Annual Report of The Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA for the year 2019

In the year 2019, Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA entered into the seventh year of its formation. The total membership strength of Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA as of date now stands at 250. Twenty new members were enrolled in the branch during the year 2019.

The current Executive Committee is headed by Dr. Manavjit Singh Sandhu as President and Dr. Naveen Kalra as the Secretary of the Chapter. Other members of the executive committee include Dr. Mahesh Prakash (President-Elect), Dr. Suman Setia (Immediate Past President), Dr. Vivek Gupta and Dr. Amit Jain (Vice Presidents), Dr. Kushaljit Singh Sodhi (Immediate past Secretary), Dr. Ajay Kumar (Treasurer), Dr. Chirag Kamal Ahuja and Dr. Pankaj Gupta (Joint Secretaries), Dr. Akshay K Saxena, Dr. Ajay Gulati, Dr. Sameer Vyas and Dr. Paramjeet Singh (Central Council members) and Dr. Rupinder Singh, Dr. Vanita Gupta, Dr. Vikas Mittal and Dr.Ujjwal Gorsi (State Council members).

The 72^nd Annual Conference of Indian Radiological & Imaging Association (IRIA) was organized by the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA on January 17-20, 2019 with Dr. Manavjeet Singh Sandhu as the Patron, Dr. Paramjeet Singh as the Organizing Chairman and Dr. Akshay K Saxena as the Organizing Secretary. The conference was attended by nearly 2500 persons including faculty members, delegates, accompanying persons, trade delegates and the support staff. The venue of the conference was Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. There were seven scientific halls besides a large trade zone and the food court. The first day of the conference was dedicated to the Indian College of Radiology and Imaging (ICRI).  The highlights of the program included the awards and orations of the ICRI. The scientific program was focused on teaching ultrasonography and included Dr. S.K.Sharma Ultrasound Symposium on Musculoskeletal Ultrasound. The scientific program for the day concluded with Dr. Suren Kothari film reading session.

The inaugural function was held on 17.01.19 with His Excellency Shri V.P.Singh Badnore, Governor Panjab & Administrator U.T. Chandigarh being the Chief Guest while Dr. (Prof.) Jagat Ram, Director, PGIMER, Chandigarh was the guest of honour. The new President, Dr. Hemant Patel, was installed during the inaugural function. Life time achievement award was conferred upon Dr. Mukund S. Joshi and Colonel C.S.Pant during the inaugural function. During the conference, eight international faculty members, twenty four Non Resident Indian (NRI) faculty members and nearly two hundred national faculty members delivered lectures. In addition, a large number of experienced faculty members participated in the scientific program as the chairpersons. Apart from the sub-specialty based training, the scientific program also included sessions on artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, PC-PNDT Act and medico-legal challenges. 132 oral papers and 761 e-posters were presented during the conference. The post lunch session of the last day (20.01.19) was dedicated to the workshops. Six concurrent workshops were conducted during this session and included lectures, live case demonstrations, hands-on-training and interactive sessions.

The 6^th Annual Conference of Chandigarh Chapter of Indian Radiological & Imaging Association was organized on 17th February 2019 at PGIMER, Chandigarh. Dr. Hemant Patel, National President, IRIA was the Chief Guest. Prof. (Dr.) Sudha Suri, was presented with the ‘Distinguished Teachers Award’ by Dr. Hemant Patel and she received a standing ovation by the esteemed audience. It was a very successful meeting and was attended by 238 delegates, who had come from all parts of North India. Punjab Medical Council had accredited 4 CME hours for this conference. Eminent faculty speakers from Gujarat, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were the highlight of this scientific program. These included Dr. Hemant Patel, Dr.Manoj Mathur, Dr.Vijinder Arora and Dr. Mukesh Surya. Local eminent speakers included Dr. Suman Kochhar,   Dr. Mahesh Prakash, Dr. Naveen Kalra, Dr. Vivek Gupta, Dr. Paramjeet Singh, Dr. Rahatdeep Singh Brar, Dr. Veenu Singla, Dr. Sandhya Dhankar and Dr. Deepshikha. The new Executive Council took over the charge from 01.04.2019 with Dr. Manavjit Singh Sandhu as the President and Dr. Naveen Kalra as the General Secretary of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA.

