Leading experts and delegates from 53 countries took part in the recent 12th Annual Conference of physicians of Indian origin, GAPIO (Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin).
The GAPIO Conference took place virtually Feb. 26-27, and fielded well-known speakers from United States, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates and India who covered different aspects during the sessions on Cardiac Sciences, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Nephrology, Omicron (COVID-19)- Global Perspective, Interventional Radiology, Transplant, Orthopedics & Rheumatology, Integrative Medicine, Oncology, Paediatrics, Leadership Mantras, Capacity Building in Healthcare in India, Patient safety and Quality/Accreditation and Role of Allied Healthcare Professionals in Healthcare.
India’s Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mansukh Mandaviya, was the Chief Guest during the awards function which was held on Feb. 26. The awards were presented to young clinicians and presided over by Minister Mandaviya.
Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, founder and president of GAPIO, and chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group was the Guest of Honor. A non-profit organization, GAPIO is a leading association for the Indian medical diaspora and the annual conference has become an important event in the medical calendar for physicians and other medical personnel around the globe.
Dr. Reddy noted how COVID-19 had again shown the potential of Indian-origin physicians during a global health crisis. He also informed the gathering that during the pandemic, GAPIO held 23 sessions dealing with the pandemic during which “valuable lessons” were learned from leaders around the world facing the challenge of the coronavirus.
“The need for innovation and cross-systemic learning is more important than ever before. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, India and the world at large are facing an epidemic of non-communicable diseases – NCDs like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We seek involvement of everyone to overcome this biggest challenge to mankind posed by COVID-19 and NCDs,” Dr. Reddy said.
“The Indian diaspora has a wealth of talent. Experts based in more than 50 countries can contribute to enhancing the healthcare delivery in India as no matter where they work, they want to give back to their motherland. We hope to evolve a consensus on the contemporary health challenges through this conference,” said Dr. Anupam Sibal, president of GAPIO and Group Medical Director at Apollo Hospitals, Senior Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist.
Highlighting the Congress’ relevance for Indian healthcare, Dr. Nandakumar Jairam, vice president of GAPIO said, “Research and innovation can improve the delivery of quality healthcare in India to the last mile. As the country braces to overcome its myriad health challenges, this conference will help identify methodologies most suitable to skill and scale the healthcare workforce in the country.”
Dr. Sudhir Parikh, secretary general of GAPIO and Chairman and Publisher of Parikh World Wide Media and ITV Gold 24×7 TV Channel in USA, said “Global health challenges need global solutions, and we believe through GAPIO we will evolve constructive and tangible ways of ensuring that healthcare becomes more accessible to all citizens.”
GAPIO was founded in 2011 by Padma Vibhushan recipient Dr. Prathap C Reddy, along with Dr. Sanku Rao, past-president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, and Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, BAPIO, UK. The goal of the organization is to bring together 1.4 million physicians of Indian origin in the world on one professional platform.
