Mar 14, 2009 JERSEY CITY, NJ: Thanks to the advancement in treating cancer cases, 2.5 million women survived breast cancer in 2008, while 40, 480 patients died of the disease in the same year.

This information was provided by Dr. Michele Blackwood, Director of Breast & Health Management and Assistant Clinical Professor at Columbia University, during a presentation on 'Update on prevention and management of breast cancer in women' at the Continuous Medical Education seminar, organized by the Federation of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and held as a part of 'Women's Health and Leadership Summit' at Westin Hotel in Jersey City last week.

Terming the disease as nothing less than an epidemic, Dr. Blackwood informed the audience that while American women of all ethnicity carried 12 percent risk of getting breast cancer during their life time, Caucasian women had greater risk of getting breast cancer than ethnic women with lower risk of getting the disease. She added that breast cancer ranked second only after skin cancer among all forms of cancer and more than one in four cases ware likely to be of breast cancer that ranked next only to skin cancer.

“Nonetheless, as a surgeon I am happy to see cancer patients survive longer and thrive but sad to have come across recurring cases in some women who were treated ten to 25 years ago”, she told the audience. Most of her audience comprised of women physicians of Indian origin and their spouses.

Updates on other diseases presented by experts during the day long seminar were equally informative. Dr. Christine Gerula termed obesity as an epidemic that causing havoc among the African-American population in which 'body weight posed horrible effect on cardiovascular mortality'. She said that forcing kids to switch to healthy, sugar free diet was a good idea. “A child who is aware of healthy diet can in turn educate their parents not to buy risky food”, she said in a matter of fact manner. In a lighter vein Dr. Gerula said that economic crisis was having a bad influence over people's eating habits. “Cheap foods sold at fast food outlets were one of the reasons for causing hypertension among African-American population at an early age.”

In her illustrated presentation on 'Management Strategies in Post menopausal Osteoporosis', Dr. Shari Mintz cautioned about the huge increase in cost of treating fast aging population in America. “By 2050 number of people above the age of 65 will double while number of people exceeding the age of 85 will become 15 million. The cost of treating this population in the next 50 years will touch $240 billion.
Speaking about treating elderly women of bone loss and related issues, Dr. Mintz said that regular food intake mightn't be sufficient source for total daily requirement of calcium among women above the age of 50. She said that decline in bone density occurs with advancement in age. “One in every two post menopausal women experience osteoprotic fracture.”

In her presentation on treatment and management of Alzheimer's diseases, Dr. Meenakshi Patel, Assistant Professor of Geriatrics, highlighted the importance of early detection. “Since no treatment was available for the disease efforts must be made to slow down the effect of the disease once it was detected”, she said.
Other topics that were discussed in the summit included 'Fibromyaalgia' by Pfizer, 'Recent trend in treatment of COPD' by Aztra Zeneca, and 'Gastroenteritis Bleed' by Dr. Atul Kumar, Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at Stony Brook University.

In the afternoon, Roz Usheroff enlightened the audience with her fun filled presentation on 'Bridging the gender gap', and 'Secrets of Body Language'. A jeopardy style game show on man-women relationship was also presented in which husbands and wives were pitched against each other. A gala dinner was organized in the evening that was attended by more than six hundred guests that included members of AAPI, important officials and prominent members of Indian-American community.

Speaking at the gala event, US Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. Complimented the untiring efforts of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to reform American healthcare policies of the US government. Pallone appealed AAPI members to continue their support for health care reforms and to form new laws. He praised the charitable endeavors of AAPI and said that the organization promoted exchange of ideas and culture that enriched our society. Pallone, who heads the Health Sub-committee of the Energy and Commerce committee of the House of Congress, said that he would continue to work with AAPI on Indian-related health issues.

“AAPI's importance lies in its role of keeping the family of Indian physicians in USA together”, said Mr. Prabhu Dayal, Consul-General of India in New York. “It is gratifying to know that AAPI has greatly contributed towards strengthening of relations between India and the US.”

