Obesity, diabetes in focus at two-day national conclave at DMCH Ludhiana
Dr Mathur was the keynote speaker at the two-day 4th Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) Young Leaders’ National Conclave that kicked off on Saturday at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH)
Combating obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles among young individuals is the need of the hour, said World Health Organisation (WHO) representative Dr Arvind Mathur from Timor-Leste.
Dr Mathur was the keynote speaker at the two-day 4th The Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) Young Leaders’ National Conclave that kicked off on Saturday at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
The theme for the conference–Community Medicine Physician: Expectations, Reality and Progression–focuses on the capacity building of community medicine physicians for various health issues.
The event was inaugurated by a lamp lightening ceremony by chief guest, Dr AM Kadri, president, IAPSM, Dr Prushottam Giri, secretary general, IAPSM, secretary DMCH managing society, Mukesh Kumar, treasurer, DMCH managing society, PMC member Dr Apjinder Kaur, civil surgeon Dr Hitender Kaur, Dr GS Wander, vice-principal of DMCH among others.
Dr Anurag Chaudhary, professor and head, community medicine and organising chairperson, said, “This conference has been organised consecutively for four years to bring together the great minds of community medicine to share their research among the fraternity and DMCH is proud to host it this year.”
Professor of community medicine Dr Sarit Sharma said, “This conference is organised to especially involve young faculty members and PG students of community medicine to actively take part and take a leadership role in public and community health. For eliminating, controlling, eradicating and elevating problems faced by the community.”
Dr Arvind Mathur highlighted the importance of youth leadership to bring a change in overall policy and health environment when it comes to national public health programmes. He further highlighted that “There is a need to combat the sedentary lifestyle of youngsters and focus on wellness and wellbeing. Youngsters should shun the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes as WHO is already working on these things to educate them as they are the future of the country.”
One of the young delegates, Dr Ashish Rawat from Meerut said that from this conference, we came to know about different avenues of community medicine and what different fields we can work in. There are many mentors at this conference who are keen to answer any questions we have. So this is a very fruitful experience for any young doctor.
During the event, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora was also present. He said both the state and the Central governments have done a lot to bring improvement in national health, community medicine and health insurance and still, there is a lot of scope in this field for ensuring better and affordable health facilities for everyone in this country.
He stressed the need for participation of all the stakeholders in bringing overall changes in the healthcare sector.
Arora took questions from the audience and answered them.
He laid stress on allocating more funds for the healthcare sector. He also stated that there is a dire need to make healthcare affordable for everyone. Arora said the government has a target to fully eliminate TB from the country, adding that he had even discussed this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent meeting. He also laid stress on improving government-run health institutions to ensure affordable health care with better, improved and hygienic facilities