Fortis hospital holds conference on head and spine trauma

EHM News Bureau - New Delhi

A regional conference on head and spine trauma, ‘Craniospinal Traumacon 2005’, was organised by the department of neurosciences, Fortis hospital, Noida recently. The organisers informed that trauma of the head and spine were the subjects chosen as the theme of this conference due to the largely preventable nature of this malady, which usually affects individuals in the most productive years of their lives. The majority of these patients are often taken to the closest medical facility; hence issues related to management need to be formulated not only by specialists but also primary care physicians. Since management of these patients begins right at the site of injury, a need was felt by the organisers to promote public awareness regarding head and spine injury. In this regard, a pre-conference workshop was held which was attended by 100 students of Apeejay School and 80 traffic policemen. The workshop which included video presentations, imparted training on basic life support and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation along with lectures on the effects of accidents and emphasised the need to observe traffic rules. The latter was dealt with by Sanjaya Verma, head of an Indo-Austrian NGO, called ‘People’s Caravan’, which promotes road safety awareness to the public at large.

Craniospinal Trauma Con 2005 was attended by 72 eminent faculty in the specialities of neurosurgery, neurology, neuroanaesthesia, neuroradiology and neuropathology. In special sessions for general discussion, Maxwell Perreira, former police commissioner and Dr Dinesh Mohan from IIT Delhi, emphasised on the role of policemen and citizens in prevention of road traffic accidents.

Besides this, the secretary of Delhi Medical Council (DMC), Dr S Khatri, elaborated on the role of trauma with respect to consumer protection. The dilemma on who will ultimately provide for the victim of trauma, was dealt with by Dr R K rivastava, additional director, general, health services, government of India and Dr B K Rao, critical care specialist from the private sector.

Dr Alok Roy, chief executive, Fortis spoke about the role of insurance in providing care for trauma victims.

About 150 delegates from all over Northern India attended this conference, including neurosurgeons, anaesthesiologists, primary healthcare care physicians from the government as well as from private hospitals. One particular feature of this conference that generated a lot of appreciation from delegates and faculty alike, was the provision of self-maintained CME passbooks, which were being provided for the first time in any conference. The high point of the meet was that DMC accredited this conference for CME credits to the tune of 12.30 hours.

The list of faculty for the conference included stalwarts and pioneers in the field of neurosciences from government institutions, armed forces and other corporate tertiary care hospitals in the NCR and from all over India.