Gupta, left and Sheth, right

The Indian Medical Association of New England and INDIA New England News will hold a Health Expo in April that will bring the area's major hospitals and health-care providers together with the Indian and South Asian community in New England to educate them about common diseases and their prevention.
    
The Health Expo, which will also include workshops and seminars on health-related issues led by foremost physicians, will be held on April 27 at Newton Marriot Hotel in Newton, Mass. Both IMANE and INDIA New England News will also outreach and collaborate with major local community organizations to create awareness about the Health Expo, which will be one of the first major collaborations with community groups on such a large scale.

"IMANE team is very excited to partner with INDIA New England News for this Health Expo," said Dr. Manju Sheth, president of IMANE. "Community service is a very important mission of IMANE as well as my primary focus as president of IMANE in 2013. We have already received commitments from some of New England's renowned doctors such as Dr. Sanjiv Chopra and Dr. Om Ganda to lead workshops and seminars at the Health Expo. Our experts will address some of the most important health issues that affect Indians and South Asian community like heart disease, diabetes and joint disorders. We will have something for everyone, and will also bring well-known speakers who will talk about Indian diet and even topics related to anti-aging and mind body medicine."

Founded in 1978, the Indian Medical Association of New England is a dynamic organization for medical professionals of Indian origin in the New England area. Based in Waltham, Mass., IMANE organizes and supports numerous professional and social activities for the benefit of its members and the communities they serve.

Dr. Sheth, who works at Beverly Hospital and specializes in internal medicine, is also involved with numerous professional organizations, charities and advocacy groups. 

"I am very delighted about the upcoming Health Expo, which is a joint collaboration between IMANE and India New England News," said Dr. Apurv Gupta, chairman of the board of trustees of IMANE. "The Health Expo will provide informative seminars and workshops on health, free health screening and helpful health-related educational information. It's a first-of-a-kind event in this area, representing a bold undertaking by the two organizations. I hope that the community and our physicians will appreciate and support the event."
 
"This will be a free event for all attendees. Both IMANE and INDIA New England News are looking forward to outreaching and involving numerous community organizations and leaders, local hospitals and health care providers to make this expo a great success," said Martin Desmarais, editor-in-chief of INDIA New England News.

Source: IMANE, INE to hold free Health Expo for South Asian community

The discussion examined how the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act will dramatically impact health care, law and politics for years to come. Panelists, which included representative from both health care and law, discussed the far-reaching consequences of the decision both locally and nationally.

Dr. Sucheta Doshi, president of IMANE, said the goal of the event was to provide an opportunity for people to learn how the Indian legal and medical community is working together to promote awareness on a topic that impacts everyone.

This was the first time that IMANE and SABA worked together to provide an educational panel for members and the community at large. "We had this idea that both of our organizations should do some collaborative work together. • We realized there are so many ways in which our organizations can collaborate," said Manisha Bhatt, president of the Greater Boston chapter of SABA.

While the crowd at the panel was heavy on health-care professionals, Doshi and Bhatt agreed that both health-care professionals and legal professionals gained from the discussion.

"The one nice thing about this panel is we had two excellent attorneys • to explain the legal ramifications of this act," said Doshi. "This law impacts how we practices • as a physicians that was one of the big things that I took away from it undefined how this act works from a legal standpoint.

"I also took away from it what this act means for the future and how does it impact how we practice in the future," she added.

"For me it was really interesting to learn about the issues that medical practitioners deal with on a daily basis," said Bhatt. "And it was really interesting how a lot of the focus was on the access to health care and how the act was going impact that."

In covering some of the basic tenets of the Affordable Care Act, Doshi said it was very helpful to hear about aspects such as the elimination of annual and lifetime health-care coverage limits, the extension of children on parent's health care until the age of 26 and primary care physician boosts for Medicare payments. She felt it was very useful to move beyond the main headline that is dominant in the media about the whether the act is constitutional. "There hasn't been an explanation of everything else in the act," said Doshi.