Three Academic meetings and the Dr. Rajendra Rao CME were also organized by the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA during the year 2019.

The first quarterly meeting of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA for the academic session 2019-2020 was organized on 17^th May, 2019. It was a theme based meeting on ‘Breast Imaging’. The meeting was attended by 90 members of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA. Dr Smriti Hari from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi was a special invitee to the meeting. She spoke on digital breast tomosynthesis and shared her valuable opinion about breast cancers. The other faculty speakers were Dr Veenu Singla and Dr Tulika Singh, both from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Senior members of the chapter including Dr Sudha Suri, Dr N Khandelwal, Dr Raman Nijhawan, Dr Ravinder Kaur,      Dr Sanjeev Sodhi and Dr Karam Singh chaired sessions and felicitated the faculty speakers and the postgraduate students who presented the interesting cases. 

The second quarterly meeting of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA for the academic session 2019-2020 was organized on 30^th August 2019. It was a theme-based meeting on ‘Recent Advances in Radiology’. The meeting was attended by 125 members of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA. Dr Raju Sharma from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi was a special invitee to the meeting. He spoke on ‘Introduction to Radiomics: What a radiologist should know’ and shared his valuable experience. The other faculty speakers were Dr Chirag K Ahuja and Dr Sameer Vyas, both from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. The speakers deliberated upon various topics ranging from 3-D printing to vessel wall imaging on MRI. Senior members of the association including Dr N Khandelwal, Dr Rameshwar Gupta, Dr Suman Setia, Dr Ravinder Kaur, Col Dr George, Dr Sanjeev Sodhi, Dr Karam Singh, Dr. Rupinder Singh, Dr. Amit Jain, Dr Rajiv Kapoor and Dr. Rahatdeep Brar were present. They chaired sessions and felicitated the faculty speakers and the postgraduate students who presented the interesting cases.

The third quarterly meeting of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA for the academic session 2019-2020 was organized on 8^th November 2019 on the occasion of the International Day of Radiology (IDoR). It was a theme-based meeting on ‘Sports Imaging and Musculoskeletal Radiology’. The meeting was attended by about 120 members of the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA.  The meeting started with Dr MS Sandhu, President of the Chapter, welcoming all the delegates to the third academic activity for this year commemorating the IDoR. He reminded the delegates that the Chapter was conducting this kind of academic activity for the first time on the occasion of IDoR. Dr Shivanand Gamanagatti from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi was a special invitee to the meeting. He spoke on ‘MR imaging of cartilage and ligaments of the wrist joint’ and shared his valuable experience. The other faculty speakers were Dr Pankaj Gupta and Dr Anindita Sinha, both from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Senior and renowned radiologists of the tricity including Dr Sudha Suri, Dr Sudha Katariya, Dr Paramjeet Singh, Dr Suman Setia, Dr Ravinder Kaur, Col Dr Muthanna, Dr JS Bhangu, Dr Amit Jain and Dr Vikas Mittal were present. They chaired sessions and felicitated the faculty speakers and the young radiologists who presented the interesting cases. 

The Dr Rajendra Rao CME, which was funded by IRIA and conducted by ICRI, was organized by the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh on 14^th and 15^th December, 2019. The theme of the CME was ‘Women’s Imaging’. The CME was inaugurated on 14^th December, 2019 by Dr Arvind Rajwanshi, Dean (Academics), PGIMER. Dr Shailesh Lunawat, Secretary of ICRI, was the Guest of Honour. Dr Kushaljit Singh Sodhi, Vice Chairperson, ICRI, was also the official attendee from ICRI. Dr Manavjit Singh Sandhu, President of the Chapter and Dr Naveen Kalra, Secretary of the Chapter were also present on the dais.

