OACON
2018 was held at Pune from 31h August and 1st September.
It was followed by MRACON which was scheduled on 1st and 2nd
September. It was organized under the chairmanship of Dr Arvind Chopra and Dr
Anuradha Venugopal was the Organizing Secretary.204 registrations were received for OACON and
the meeting was attended by 174 delegates. There were in all nine eminent International
faculties: six from United Kingdom, one from Australia, one from Bangladesh
and one from USA who participated in the meeting. 15 abstracts were received for OACON and out
of which one was submitted for International Young investigator award. It was
awarded to Dr Sourav Pradhan from KGMU Lucknow.
There were 2 orations awarded in the OACON
2018, ‘*The Rathi Indelible Mark*’ oration awarded by Shri Harinarayan Rathi,
Chairman – ARCF-CRD to Prof. Geroge Nuki and ‘The *Das– Rheumatology Oration*’
awarded by Dr SK Das, President – SOAR to Dr K Mahendranath. Dr Hanumant
Tandale, who engineered tremendous all round
support and enthusiasm in the COPCORD Bhigwan project, an iconic model
of research and community service and who is very appropriately and respectfully called the the *Bhishmapitamaha* of COPCORD was felicitated with the “*CRD COPCORD GURU *” medal.
The theme of the OACON meeting was based on OA-Knees and was primarily structured to view ‘’Evidence – based data” and inspire ‘young Rheumatologists, Orthopedic surgeons, basic scientists, physiotherapists etc. Undue extravaganza was avoided and
nearly a total of 63 speakers (39 in OACON & 24 in MRACON) were given stage time. Participation was maximized by designing a predominantly single session meet. The entire OACON meeting was web-telecasted. Posters were provided with vantage location to attract attendance. Three best poster presentations based on fair judgment, received
appropriate awards. In addition, three more were awarded a Special Mention by
the Chairman. One International Ward was also announced. Mission Arthritis India
(MAI) a patient group also participated in the three day meetings.
We are in the process of creating a compilation of the scientific program on the various talks/lectures of the conference and the same will be sent to each delegate. The meetings were made an even
bigger success in its usefulness in terms of future interactions because of the presence of Prof Ali Mobasheri, President – elect, OACRSI and the team of other international experts who attended the meetings.