Bhatt said she was surprise to hear about the cost saving aspects of the act and equally surprised that this does not get as much attention. "It appears that there is an effort to reduce the costs," she added. "I don't think there is a lot of focus in the media on what this will cost individuals."

Doshi said that the success of the panel clearly suggests that IMANE and SABA have more to gain from future collaboration. "We actually ran out of time. There were more questions than we had time to answer," she said. "It was a very interesting political dynamic between the two panelists on the health-care side and then the two attorneys."

"This was a way for us as lawyers to really be able to bridge the gap explaining what the act means and also have a discussion about how it impacts real people," said Bhatt. "In order for lawyers to truly be effective advocates, regardless of who you advocate for, you really need to take a step in their shoes. • I do my best work when I truly understand what my clients needs are."

"It really did bring together people from the medical side and the legal side, as well as the legal policy side," added Doshi. "This was a really good way to bring all the sides together."

Panelists include:

Jay Bhatt, DO, MPH, MPA: a senior fellow at NEHI, a Commonwealth Fund Minority Health Policy Fellow (Harvard Medical School/Harvard Kennedy School), as well as chair-elect of the American College of Physicians Council of Associates. Bhatt is a former president of American Medical Student Association and Zuckerman Fellow at the Kennedy School. He is interested in innovation in community health delivery and will provide the clinician's perspective on federal policy changes on the panel.  

Renee Landers, Esq.: a professor of Health Law and Administrative Law at Suffolk University Law School. Most recently, Landers co-authored an article on the Affordable Care Act in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled: "Perspective, Supreme Court Review of the Health Care Reform Law." Landers has spoken in various media outlets with respect to the Affordable Care Act, most notably CNN and NECN. Landers is the first woman attorney of color to serve as president of the Boston Bar Association.

Amy Lischko, PhD: an associate professor of public health at Tufts University School of Medicine and fellow at the Pioneer Institute. Lischko is a former commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy and former director of Health Policy under Governor Mitt Romney. He has published numerous journal articles on Massachusetts health-care reform and health policy more broadly. 

Regina Rockefeller, Esq.: a partner at Nixon Peabody's Health Services Group. Rockefeller has been selected as a "Hero of the Field," a health care attorney whose clients consistently sing her praises, by the Massachusetts Medical Law Report's 4th Annual Rx for Excellence Awards. She has published numerous health law articles on topics of importance to health-care providers. She served as the only lawyer on the Massachusetts Medical Society Task Force on Hospital Conversions and Mergers. Rockefeller represents and advises hospitals, physicians, group medical practices, accountable care organizations, captive insurers, faculty medical practice plans, continuing care retirement communities and other health care providers. She also advises health-care providers on cost-effective compliance with HIPAA, HITECH and state data breach laws and defends health-care professionals before state licensing boards.

Source from Affordable Care Act panel examines contentious issue

The IndUS Business Journal spoke to Dr. Sucheta Doshi, who is currently the medical director of occupational health and a women's health staff physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System. She is double board certified in family medicine and general preventive medicine/public health. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine she has an extensive background in global health, vaccination policy and infectious disease prevention. She is a long-standing member of the American Association of Physicians of India Origin and has been a member of the Indian Medical Association of New England since 2004. She became president of IMANE in January 2012. She was born, raised and currently resides in Brookline, Mass.

Tell IndUS Business Journal readers about your role as president of the Indian Medical Association of New England and any plans for your tenure. What have you identified as one of the main challenges facing IMANE and how do you intend to address this as the association’s leader?

