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Þ Þ Þ Þ Þ No5 No5 No5 No5 Ü Ü Ü Ü Ü

September 2009

THE AMIC NEWSLETTER

I- AMIC’s TENTH MEDICAL CONGRESS and AAHPO’s BIG SUCCESS

How should one measure the success of an event like the Armenian Medical World Congress? In this case the Tenth Armenian Medical World Congress, held in New York from July 1 to July 4, 2009?

First comes to mind the criteria of the quality of the main speakers. We had it. Suffice it to mention a few names such as Lord Ara Darzi, the health minister of England, Dr. Raymond Damadian, the inventor of the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Dr. Myron Allukian, Past President of the American Public Health Association, Ara Hovanessian, PH.D., a leading researcher on AIDS and cancer, Dr. Haroutune Armenian, AUA President and Prof. of Epidemiology, Dr. Vazken Der Kaloustian, Professor of Paediatrics and Human Genetics, McGill University, Dr. Hagop Akiskal, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the International Mood Center, San Diego, etc., etc.

Then one thinks of the innovations brought to the programming. We had it and plenty of it, like organizing before the Congress a "specialty day" during which many specialists (ophthalmologists, dentists, nurses, anaesthesiologists, etc.,), met and discussed innovations and methods in their own specialties.

Were there any technical innovations? What could be better than a live video transmission and a dialogue between Armenian physicians sitting in Armenia and a number of Armenian health care professionals sitting in a hotel in the middle of Manhattan thinking about medical cases presented to them by their colleagues in Armenia? The rare (non-medical) observers of the event, like the writer of these lines, were flabbergasted, struck by the courage and the audacity of the organizers who overcame every hurdle and obstacle to initiate these live transmissions and the seriousness of the scientific and medical dialogue and ended with diagnostic suggestions and possible treatments. In fact this live transmission was made possible thanks to the "Hye Bridge Tele Health" program which is a special program of Armenia Fund USA Eastern Section. Hye Bridge program also allowed the live broadcast of the plenary sessions to Armenia and Karabagh. Thus 400 doctors, nurses and university administrators were able to follow the lectures simultaneously.

As if this were not enough, all the plenary sessions were recorded and will be broadcast in the future on the Internet or during suitable events.

Left to Right: Dr. Lawrence Najarian, Miss Irina Lazarian, Executive Director Armenia Fund, Mr. Raffi Festekjian, Armenia Fund Chairman, and Dr. Vicken Pamoukian. Drs. Najarian and Pamoukian co-chaired the Organizing Committee of the Tenth World Medical Congress.

What about the Armenian delegation? An excellent one where the health officials {the current ministers of health of Armenia and Karabagh (Drs. Harutyun Kushkyan and Armen Khachatryan respectively), the minister of the Diaspora (Hranush Hakobyan, Ph.D.), the rector of the Faculty of Medicine of the Yerevan University (Dr. Gohar Kyalyan), a previous health minister (Dr. Ara Babloyan), the Vice Dean of Postgraduate Education and CME at the same University (Dr. Gevorg Yaghjyan}, etc., were accompanied by NGO administrators, by young physicians who gave numerous (sometimes provocative) presentations in nearly all the breakout sessions. All the speakers, from the plenary sessions to the breakout sessions participants, without exception, made use of "visual" media, either Power Point or video, which was also a premiere in AMIC Congresses.

The booklet of the Congress? We had an excellent one in which the editor’s (Dr. Louiza Kubikian) idea of including with the Congress program, a lengthy explanation of AMIC’s creation, history and mission (with pictures, worthy of archives) was welcomed by all. This is a booklet you will keep and read and look at from time to time if you need and want to remember all the nine Congresses preceding this one.

The gala dinner? Here too the Master of Ceremony (Dr. Raffy Hovanessian) and the ad hoc organization committee (Mrs. Shoghig Hovanessian and Seda Nalbandian) had thought of every tiny detail –even then we had overhead projection of pictures of the attendees and some glimpse of the July 4 fireworks going on outside- in a beautifully decorated reception hall. Around 500 individuals attended the ball, during which Lord Ara Darzi, Mr. Nazar Nazarian the well known Armenian benefactor and Dr. Levon Nazarian were honoured with special prizes given by AAHPO.

