Friday, June 5, 2009

ASCO 2009-----Orlando

American Society of Clinical Oncology or ASCO as it is popularly known is the biggest annual gathering of oncologists in the world and this year the conference was held in Orlando. Over 30,000 professionals connected with the filed of cancer care attended the meeting and included oncologists( medical, surgical and radiation) , researchers,pharmaceutical industry executives and scientists, venture capitalists etc.

On 30th May evening was the dinner event hosted by the Indo American Cancer Association ---IACA ( http://www.iacaweb.com/) where a large number of oncologists of Indian origin working in US were present along with the oncologists visiting from India. It was quite a nice gathering as it presented an opportunity for people travelling from India to interact with their counterparts settled in US and exchange professional inputs.

IACA has been doing an excellent job under the leadership of its current President Dr Vinay Jain who has spearheaded some impressive new initiatives. One of these initiatives is to provide fellowship opportunites to oncologists from India.
Those interested in applying for the fellowshio can apply using the link

http://iacaweb.com/index.php?option=com_forme&fid=1&fellow=fellow

Preference will be given to candidates who are from geographical areas of Indian Subcontinent which are under-served in terms of basic care of the cancer patients including palliative care. The eligible candidates must have worked in an oncologic discipline for 1 to 5 years and achieved some basic knowledge of oncology and are interested in upgrading their skills in Patient care, Clinical research or Palliative care.

I think this is a very useful initiative that will help upgrading the skill levels of professionals in the field working in the under-served region of India.

Apart from this several members of IACA have made excellent efforts to work in areas like children's cancer , cancer care in rural India and also palliative care / hospice initiatives for the terminally ill patients in India.

It is always great to see the commited young professional wanting to make a difference and doing their part in such an important healthcare area.

Please do join in and do your part for improving the cancer care in India because " Every Life matters"

Pradeep K Jaisingh

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