The Indian Medical Association of New England had its 25th annual general body meeting on Saturday November 23, 2002 at the Burlington Marriott in Burlington, MA. Dr. Sahdev Passey was elected to serve as the President of the new committee. Dr. Passey has held many leadership roles in the Indian American Community including presidencies of IAFPE-NE, ISW and the Indo-American Solidarity Day Foundation.

As the Indian Medical Association of New England moves into its twenty-fifth year under the leadership of Dr. Sahdev Passey, community service has become central to its agenda. “We will continue to explore ways in which IMANE could be involved in providing health care for the needy and underserved in our area. We will continue to help other social & cultural organizations in organizing Health Fairs for their members” said Dr. Passey. During the past year, YPS or the Young Physicians Society has joined hands with IMANE infusing young blood into the organization. Dr. Sarita Mohanty has been elected to serve as the YPS representative.

Many members of IMANE have done a tremendous amount of community service. As a token of appreciation, IMANE initiated a Community Service Award beginning in 2001 at the suggestion of Dr. Brinda Kamat. The trustees of IMANE presented the community service award for this year to Dr. Dinesh Patel in recognition of his outstanding efforts in many areas. Dr. Dinesh Patel is Chief of Arthroscopic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and is on faculty at Harvard Medical. He has held several leadership roles in the past including presidencies of many Indian American organization and several professional organizations. He established Asia’s first psychomotor lab to train Indian doctors in Anthroscopic surgery. He has contributed in tremendous measure to the victims of tragedies in Bhopal and Gujarat and continues to provide guidance to members of the New England community in the area of education and health.

The meeting included a presentation by Thomas J. Lynch, Jr., M.D. Associate Professor of Medicine at the Mass General Hospital and also a member of Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care. In his talk entitled "Nurturing the Human Connection in Heath Care at the Kenneth B. Swartz Center," Dr. Lynch spoke about the programs at the Kenneth B. Swartz center that offer support to physicians to help them provide the right kind of care to their patients.

"The demands on physicians today is extremely high. They have to see increasing volumes of patients to maintain their practices. They are expected to stay current with technology while managing personnel, deal with hospital and third party administration. They are expected to be community leaders and of course fulfill their family commitments” said Dr. Lynch. "It is precisely because medicine has become so much more complicated that we need to return to the essence of the patient encounter: Connection with our patients." He talked about the programs at the Schwartz center including Schwartz Center Rounds, Speaker’s Series, Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Award, Pastoral Care Fellowship and the Cultural Competency Programs which provide the right support for Doctors to give the kind of care that is needed.

As a person outside the medical field, this talk gave me a glimpse of the essential goodness and great work that doctors do, which during the recent times gets buried under insurance claims. Dr. Swaran Goswami served as master of ceremonies for the event. Ghazals by Kiran Nath provided a fitting conclusion to the evening.

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