmes every year. For the year 2012, I suggest and humbly request that every orthopaedic surgeon in our country must do at least one surgery free. That will enable us to do at least 10,000 free surgeries around the country which will create a world record of sorts. This will be a great achievement and it will raise the image of orthopaedic surgeons and IOA amongst the society.
I again request the member’s opinion and fruitful suggestions for making this programme a success.
Welfare Measures for the members of IOA
Our President Dr Rajeev Naik has promoted a novel family welfare scheme – IOA Family Caretaker Scheme and Prof Rajagopalan, Bangalore has done a commendable job in proposing a – what appears to be a viable and very useful scheme. If this is approved by the General Body, it will be my privilege to bring it to action. However, this scheme will be viable only if there is an enthusiastic response from the members and at least more than 3000 members join the same. The details of this welfare scheme and the proposed constitution is loaded into the IOA Website (www.ioaindia.org) and it will be possible for everybody to view it in the “Members Login” Section. My sincere request for feedback from all members regarding the same. We would like to start enrolling members at the earliest possible as this programme can become effective only if atleast 3000 members enlist.
IOA Website
The IOA Website in the new format is now functional. I would like to thank Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi for the great work he has done in initiating the website. The new website will be operational from Coimbatore with Dr K Venkatadass, my Senior Registrar as the web co-ordinator and Mr Santosh of Krithi Technologies as our webmaster.
The website has many new features with possibilities of interactive sessions between members, referendum from members on important points, orthopaedic meetings calendar, articles published from IOA members in international journals, information of fellowships and teaching programmes throughout the country. However this is going to be useful only if we receive information from all our members and members access our website frequently. I would kindly encourage you to visit our website frequently and be very interactive.
IOA Elections
This time IOA elections have been conducted very smoothly. One of the highlight was the ability to vote online through our website. I would like to highlight two important features:
a) Online voting this year has improved considerably ( in fact three times more) compared to last year. More than 1200 members have voted online so far. There were many hundreds more who requested provision for online voting. However, as the request came after the voting process has started, we could not accommodate them this year. If all our members enrol their emails well in advance, it would be possible for us to vote entirely online in a few years time.
b) The online voting this year was through our website and no outsourcing was required. This alone saved us Rs.4.5 lakhs which was the cost of online voting last year. This more than makes up the cost of maintaining our website. This is good news.
c) If all members would accept online voting, then IOA will be able to save an other Rs.4 lakhs which is the cost of printing and postage of ballots. In addition to the cost saving, it will also be possible for us to not lose the opportunity of many members expressing their opinion due to loss of postal ballots.
Members need to reflect seriously on the heavy cost of postal ballots and the low cost- benefit ratio of the same. Members who are against online voting must also realise that they are imposing a Rs.5 lakh extra cost on the IOA Treasury every year.
D) We are also making provisions for creating space for advertisements in the IOA Website which I hope will be taken up by the industry and pharmaceuticals. We are hoping to have a advertisement revenue of Rs.10 lakhs through advertisement. This would mean that the new website is not only self financing but is now capable of saving lot of money on our election expenses and also bring additional revenue.
Regularisation of IOA Sub speciality associations
Super specialisation and sub specialisation is the rule and also need of the day. More and more members of the younger generation are going to be highly focused into sub specialities. The future of IOA lies in strengthening the sub speciality sections and we need to focus on this. However, there is an urgent need to regularise the functioning of the sub speciality sections and to bring an order into the rules and regulations governing the recognition of these bodies. Many members have represented about this and our President Dr Rajeev Naik is also looking into this issue. We have to bring uniform rules which will govern issues like an approved constitution, regular Executive Committee Meetings, formal and fair elections, submission of accounts to General Body etc.
Rules and Regulations for Award of Silver and Golden Jubilee lectures, eponymous lectures and other medals
To avoid any confusion regarding the selection for prestigious awards, we need to have a detailed and firm selection criteria and a selection committee panel. I propose that the eponymous lectures should be awarded to senior members with life time contributions or juniors with innovative and original work. The Silver Jubilee and Golden Jubilee lectures must be special and must be awarded to any one with innovative and new work.
