AAPI NJ-NY conducts Second Women’s Health Summit

Women leaders and founders of AAPI at the women’s convention

Thanks to the advancement in treating cancer cases, 2.5 million women survived breast cancer in 2008, while 40, 480 patients died of the disease in the same year.

This information was provided by Dr. Michele Blackwood, Director of Breast & Health Management and Assistant Clinical Professor at Columbia University, during a presentation on ‘Update on prevention and management of breast cancer in women’ at the Continuous Medical Education seminar, organized by the Federation of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and held as a part of ‘Women’s Health and Leadership Summit’ at Westin Hotel in Jersey City last week.

Terming the disease as nothing less than an epidemic, Dr. Blackwood informed the audience that while American women of all ethnicity carried 12 percent risk of getting breast cancer during their life time, Caucasian women had greater risk of getting breast cancer than ethnic women with lower risk of getting the disease. She added that breast cancer ranked second only after skin cancer among all forms of cancer and more than one in four cases are likely to be of breast cancer that ranked next only to skin cancer.

Updates on other diseases presented by experts during the daylong seminar were equally informative. Dr. Christine Gerula termed obesity as an epidemic that causing havoc among the African-American population in which ‘body weight posed horrible effect on cardiovascular mortality’. She said that forcing kids to switch to healthy, sugar free diet was a good idea. “A child who is aware of healthy diet can in turn educate their parents not to buy risky food,” she said in a matter of fact manner. In a lighter vein Dr. Gerula said that economic crisis was having a bad influence over people’s eating habits. “Cheap foods sold at fast food outlets were one of the reasons for causing hypertension among African-American population at an early age.”

Speaking at the gala event, US Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. complimented the untiring efforts of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to reform American healthcare policies of the US government. Pallone appealed AAPI members to continue their support for health care reforms and to form new laws. He praised the charitable endeavors of AAPI and said that the organization promoted exchange of ideas and culture that enriched our society. Pallone, who heads the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce committee of the House of Congress said that he would continue to work with AAPI on Indianrelated health issues.

“AAPI’s importance lies in its role of keeping the family of Indian physicians in USA together,” said Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of India in New York. “It is gratifying to know that AAPI has greatly contributed towards strengthening of relations between India and the US.”

Dr Thomas Alapatt, Consul General Prabhu Dayal, Dr Seema Jain and Dr Sanku Rao

Highlighting the importance of women’s education, Dr. Thomas Alapatt, vice president of The Federation of AAPI of Greater NY-NJ said that educating our women about pivotal health issues were the cornerstones of Indian culture. “It is the foundation of our family system that focuses on continuation of our tradition in which women were dedicated to look after the elderly people in the family while neglecting their own health. In order to create deeper awareness about women’s health issues, we took up an elaborate range of topics, such as, causes and concerns about diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, menopause, osteoporosis, breast cancer, etc. for discussions during the one-day summit event.”

“The successful completion of Second Women’s Health Summit and Leadership Program proved that AAPI is committed to move forward with its agenda of professional development of its members,” said Dr. Sanku Rao, President of National AAPI. He announced the formation of three new centers in Dallas, TX, Essex, NJ and Detroit, MI that will offer extensive/observership program to international medical graduates who were looking for opportunities to get into internship programs. AAPI was already offering offers observership programs in Oklahoma, Boston, MA, and San Antonio, Texas. These programs are helpful in expediting the licensing process for new graduates. According to Dr. Rao there were four thousand medical graduates of Indian origin who were waiting to get into internship programs in the United States.

Dr. Tarun Shah, President, Federation of AAPI of Greater NY-NJ-PA outlined his plan to revitalize the organization’s charitable foundation to raise funds. He said that a golf tournament was planned to be held later this year to raise funds to finance a number of charitable activities in India and USA. He praised the work done by Dr. Seema Jain, Chair of Women’s Forum for organizing an informative event.

“It is crucial to recognize the importance of women’s leadership to AAPI,” said Dr. Hemant Patel, Immediate Past President of the organization. “Womens’ Health Summit and Leadership Development Program was a significant achievement in not only bringing to the fore women’s health issues but it also served as an occasion to honor the leadership of women who contributed to the progress and prestige of AAPI.” Dr. Patel also introduced Congressman Pallone as a true friend of AAPI and a champion of India’s interests at the Capitol Hill. Dr. Prasad Srinivasan, secretary of AAPI spoke on the importance of women’s health and AAPI’s commitment to propagate the message.

Later a plaque was presented to Dr. Patel for pioneering the idea of holding annual health summits dedicated to women’s health and gender issues. Plaques were also presented to Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of India, Dr. Sanku Rao, President, AAPI, Dr. Rita Ahuja, First Woman President of Federation of AAPI for NY-NJ, Dr. Seema Jain, Chair, Women’s Forum, Dr. Anand Sahu, Treasurer and others in appreciation of their commitment and dedication to various causes.