The President of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) Dr Pramod Jog, in
his Presidential Address [1], conveys a plethora of messages and advice.
His inimitable style, employing mnemonics and coining acronyms, is
attractive and amusing, but the messages (like many others in the past)
may soon be forgotten. As examples, I refer to "comprehensive child
care" (CCC) from 1996, which regularly appeared on IAP’s paper mail, and
"Avoid Antibiotic Abuse" (AAA), suggested more recently. The former
(CCC) was adopted to emphasize that the practice of Pediatrics should
not be confined just to treating sick children and carrying out
preventive measures, but also addressing various problems of the
underprivileged children in the community. The IAP CANCL (Child Abuse &
Neglect & Child Labor) Group was eventually established. Its members
have worked and advocated on behalf of needy children. Unfortunately,
the CANCL group has received very little support from the IAP. A plea to
IAP Branches and even a group of members to adopt a village, for a
number of activities, would be a most valuable contribution. Individual
members can surely devote two hours or more per week to work for the
society. Pediatricians are the largest antibiotic abusers, prescribing
these drugs for diarrhea and upper respiratory infections. AAA must be
vigorously advanced.
The President rightly observes that practitioners are
very busy with clinical care and have very little energy left for
research work. However, his advice to them to write case-reports is
likely to prove very difficult to follow. Even if one is able to write a
case-report, hopefully not in the style of the publication being cited
[1], it would have a slim chance of being accepted by Indian Pediatrics
or any other Journal. A group of practicing pediatricians could,
however, participate in well-designed, relevant studies. The IAP should
identify its priorities and define short as well as long term
objectives, which must be vigorously pursued.
Incidentally, I cannot think of any message from
RNS, except perhaps Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome
!