Contributed by K.P. Sinha , Member, IFCC News Working Group
ACBICON 2005, the Annual conference of ACBI at Patna
The Annual National Conference of the Association of Clinical Biochemists of India (ACBI) was held during December 18 to 21, 2005 at Hotel Maurya in Patna, the capital city of the State of Bihar. About 400 delegates participated in the conference besides the members of Corporate Houses. There were 5 delegates from Australia, 2 from USA, one from Germany and 20 from Bangladesh. The conference was organized by Nalanda Medical College under the leadership of the Conference Chairman, Dr K. P. .Sinha, Organizing Secretary Dr. B. N. Tiwary and Joint Organizing Secretary Dr. Rajiv R. Sinha.
: Dr. R. R. Sinha (Patna). Immediate Past President Dr. M. V. Kodliwadmath (Belgaum) became Ex-Officio member.
A one-day pre-conference workshop on Total Quality Management in Clinical Laboratories was held in collaboration with APFCB- Beckman Coulter Travel lecture series on 18th December. Dr. Ken Sikaris (Australia) dwelt on "Quality Analysis" and "Quality Reporting", Dr. Brian Smith (Australia) talked about "Impact of Pre-analytical Variables on the Quality of Laboratory Test Results". Dr. A. S. Kanagasabapathy (India) spoke on "Quality in Laboratory Diagnosis; Indian Scenario", and Dr. K. Taranath Shetty (India) talked about "Inter-laboratory Quality Analysis, Why and How: Bangalore Experience". An interactive session followed the lectures. In addition to the speakers, the panel included: Dr. Sucheta Dandekar, Dr. U. M. Donde, Dr. Jayashree Bhattacharjee, Dr. T. Malati, Dr. Sandeep Sen and Dr. T. Venkatesh. In the evening, members of ACBI Executive committee welcomed the Corporate members at a dinner in Hotel Patliputra-Ashok.
The conference began on 19th December with breakfast and registration. On this day there were 2 symposia, 4 orations, one industrial workshop, poster session and one course on Advances in Clinical Biochemistry: Endocrinology, TDM and Toxicology (by Dr. Sheshadri Narayanan and Dr. T. Ashavaid). Symposia were held on Cardiovascular System and Trends in Infectious diseases. President Dr. M. V. Kodliwadmath delivered the Presidential oration on "Modulation of Immune Functions by Dietary Intervention". Dr. Sheshadri Narayanan (USA) delivered the Awadhesh Saran Memorial Oration on "Emerging Trends in Instrumentation and Technology and Expectations for the Future". Dr. A. D. Singh (India) gave the K. L. Gupta Memorial Oration on "Overview of Clinical Oncology" and Dr. N. K. Mehra (India) delivered the Mrs. & Dr. G. P. Talwar Oration on " MHC Genomics: Molecular Medicine Approaches in Disease Diagnosis and Prevention". Roche Diagnostics India Pvt. Ltd. sponsored an industrial workshop covered on CWA a Perspective and Osteoporosis diagnosis: The Indian Scenario.
The conference was inaugurated at 5 pm by Mr. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Urban Development Minister, Government of Bihar. A lively entertainment program of songs and dances followed it. Transasia Biomedicals threw a lavish welcome banquet for delegates in Hotel Maurya.
The main scientific features of the second day were 5 symposia, 2 orations, 2 guest lectures, 2 advance courses on clinical biochemistry, one Industrial Workshop and a Poster presentation session. The symposia topics covered Metabolic diseases, Renal & Hepatic Diseases, Environmental Toxicology, Cancer and Free Radicals & antioxidants, and Laboratory technology. Dr. Tony Badrick, President of Australian Association of Clinical Biochemistry delivered the Dr. T. N. Pattabiraman Oration on "Understanding Quality Control" and Dr. Sucheta Dandekar, Professor of Biochemistry, KEM Hospital, Mumbai gave the Seth G.S. Medical College Oration on " Adam: the mystery of his biochemistry". Dr. Udayan Ray (Australia) delivered a guest lecture on " PCT-Arjun-Does he need this arrow to pinpoint the eye" and Dr. Liaquat Ali (Bangladesh) delivered another invited lecture on "Pathophysiology of Pre-eclampsia: Implications for laboratory investigations", Dr. Amitav Dasgupta (USA) gave a presentation on "Effect of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine on Clinical Biochemistry Tests and Dr. V. Parameswaran on "Vitamin D in Southern Tasmanian Subjects". Dr. Sheshadri Narayanan, Dr. T. Ashavaid, Dr. Udayan Ray and Dr. V. Parameswaran conducted two advance courses. B. D. Diagnostics sponsored an industrial workshop on Pre-analytical influence on laboratory results and sample rejection. Immediately after lunch recess, there was a poster session with 50 papers. In the evening a meeting of members of General Body was held and a cultural program staged by students of Nalanda Medical College and a good dinner followed.
