The Journey of MC-IAPM

An Enriching Journey revisited
Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (IAPM), founded in 1949, meets every year to conduct scientific deliberations and exchange of scientific information. As the number of delegates attending the meeting increased substantially, it was thought to have regional chapters, in addition to the annual meet. A suitable amendment was added to the constitution of the IAPM- item 4 of byelaws. Dr. K. D. Sharma, the then president of the IAPM, took the lead in our state and requested Drs. Subhash Kelkar,Dr B. R. Solanki and Dr S. R. Patil to organize a meeting at Aurangabad. This was the beginning of Maharashtra state chapter of IAPM . The state and union territory of Goa joined us subsequently.

The main purpose of starting the state [regional activity was to give forum or a platform for young pathologists to present their scientific data. There was overwhelming enthusiasm in this respect. We had to resolve that only one paper per institution would be accepted for presentation. In addition, there were guest lectures, occasional seminars. Thus the programmed was quite compact. In 1986, we started slide seminar and immediately it became 'hit'. Five slides from each( four with diagnosis and one for discussion) Institution were pooled and circulated to all, This was a valuable scientific material for all post graduates to see any time of the year. The discussion on slides was indeed very informative.

lt was a lesson for the postgraduates to watch how the senior pathologists look at the problem to arrive at a diagnosis. Prof. A. P. Desai was the first chairman of this slide seminar: Subsequently, every chairman improvised and made the seminar more and more interesting. Even a certificate of excellence was awarded to the institution having maximum accuracy. Prof Mrs. Agashe from Miraj compiled this data accumulated during her regime and published these subjective variations of quality assurances in histologies in our journal IJPM. With the advent of immunohistochemistry, the element of subjectivity has gone down considerably.

Another very popular programme is the postgraduate quiz on the projected slides. This was started by Dr. Ila Vora. To this scientific programme of 2 days, a preconference CME is now added mainly for post graduates.

In remembrance of our great teachers and researchers, session on "Know your teacher" started in year 2007. Two members talk about two teachers whom they knew personally and who worked with them. Till now we talked about Dr. V. R. Khanolkan Dr. P. V. Gharpure, Dr. Y. M. Bhende, Dr. R. G. Dhayagude, Dr. K. D. Sharma, Dr. J. P. Shrivastav, Dr. M. V. Shirsat, Dr. S. N. Kothare, Dr. Dastoor and Dr. Jhala,Dr. Monterio and Dr. N. M. Purandare etc

The number of delegates attending MAPCON was alwaysabove 300 or more, in previous year it reached upto 1100. To arrange such a rneet requires considerable infrastructure and manpower Naturally, it was held usually in a medical college. Dr. Junagade from Nashlk conducted a successful conference outside the medical college. Later, Kolhapur, Panhala, Mahabaleshwan Jalgaon, Panchgani had the privilege of hosting MAPCON.

To complete 37 years of any organization successfully is no mean achievement. This is particularly so in the background of non functioning regional chapters in India. Nearly a quarter of the IAPM membership comes from our State Maharashtra has given our parents body 17 presidents. 4 vice President, 4 Secretaries, 5 Joint secretaries , 5 Treasures, 1 Editor: More over our State has hosted Annual conference of IAPM on 8 occasions This speaks of our dedication involvement and enthusiasm to the society's work, not only at regional but at the national level too. Not surprising then, our chapter has been very active scientifically.

Thus we have as an association which has grown from strength to strength and will be a force to reckon with on the national scenario of IAPM.

LONG LIVE MAPCON