“The concept of 'Leadership Forum' was conceived three months ago that was developed with the active support of AAPI's sub chapters”, said Dr. Seema Jain, Chair of Women's Forum of AAPI and Immediate Past President of the Federation of AAPI of Greater NY-NJ. “As a psychiatrist I have been fully aware of womens' condition as victims of domestic and social abuses. But I firmly believe in the leadership qualities of women and wanted to project their true image in a summit like this.”

Dr. Jain mobilized women experts to participate in the summit and put together informative and educative presentations highlighting latest research and findings in treatments of Alzheimer, Osteoporosis, Breast Cancer and other diseases associated with aging women. This was the second summit of this nature while the first was organized in Houston, Texas in 2008.

Highlighting the importance of women's education, Dr. Thomas Alapatt, vice president of The Federation of AAPI of Greater NY-NJ, said that educating our women about pivotal health issues were the cornerstones of Indian culture. “It is the foundation of our family system that focuses on continuation of our tradition in which women were dedicated to look after the elderly people in the family while neglecting their own health. In order to create deeper awareness about women's health issues, we took up an elaborate range of topics, such as, causes and concerns about diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, menopause, osteoporosis, breast cancer, etc. for discussions during the one-day summit event.”

“The successful completion of Second Women's Health Summit and Leadership Program proved that AAPI is committed to move forward with its agenda of professional development of its members”, said Dr. Sanku Rao, President of National AAPI. He announced the formation of three new centers in Dallas, TX, Essex, NJ and Detroit, MI, that will offer extensive/observership program to international medical graduates who were looking for opportunities to get into internship programs. AAPI was already offering offers observership programs in Oklahoma, Boston, MA, and San Antonio, Texas. These programs are helpful in expediting the licensing process for new graduates. According to Dr. Rao there were four thousand medical graduates of Indian origin that were waiting to get into internship programs in the United States.

Emphasizing upon the importance of CME programs Dr. Rao said that attending such programs are helpful to physicians. “There are 130 sub chapters functioning under the umbrella of National AAPI and each one of them hold almost three CME programs every year.”

Referring to the forthcoming convention of AAPI at Dolphin, Disney World, Florida in June, Dr. Rao informed the audience that more than two dozens deans of medical institutions in the Caribbean were expected to attend the convention showcase their educational facilities. “This will be a great opportunity for the sons and daughters of our members who might be interested in pursuing a medical career”, he said.
Dr. Tarun Shah, President, Federation of AAPI of Greater NY-NJ-PA outlined his plan to revitalize the organization's charitable foundation to raise funds. He said that a golf tournament was planned to be held later this year to raise funds to finance a number of charitable activities in India and USA. He praised the work done by Dr. Seema Jain, Chair of Women's Forum for organizing an informative event.
“It is crucial to recognize the importance of women's leadership to AAPI”, said Dr. Hemant Patel, Immediate Past President of the organization. “Womens' Health Summit and Leadership Development Program was a significant achievement in not only bringing to the fore women's health issues but it also served as an occasion to honor the leadership of women who contributed to the progress and prestige of AAPI.” Dr. Patel also introduced Congressman Pallone as a true friend of AAPI and a champion of India's interests at the Capitol Hill. Dr. Prasad Srinivasan, secretary of AAPI, spoke on the importance of women’s health and AAPI’s commitment to propagate the message.

Later a plaque was presented to Dr. Patel for pioneering the idea of holding annual health summits dedicated to women's health and gender issues. Plaques were also presented to Prabhu Dayal, Consul-General of India, Dr. Sanku Rao, President, AAPI, Dr. Rita Ahuja, First Woman President of Federation of AAPI for NY-NJ, Dr. Seema Jain, Chair, Women's Forum, Dr. Anand Sahu, Treasurer and others in appreciation of their commitment and dedication to various causes.


Dr Thomas Alapatt, Consul General Prabhu Dayal, Dr Seema Jain and Dr Sanku Rao



Women leaders and founders of AAPI at the women's convention