The scientific program covered all aspects of breast imaging on the first day and some aspects of gynecological and obstetric imaging on the second day. The program was drafted by Dr Tulika Singh and Dr Veenu Singla, state coordinators for the CME with valuable inputs from Dr Jyotsna Sen, National Head of the Subspeciality and Scientific Coordinator of the CME, ICRI and IRIA. There were lectures on basics of breast imaging as well as the recent advancements including tomosynthesis and contrast enhanced ultrasound. The national invited faculty included Dr Shailesh Lunawat, Dr Jyotsna Sen, Dr Khalid, Dr Sohan Singh, Dr Anju Garg, Dr Janaki Dharmarajan, Dr Punam Bajaj, Dr Anupam Jobta, Dr Ekta Dhamija, Dr Jyoti Arora and Dr Anjali Agrawal. Eminent speakers from the state chapter included Dr Purnima Aggarwal, Dr Tulika Singh, Dr Sandhya Dhankar, Dr Nidhi Prabhakar, Dr Veenu Singla, Dr Ravinder Kaur, Dr Naveen Kalra, Dr Kushaljit Singh Sodhi, Dr Rakhee Gupta,         Dr Ajay Gulati, Dr Uma Debi, Dr Divya Singh, Dr Baljit Kaur, Dr Ladbans Kaur and       Dr Chirag Ahuja. The deliberations were well attended by more than 250 delegates including faculty. The posters were judged by Dr Shailesh Lunawat, Dr Rajesh Sharma and Dr Punam Bajaj.

The branch members actively participated in the activities of the IRIA at the national level. A lot of our members conducted workshops or were the invited speakers and chairpersons for the 72^nd  Annual Conference of IRIA, Chandigarh, January 17-20,2019.

 Dr. Kushaljit Singh Sodhi was elected as Vice Chairperson of Indian College of Radiology and Imaging. Dr. Akshay Kumar Saxena continued to be the National Subspecialty Head (Pediatric Radiology) and member of the Trade Relations Committee of IRIA. Dr. Akshay Saxena, Dr. Kushaljit Singh Sodhi and Dr. Rahatdeep Singh served as Editorial board members of Indian Journal of Radiology & Imaging.

Dr. Akshay Saxena, Dr. Kushaljit Singh Sodhi and Dr. Naveen Kalra were invited as faculty speakers for Sonosummit 2019 held at Chennai from June 27-30, 2019.
Dr. Kushaljit Singh Sodhi was invited as faculty speaker at the 27^th Annual State Conference of IRIA Rajasthan Chapter held at Udaipur from 12^th-13^th October 2019.
Dr. Mahesh Prakash was invited as faculty speaker at the 33^rd Annual State Conference of IRIA UP Chapter held at Agra from 12^th-13^th October 2019. He was also invited as faculty speaker in the CME organized by IRIA Punjab Chapter held at Ludhiana from 19^th-20^th October, 2019. Dr. Mahesh Prakash was invited as faculty speaker at RADICON organized by IRIA and ICRI at Tanda from 2^nd-3^rd November, 2019.
Dr. Paramjeet Singh was invited as faculty speaker at ‘Update in Neuroimaging’ at IGMC, Shimla organized by IRIA Himachal State Chapter on 21^st December, 2019.
Dr. Nirmalya Ray was awarded the Kishor Taori Gold Medal Award for the best paper in the year 2018-2019 which he presented at the 72^nd Annual Conference of Indian Radiological & Imaging Association (IRIA), Chandigarh.

The Chandigarh Chapter was also very active at the Raksha front.  A “Run for the girl child” was organized on 19.01.2019 in the campus of PGIMER, Chandigarh during the 72^nd Annual Conference of IRIA. The campaign highlighted the problem of female feticide and the commitment of the IRIA to fight against this menace. Mr. Sanjay Tandon, State President of Bhartiya Janta Party for Chandigarh, addressed the participants. He applauded the efforts of IRIA in fighting against female feticide. Dr. Sandhya Dhankar, convenor of the Raksha Project for the Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA, organized the “Rakshathon”, a walk for saving the girl child, on 24th March 2019 at Sukhna Lake Chandigarh. Two other Raksha activites were organized on 22^nd August, 2019 and 30^th November, 2019 as well.

Naveen Kalra
Secretary, Chandigarh Chapter of IRIA