The Indian Medical Association of New England, held a very successful and rewarding 2014 Community Health fair on September 20, 2014 at the Shree Swaminarayan Temple (ISSO) in Lowell, Massachusetts.
To quote Gandhijee, "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony".
That is the harmony, I espouse and enjoy of our IMANE community - thank you all, for this high privilege of serving IMANE as its 2014 president.
The free event offered a great and much needed opportunity to a very large cross-section of our greater Boston Indian community to receive a general health checkup and specialty consultations at a single stop.
IMANE is proud to share information of the much needed healthcare evaluations and advice provided to greater than one hundred and twenty (120) participants and so many others who attended the event.
The screenings were provided by volunteers covering a large spectrum of medical specialties.
Each attendee was cordially invited and given a number by our volunteers prior to proceeding to the array of check up stations. Each station was well marked and appropriately flagged to maintain an order with the evaluation process. Each participant was given an evaluation form that was filled with relevant medical information at each station,
thereby providing the information to each participant.
Dental, cholesterol, diabetes, and vision screenings were all much appreciated by the attendees who lined the tables shuttling in an orderly manner between various stations at the spacious function hall that was provided for the fair.
The attendees benefited greatly from the general medical as well as specialty medical information and evaluations. The highlights for the attendees were the cholesterol, HbA1c, and bone density stations that remained populated most of the evening.
The evaluations for the fair were selected in response to a demographic survey of the needs of our Indian population that included audiology testing, blood pressure evaluation, and body composition analysis.
Specialty tables where available for attendees who desired to speak individually, in privacy and confidence with our consultants on various cogent issues that included preventive health, heart disease, nutrition, and women's health/cancer issues.
Bone marrow drive volunteers were able to sign up potential bone marrow donors and also informed the participants of a great need for South Asians donors as they were underrepresented in the bone marrow database.
WE FULFILLED
IMANE's MOST PARAMOUNT MISSION
"SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY"
SPONSORS THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT
THANK YOU
· This event was possible because of the community spirit of volunteerism.
· Shree Swaminarayan Temple for offering a venue
· Subha Thiagarajan, M.D.-special credit for the coordination and co-chairing of the health fair.
We received tremendous thank you and established a feeling of belonging in our community
Shalesh Patel a health fair attendee commented, "Health screenings are important; you know that you should do them but you don't always do them."