January in India is IRIA month, in other words when the annual meeting of the Indian Radiology and Imaging Association happens, and this year the location was Delhi, always a pleasure for me to visit as it is my ‘hometown’, or more accurately where I grew up and attended school (St Columba’s) and medical college (AIIMS). This time it was an added pleasure for me to receive an invitation from Dr Raju Sharma, a good friend who was my senior resident at AIIMS when I was a postgraduate, and who is now additional professor in the department of radiology at AIIMS, inviting me to an AIIMS Radiology alumni reunion the day before the IRIA meeting began. Thanks to the omnipresent Delhi fog, my flight landed late but I was able to make it on time for most of the event, which was greatly nostalgic and heartwarming, as only alumni get-togethers can be. It was great to reconnect with contemporaries from around the world and teachers with whom contact had faded over the years, and to catch up. Professor Sneh Bhargava who presided had her share of memories and anecdotes of interesting and landmark events over the years. The collective radiologic and nonradiologic memories of the group were interesting to share and the old sepia tinted photographs shown by Ashok Khurana evoked twinges from some at subsequent hair lost and weight gained. For me, my years at AIIMS were greatly enriching academically and personally. I think besides the solid teaching curriculum and the infrastructure, the sheer abundance of clinical material (our unfortunate euphemism for disease) is the biggest asset that the institute offers. Given its apex/tertiary status, one is able to see a vast range of pathology during the course of one’s training and get clinical and pathological correlation of the highest caliber. I feel that I learnt much of the science of radiology during my days there, although perhaps I learnt more of the art of radiology during my subsequent radiology residency in the US. And I think the invaluable lesson that Prof Bhargava taught all her postgraduates, that one must be a clinician first and a radiologic next, is one that I keep relearning (and reteaching) myself, every single day.
The IRIA conference itself was a stimulating event, this time bolstered by its location in the nation’s capital, enhancing the attendance and caliber of the dignitaries and the visiting faculty, so that it was inaugurated by no less than the President of India, and one of the keynote speakers this year was the President of the RSNA. For us the meeting was greatly successful as my colleague Dr Anjali Agrawal presented 3 excellent abstracts, one of which won an award. The Teleradtech booth was mobbed throughout the conference, and the Teleradiology on the IPAD demo (now FDA approved!) evoked tremendous interest. I participated in a panel discussion on Teleradiology, speaking on the topic of ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Teleradiology. Also on the panel was Dr Sanjay Saini of MGH, and we had an interesting discussion on whether the Teleradiology cup was half empty or half full.
Another brief interesting radiologic interlude for me earlier in the month was a brief visit to the Barnard Institute of Radiology in Chennai. This historic institution which recently celebrated its platinum jubilee is like a museum with its delightfully antiquated conference room, showing images from direct carotid puncture arteriograms on the walls along with the with photographs of past heads of the department, who were among the greats in our field. It brought back memories of an earlier visit of mine to Wurzburg in Germany, where I visited the Roentgenmuseum and saw the room where the great man did his historic experiments that were to transform medical science. Such radiologic memorabilia need to be archived for posterity.