Indian Medical association of New England hosted a medical meeting at the Mass Medical Society in Waltham on Saturday April 3rd.  The event started with a welcome by IMANE President Dr. Geeta Trivedi, who welcomed all attendees, exhibitors & ICC group. Introductions were done by Dr. Manju Sheth, Co-Chair of Indian Women Physicians Forum (IWF), who talked about the work being done by IWF in association with various local women’s groups &charities. She also introduced the moderator Dr. Purnima Sangal.
    
Dr. Sangal is the President of ‘A woman’s Place’ in Chelmsford, MA. She is a well known minimally invasive Gynecologic Surgeon & chairs the Robotic Gyn Surgery division at Lowell General Hospital. She is also the founder of Health is Wealth Foundation. She is also an IMANE trustee.
 
First speaker of the day was Dr. Sujatha Rajan who gave an excellent talk about one of commonest medical complaint in Women today, that of Urinary Incontinence. Focus of the talk was on office evaluation and management. Dr. Rajan is associated with division of Urogynacology at Winchester Hospital.

Second speaker was Dr. Vikas Merchia who is the President of Centre for Urinary Incontinence & Pelvic health at Good Samaritan Hospital. His talk on Overactive Bladder &Interstitial cystitis was also very well received by the audience.

Well known nutritionist Sangeeta Pradhan followed with a very informative talk about Obesity, role of nutrition and her great tips on Indian diet. Her food for thought include:

- No Magic bullets…
- Energy Out > Energy In = Weight Loss
- Get moving!! Pick an activity you enjoy doing so you are more likely to be consistent.
- Consume unrefined, whole grain carbohydrates
- Avoid saturated and trans fats
- Emphasize Omega-3 fatty acids over Omega-6s
- Take so called “diets” with a pinch of salt!!
- Implement behavior modification strategies (What’s eating you?!)
- The cornerstone of a good diet-needs to be as good for your heart, kidneys, bones, and the rest of you as it is for your waist-line

Dr. Janaki Vardhan of Lowell general Hospital focused on current topic of breast cancer prevention guidelines and also early detection. There are three models used to predict the possibility of breast cancer. They are all based on the age, age of menarche, age of first live child birth, and age of first and second degree relatives with breast cancer. "One cannot prevent breast cancer but one can take steps to minimize its probability. These include lifestyle, weight loss, exercise, child birth before 35 years of age, and breast feeding for 12 months," said Dr. Vardhan.

Education meeting was followed by an hour of networking which gave an excellent opportunity for local Physicians to interact with each other. Many Young Physicians looking for Residency Program locally also attended and got advice from the senior Doctors.

A wonderful Indian meal was provided and sponsored by Dr. Tushar Patel from Baps/Swaminarayan Temple.

IMANE is the only Indian Medical Association in MA which hosts educational, cultural, networking and social events for physicians and their families. They also run free health clinics locally.

A generous donation for the clinic was also made by Dr.  Onaly Kapasi.

For further information about IMANE, visit www.imane.org or contact chapter administrator Lynda layer at llayer@mms.org.

Indian Women Physicians Forum is an informal forum for women doctors who meet every three months over a cup of tea and discuss topics of interest to a modern woman. IWF is also very actively involved in Women’s Groups and charities. For more information, contact Dr. Manju Sheth or Dr. Deepa Jhaveri at iwfmd@yahoo.com.

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