During its 34th annual convention June 30-July 4, in New York City, the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, AAPI, plans to celebrate its achievements and look ahead to strengthen its standing in the American health system.
Some well-known public figures, high profile speakers including renowned specialists in different fields of medicine and business are booked to speak at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, the site of the convention.
United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, CNN talk show host Fareed Zakaria, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as financial analyst, Grammy nominated singer, and philanthropist Chandrika Tandon, and India’s Ambassador to the U.S., will be among the guests and speakers.
“My main objective is to strengthen AAPI’s legislative and political agenda and rejuvenate AAPI-PAC,” incoming AAPI President Dr. Ajay Lodha, told News India Times. Continuing policy challenges in the country that AAPI will tackle, include malpractice reform, changing in Medicare make doctors more autonomous in deciding patient care rather than the HMOs and other health plans. “Doctors are puppets in their hands,” he said. A newer issue he said was to reduce the burden of the frequent Maintenance of Certificate exams. “These are like a Damocles sword hanging over our heads,” he said. “They are tedious and take away from patient care and they have not proved effective,” he added.
Outgoing AAPI President Dr. Seema Jain told News India Times it was a challenge to lead an organization that represented some 100,000 physicians across the country. “AAPI has made its presence felt and is now set to take this largest ethnic group of physicians in the United States to the next level of continued growth and stability,” she said.
On taking over last year, Jain declared she wanted to take AAPI mainstream and stress on issues of excellence in education, empowerment, enlightenment, and evolution, and focus on women. She counts among her accomplishments the effort to bridge the gap between clinical research and medical practice and securing a financial base for the organization. “As Indian physicians in the United States it is our duty to nurture the present for a prosperous future,” Dr. Jain added.
Under her watch, AAPI’s 10th Annual Global Healthcare Summit 2016 was held in New Delhi, where among other achievements was establishing India-centric guidelines on trauma and brain injury, officially accepted by the Indian government and the Medical Council of India, signing an MOU on eradication of tuberculosis, helping upgrade the government’s online health initiative, swaasthIndia.gov.in, to name just a few.
“I want to bring cohesiveness to AAPI, promote the younger generation and connect them to the mainstream, develop the research program, increase the membership, expand the benefits for members, something we are already working on,” Dr. Lodha said. “We also want to do more for India, start new education programs, hold more workshops, create more fellowships and work with the Indian government,” Lodha added.
The annual convention will have numerous continuing medical education seminars, a women’s forum, health forums, yoga workshops, a trade show and a slew of entertainment programs headlined by Bollywood bigwigs such as musician Shankar Mahadevan, singer Sunidhi Chauhan, and actor, composer, singer and TV host Aditya Narayan, will entertain attendees.
The program is a product of months of preparation by the AAPI Convention Committee led by its New Jersey Chapter and Chair Dr. Rita Ahuja. “We have registered about 1,200 delegates and 80 to 90 booths are in the Trade Fair,” said Dr. Jain. “We have been working hard to put together an attractive program. I and the co-chairs are fortunate to have a dedicated team of convention committee members from the Tri-State region helping us,” Ahuja added.
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