II) Educational Plans for IOA
The prime focus of any professional academic organisation should be education, academics and research. This will be the focus of IOA next year also. The Presidential theme for next year will be “ Knowledge is Power, Skill is Strength” . In line with this, the following will be the main activities.
Long term Super-speciality Fellowships
A year-long training programme will be created in super specialities in centres of excellence in India. The training period will be either for six months or one year depending upon the needs of the selected candidate. Candidates will be paid Rs.25000 per month and will be expected to maintain a log book and satisfy the requirements of IOA. Preference will be given to people from institutions and also from rural areas. The help of the sub speciality sections will be obtained in the choice of suitable centres and the syllabus. These programmes may be funded by Industry/Pharmacuetical Partners who will have no choice either in the selection of the candidates or the centres. This will allow fair selection and also will not be a strain on the IOA Treasury.
Short term fellowships
Short term training programmes for 100 surgeons will be organised throughout the country. This will be in the specialities of arthroplasty, arthroscopy, spine surgery and trauma. This will mainly be for middle level surgeons who are seeking a quick update on certain surgeries or techniques from a senior experienced surgeon. Here again, the choice of the trainees will be done by IOA and IOA will facilitate placement of the selected member to the appropriate mentor and center. Adequate funds for this programme will be suitably obtained.
Free availability of e-journals
There is a strong need for evidence-based medicine and t his can be a reality only if all our members have access to the latest journals. While access may not be a difficulty in cities and in institutions, this can be a challenge for private practitioners especially in rural areas. To facilitate this, provisions will be made for 500 IOA members to have free online access to Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (Br). Members who are interested in having this facility are requested to apply well in advance to me at sr@gangahospital.com.
Negotiations are also on with SICOT for free online access to all members of IOA to their Journal - International Orthopaedics and other online educational materials of SICOT. This will allow all our members to be in touch with international literature and be current on all the latest advances.
Surgical Workshops
Up to 25 surgical workshops will be held all around the country to teach important surgical tips and pearls of wisdom to small batches of surgeons. Preference will be given to non metro centres to hold such workshops. This will be almost similar to a very successful programme conducted this year by our President Dr Rajeev Naik.
III) IOACON 2012
IOACON 2012 promises to be conducted in a very novel and educational model under the leadership of Prof M Mayilvahanan, Prof K Annamalai and Prof Govardhan. Prof Mayilvahanan has already completed two major strategy meetings and the aim is to make IOACON 2012 a novel meeting. I am sure that we will hear a lot of new ideas from him during the General Body Meeting in IOACON 2011.
IV) Miscellaneous
I have a humble request to all our members. While we are all looking at IOACON as an event to connect to our friends and professional colleagues and also as a family holiday, we should not forget that this is also the most important academic event of our parent body. IOACON is also the face of Indian orthopaedics to our visiting foreign faculty. Low attendance and empty halls is a source of despair to the organisers and also the faculty members. Last year in Jaipur, on the last day of IOACON, there was a headlines news in the principle English Newspaper of the City asking – “Doctors, Where are you?” along with a picture of an empty auditorium when a foreign faculty was delivering an important lecture. There was another picture with doctors standing in queue to have a fancy dress photograph with the royal attire of Jaipur Prince. This does not go well either for our organisation or for our credibility amongst the society. I would request all members to kindly plan your trip in such a way that your stay is extended by one or two days to facilitate sight-seeing and other family activities but the main days of the conference is allotted exclusively for academic activities.
Dr Anil Jain and the Scientific Committee have taken extraordinary care to draft an excellent scientific programme and let us not make it go waste.
This probably is my last opportunity to write to you before taking over the President’s post. I cannot let go of this opportunity to thank everyone of you for the confidence that you have bestowed on me to lead the Association next year. I seek the blessings of all our senior members and the co-operation and good wishes of everyone of you so that together we can achieve more.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone
If you want to walk far, walk together”
Yours in IOA
Dr S Rajasekaran
President-Elec |