On the last day, i.e. on 21st December, guest lectures were given by four eminent individuals: Dr. P. S. Murthy on "Studies on Medicinal Plants useful in Diabetes Mellitus, Atherosclerosis and other Lipid disorders", Dr. Suhrab Ali on "Dislipidemia and atherosclerosis", Dr. T. Venkatesh on "Use of Environmental and Biochemical data in Policy changes towards effective Healthcare in Developing countries", and Dr. R. K. Singh on "Chronomics and Chronology in Health and Diseases". (7 papers on miscellaneous topics were presented in one symposium.) Award papers for the Sita Devi and P. S. Murthy awards were heard in one session, and were judged for award. Dr. Udayan Ray and Dr. V. Parameswaran delivered the 4th course on Advances in Clinical Biochemistry. The conference ended with a Valedictory function and lunch. Various awards were presented during this function. Sita Devi award for best paper presentation was given to Barnali Das (Delhi), P. S. Murthy award for best paper on Plant Medicine to Sumidha Pawaskar (Mumbai) and on Infectious diseases to Seetharamaih (Bangalore), MGIMS award for poster on Tropical diseases to Vijay Upadhye (Sevagram), NIMS poster award on Cancer topic to R. Murugesan (Manipal) and on Non-cancer topic to Deepti Gupta (Bhopal).
Some of the decisions taken during this annual conference were to organize courses on Clinical Biochemistry through out the year and to introduce SI system of units into clinical biochemistry and to use them in publications along with metric system until 2009 and thereafter only SI units would be used.
Regional Meetings:
The State/Regional chapters of ACBI have organized the following major scientific activities in different parts of the country.
1. Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Maharashtra has organized a National Level Training course on �Immunodiagnostics for Infectious Diseases from Feb 2-7, 2005 with the financial support from Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi.
2. A Scientific program was organized on 20th March 2005 on the occasion of Inauguration of Managalore Chapter of ACBI where Dr. Taranath Shetty, Dr. Gopalkrishna Bhat & Dr. Prabha Adhikari were resource persons.
3. The 3rd Eastern Zone ACBI Conference from April 29th to May 1st, 2005 by the West Bengal State Chapter at Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, Kolkata. The meeting was attended by a total of 286 delegates - of that more than 80 were from our neighbor country Bangladesh.
4. Kerala State Chapter organized a National Symposium on Inborn Metabolic disorders and Regional Conference of ACBI at AIMS, Kochi under the leadership of Dr. D.M. Vasudevan from Sept 9th & 10th. This was preceded by a pre-conference hands on workshop on time tested analytical technique - �Chromatography'. 180 delegates attended the conference. Several Senior members of ACBI presented lectures covering areas of Pediatric Oncology, Lab diagnosis of Thyroid disorders, Inflammation & degenerative disorders, free radical biology & Oxidative stress & Inborn metabolic disorders.
5. Kerala State Chapter also organized a CME Program - Immune 2005 on July 3, 2005 by Dr. T. Vijayakumar, Director University of Health Sciences, Calicut & Dr. George Abraham, consultant Biochemist, MIMS, Calicut. Dr. D.M. Vasudevan, Dr. Ramesh Kumar (EI lab, Kochi), Dr. Abraham & Dr. Ananth Rao (AIMS, Kochi) were resource persons.
6. A CME Program in Biochemistry: was organized at AIMS, Kochi on Oct 27th, 2005.
7. Delhi Chapter of ACBI organized a seminar on QC - Current Practices -in association (on) with Randox Labs, UK under the convenership of Dr. L.M, Srivastava. Dr. A.S. Kanagasabapathy and Ms. Catherine Mc Allister (Randox UK) were the main resource persons.
8. The Annual Meeting of ACBI - Delhi Chapter was held on 19th Nov. 2005 and on this occasion a symposium on QC & CAD was organized by Dr. Lal Path Lab & AIIMS sponsored by Biorad. Dr. Arvind lal, Dr. P. Usha Sarma, Dr. T. Venkatesh, Dr. Puneet K. Nigam and Dr. Arun Raizada (Escorts heart & Res. Centre), Dr. Lakshmi (AIIMS), Dr. LM (Sri. Gangaram Hospital), Dr. Sonal Pandya (BioRad) were the expert participants.
9. ATCC-2005, a National workshop on Advanced Techniques in Clinical chemistry was organized by Dr. B.L. Somani & Lt.col. Parduman Singh, of AFMC, Pune from Nov 21 - 26th 2005.
10. "Symposium on QA & QC - Current Concepts" organized by Dr. Subramaniyam of Apollo Hospital, Chennai - sponsored by Randox Labs. More than 100 delegates attended the event and Dr. A.S. Kanagasabapathy was the main resource person.
11. Vidarbha level Medical Biochem Quiz was organized by Vidarbha Chapter at Nagpur on 4th March, 2005. Teams from eight Medical Colleges of that region participated.
12. Seth G.S. Medical College & KEM hospital, Mumbai have hosted APFCB- Beckman Coulter Travel lecture series by Dr Ken Sikaris (Australia) and made it as a one-day workshop on quality assurance. Dr Sucheta Dhandekar (Mumbai) was the organizing Secretary and Dr A.S. Kanagasabhapathy and Dr. Brian Smith (Australia) were the other resource persons.
ACBICON 2006: Armed Forces Medical College, Pune won the bid to hold the 33rd. ACBICON 2006 in November 2006 for which Lt. Col. Dr. Parduman Singh was elected as the organizing Secretary.
Office bearers of ACBI elected for 2006: President : Dr. B. N. Tiwary (Patna), Vice-Presidents : (1) Lt. Col. Dr. Parduman Singh (Pune), and (2) Dr. K. Goswami (Kolkata), Advisor : Dr. K. P. Sinha (Patna), Secretary : Dr. M. V. R. Reddy (Sevagram), Joint Secretaries : (1) Dr. K. R. Prasad (Patna), and (2) Dr. Kalyan Goswami (Sevagram) and Treasurer
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