About this Event

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan.
He said that despite high literacy rate and good diagnostic health services and accessibility to medical care, cancers are detected at an advanced stage in Kerala thereby escalating the cost of cancer treatment. He went on to point out that the cost of cancer is above the national average and about 10-15 % of the entire health budget. He said in this light, preventive steps and early detection are very important when it comes to battling cancer as it leads to about 95% cure rates and excellent quality of life.

Dr Sujha Subramanian spoke on the relevance of M-OncoEd. She said she was really happy to see the great cooperation she saw between the doctors involved and the Govt. Health sector and that this gives her much hope towards the success of this novel method of continuing medical education. Dr Sarita R L (DHS) and Dr Meenakshi (ADHS) offered all their support and the fondest wish that this app would be successful in achieving its goal. Dr P V Arun, DPM NHM (District Program Manager, National Health Mission) while offering the M-OncoEd team all his support said he was impressed with the app and how it can be an effective step towards early detection of cancer. Dr.KK Manojan, Director Sree Gokulam Medical College,Dr.A Sajeed ,Medical Superintendent, Regional Cancer Center, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr.Ramadas K, HOD Radiation Oncology,Regional Cancer Center, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr.R Samadarsi, Head Dept of Surgery Gokulam Medical College,Dr.R Dayanadababu, Former principal Gokulam Medical College,Dr.Jeesha C Haran, HOD Community Medicine,Gokulam Medical College and Dr.Anoop Lal Director Zovoz Technologies graced the occasion with felicitations.

Dr Bipin K. Gopal, State Nodal officer for NCD, Directorate of Health Services, said he was looking forward to the successful implementation of the M-OncoEd goals and the ensuing change in practice among doctors and the cascading benefit it will have on the health of the community.

Dr Paul Augustine HOD Surgical Oncology RCC said that early detection can be achieved by clinical breast examination done by trained female volunteers selected from the community that women would feel comfortable approaching.He cautioned that the benefits of early detection are not to be squandered away due to the ignorance of the society or an inappropriate surgical excision. He regretfully spoke about how some women consider cancer a death sentence even when it’s detected early and do not act in time, while others, in a hurry to treat, approach a doctor who is not fully aware of the consequences of an inappropriate surgery and undergo an excision of the lump in order to make a diagnosis of cancer, all the while they lose the chance of full cure and quality life due to their haste. He said that many a time, a second surgery would not be able to conserve the breast, or do limited surgery of the armpit nodes (sentinel node biopsy) which would have reduced the chance of swelling of the upper limb.

Dr.Shinu K S,Executive Director,State Health Systems Resource Centre - Kerala (SHSRC-K) &Principal, Kerala State Institute of Health and Family Welfare (KSIHFW), Dr. D.Raju, ADHS Planning, Dr.Bindu State NCD Division,Dr.Hafiz ,Principal Training Center,Dr.Veena Saroji Assi Director Planning, Dr.Vidya,Superintendent,DMH Peroorkada, Dr.Anil Deputy Superintendent General Hospital and their team graced the occasion from the health services department.

Ms.Chitra Nair, Treasurer of Snehita Women’s Health Foundation proposed the vote of thanks.

Photo Courtesy: Jaims Jayaprakash Sree Gokulam Medical College