The organisation of the Congress required, as all big events do, continuous effort and a considerable amount of hard labour. Under the leadership and vision of the co-presidents (Drs. Lawrence Najarian and Vicken Pamoukian), the organizing committee’s members each had well defined tasks and they performed beautifully, with a deep sense of responsibility, until the very last day of the Congress. AMIC’s office was very aware of this during the whole year of preparation.

This Tenth Congress allowed us also to realize that after all these years and prior Congresses, AMIC Congresses have formed a solid core of attendees, a core of Armenian health care professionals who, regardless of their specialities, regardless of their countries of origin, regardless of the city where the Congress is taking place, be it in Europe, the United States, Canada, or Armenia, etc, will be there, in the hundreds. Due to particular circumstances or due to the particular attraction of certain world cities, like New York City for instance, additional new individuals come and increase that core number of attendees. 400 Armenian health care professionals attended the Tenth Congress.

Some attendees observed however, that the organisation of the Congress had one thing missing which was the lack of simultaneous translation (mainly to French) of the plenary session’s presentations. One must add however, that the films and Power Point Slides accompanying these presentations made them more understandable than they usually are for French speakers.

AMIC’s Congresses will continue in the coming years. However, in order to reach the level of what New York offered, a lot of hard work and inventiveness will be required.

II- A few short illustrations of the items covered by the main speakers.

-The minister of health of Armenia, Dr. Harutyun Kushkyan spoke about "Health Care Delivery in Armenia". Thanks to the reforms introduced by the government, state allocations for the health care system increased by 15% to 25% per year and salaries of the medical personnel increased by 20%. The minister stressed the changes introduced by the government in the maternity service (with noticeable increase in the number of births), with the collaboration of international organizations like USAID, UNICEF, WHO.. Health care services in the regions were also renovated (Marz polyclinics such as in Ijevan and Hrazdan), as well as the ambulatory health services. A National Oncology Program is being initiated and is in need of help...The speech was followed by a video showing the health care situation in Armenia during the last 20 years.

{AMIC office has the full text of the minister’s presentation. If you would like to have a copy, please write to AMIC office (amic@amic.ca) and we will send you a photocopy}

-Professor Lord Ara Darzi of Denham’s "Robotic Surgery" was a magnificently well structured presentation. Going back first to the four pioneers of the technique (3 scientists from Great Britain and one from the USA), and to the early stages of this revolutionary method, we learned what was meant by Robotic Surgery, (computer assisted surgery) and non-invasive surgery, all innovative methods which are the minister’s areas of specialty, The contribution of this revolutionary technique is to reduce the physical and psychological trauma of surgeries (whereas large incisions were the sign of success before). Heart surgeries gain greatly from the new technique...

For a few biographical notes on Lord Darzi, let us add that he is born in Iraq. He studied medicine in Ireland where he emigrated in 1977-1978, specializing in surgery. Member of numerous "Colleges of Surgeons", he arrived in London in 1987 and became the director of the oncology surgery Department of the Imperial College of London in 1998. In 2002, Lord Darzi is knighted by the Queen for his service to medicine and surgery, as a Knight Commander of the most excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). He receives his British citizenship in 2003, and in 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown offers him the position of minister of health, in charge of the reform of the British health care system.

{AMIC office has an online a copy of Lord Darzi’s article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, issue of July 2009, and titled "A Time for Revolutions- The Role of Clinicians in Health Care Reform". If you want to have a copy, please write to AMIC office (amic@amic.ca) and we will email you a copy. The first major speech of Lord Ara Darzi during the AMWC opening session was titled "Health Care Reform in the United Kingdom"}.

-Dr. Haroutune Armenian’s presentation on "Dignity in Health Care" was based on two major "field studies" like the Epidemiological studies of Armenian parish records for over 300 years, and the Epidemiological investigations following the 1988 Earthquake in Armenia. The listeners discovered a wealth of very interesting data on the health of the genocide survivors (infant mortality, widowhood and mortality, major epidemics after WWI and WWII among the Armenians) and the results (as well as questions) reached after a continuous monitoring and surveillance of the health problems faced by the earthquake affected population. Taking these two series of data, the speaker developed then what was meant by Dignity in Health Care.

-Dr. Hagop Akiskal’s presentation "The Chemistry of Romantic Love" was delivered to a packed room. He masterfully explained to the audience that for centuries the domain of poets and philosophers, love was also a matter of "right chemistry" as scientific studies showed over the past decade. The lecture integrated histocompatibility, sexual responsivity and infidelity, genetic basis of divorce, facial features and attraction, love and brain dopamine centers, oxytocin and bonding... Prof. Akiskal’s award winning research shows that the serotonin transporter which makes us fall in love also enhances obsessive thoughts and actions (hence obsession with the love object).

-Garo Armen, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder of the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), made a presentation on "Health Care Delivery in Rural Armenia". According to the presented data, 65% of the population of Armenia have no or poor access to basic health care. Lack of trained physicians, lack of proper facilities and of transportation and lack of health education are critical health care issues in the rural areas...

Other speakers’ lectures will be presented in the next INFO-FLASH, which will be prepared and sent sooner than usual.

Info-Flash would like also to inform its readers, especially those who attended the Congress, that there is a gallery of photos posted now on the AAHPO website: www.aahpo.org . You may order the pictures you wish to have.

III- AMIC’s new contacts and networking

AMIC Congresses’ objectives are numerous; one among the most important ones is networking: networking among colleagues, among Diaspora Armenians and those coming from Armenia, among representatives of Armenian medical organizations, etc. This time contacts were established with the Children of Armenia Foundation, and in the coming INFOs information will be given about COAF, and with High Bridge Tele health. Many initiatives can be taken with High Bridge. AMIC will inform interested colleagues in the future.

IV- "The Latest News"

-Info-Flash learned that Dr. Ara Babloyan was elected to the World Health Organization Executive Committee as representative of Armenia. AMIC and its Executive Committee extend their heartfelt congratulations.

-From October 16 to October 26, 2009, the president of our member Armenian medical association of Germany, Dr. Hamparsum Mergeryan will be in Armenia. He will be visiting the Noyemberyan Hospital which is being renovated. His medical association intends to collect medical equipments for the hospital; the association is also continuing to send medicines to the chronically ill patients of Martakert in Karabagh.

-Drs. Berge Minassian and Gaspar Israelian (initiator and member of the Neurologists sub-committee) will be in Armenia in two weeks. They will train an electromyographer and six epilepsy people, that is two surgeons, two epileptologists). Among those trained in Armenia, some will continue their training later on in Toronto.

V- What is AMIC?

The Armenian Medical International Committee (AMIC) was created 19 years ago. It is an umbrella organization that unites and promotes Armenian medical associations throughout the Diaspora, creating thus a large network through which information and data are exchanged.

AMIC organizes Armenian Medical Congresses. So far ten have been held in different cities of the Diaspora, the latest being the one held in New York from July 1 to July 4, 2009.

In 2007, the "Second International Medical Congress of Armenia" organized by Armenia, was held in Yerevan (June 28 to June 30). The third one will be organized in 2011.

Since 1998 AMIC has published an online newsletter which is sent free of charge to all Armenian Health Care Professionals. If you are a health care professional and are interested in receiving Info-Flash, please send us your email address (aida@amic.ca). To all those who already receive the Info, please do not forget to send us your new e-mail address when you change it. Info-Flash is posted on GROONG, but with a different format, and often with less data and graphics, due to GROONG’s rules. To receive it individually in full size and content, please contact AMIC office (aida@amic.ca). For further information, visit our website: www.amic.ca

As of 2005, AMIC in collaboration with Regimedia, publishes a scientific journal, the “Armenian Medical Review”. The fourth issue is out. To subscribe please contact aida@amic.ca or visit www.amic-review.com

Useful information to remember: You can send free of charge from wherever you are located, medical equipment/medicine through the services of the United Armenian Fund: Contact: U.A.F. President Mr. Harout Sassounian (sassoun@pacbell.net)