I am currently the youngest president of IMANE, as well as the first second-generation president, born and brought up in the United States.  It is a tremendous honor and I hope to lead the organization forward this year by strengthening our alliances with other medical organizations, including the Massachusetts Medical Society and reinforcing IMANE’s presence in academia, research and collaborative ventures that form the future of medicine in the United States.  We have already held our first big successful event of the year, our 2012 Spring Education meeting on “Health Care Quality Improvement,” which featured speakers such as Dr. Stancel Riley, executive director of the Board of Registration in Medicine, and Dr. Ronald Dunlap, vice president of MMS. The audience was very engaged throughout the program and there has been demand for more continuing medical education programs along a similar theme of health care quality and practice improvement in this era of health care reform. IMANE has always embraced community service to the underserved as part of its mission, as exemplified by the ongoing charity clinics in Waltham and Shrewsbury. I hope to build on this mission through the development of key taskforces to address important public health needs in the Indian Community; we have already formed one such taskforce with the Indian Circle of Caring and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to address awareness, prevention and treatment of tuberculosis within the immigrant Indian community.  We will continue to also have many health and wellness fairs in the community, including our annual India Day health fair with the Indian Association of Greater Boston.

The challenge facing IMANE is that as an organization, it is at a crossroads.  Founded in 1978, it is the oldest Indian medical organization in the United States, pre-dating the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. We have many senior physician members and founders who faced different issues than those being faced by the younger generation of physicians today.  While the senior physicians were new immigrants from India who faced visa hurdles and struggled to find residency positions in the United States but are now quite well established and choose to socialize more within the Indian community, many of the younger physicians today were raised in the United States, face a different challenge of building a practice in today’s health care reform environment, and are well integrated in the community with a diverse ethnic viewpoint. While building ties with the Indian community was very important for the immigrant generation, building ties with the greater medical community is important for the younger generation. I owe a great deal to the past presidents of IMANE, many of whom have been my mentors throughout my medical education. I think this mentoring relationship is key to bridging the generational divide and encouraging the younger generation to become more active within the organization. Currently all medical organizations face a challenge with dwindling membership and revenue. If IMANE is to survive into the future, academic and professional accomplishments need to be at the forefront to minimize disenchantment by the younger generation of physicians. The IMANE membership is composed of many talented physicians in academia, research, and health-care administration and policy arenas. This talent needs to be harnessed and networking between the generations should be encouraged. I hope to accomplish this through mentorship programs for young physicians and increasing programming this year that promotes IMANE's mission to contribute to the education of medical professionals to advance the profession through physician advocacy and representation within all medical arenas.  

How important are professional groups such as IMANE and what impact can your group have in the medical sector, on its own or in conjunction with the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin?

Professional groups such as IMANE are incredibly important to help represent the profession in the greater community and advocate on their member's behalf. Physicians today have to deal with a growing number of changes to the way they practice medicine. However, those in practice do not always receive appropriate education or training on basic principles of quality improvement and risk management. With the advent of Accountable Care Organizations, changes in licensing requirements and ever increasing quality improvement measures to monitor patient safety, IMANE cannot refrain from participating in these changes and acting as a lead advocate on behalf of our members within the medical community.  We can do this by providing essential education to our members as well as by strengthening our own alliance with Massachusetts Medical Society. With AAPI, we can also build alliances with organizations such as the American Medical Association. As an organization representing one of the largest groups of physicians in Massachusetts and the United States, IMANE can have a great impact educating Indian physicians on these changes and representing their voice through physician advocacy as health care policy is debated at the State House as well as on Capitol Hill, in conjunction with AAPI.

In the middle of a presidential election, health care and health-related issues always rise to prominence. In your view, what is the most important health-related issue that the presidential candidates should address? Do you feel that any of the candidates have been more effective, so far, at addressing this particular issue or health-related issues in general?

I definitely believe in universal health care and the right for everyone to have their basic health needs covered. I think population health and prevention is one of the most important health-related issues that needs to be addressed during this election. When you look at the leading health indicators in all industrialized countries, the United States falls well below other countries on almost all of them. We need to create a culture of wellness where basic prevention education and screening occurs for all people in this country, specifically diet and exercise for healthy weight maintenance and prevention of chronic disease, immunizations against prevalent vaccine preventable diseases, preventive cancer screenings and education regarding healthy living habits. We have many national taskforces that are established to look at these issues but not many are composed of providers who actually practice direct patient care on a daily basis – this is the one place where I feel the candidates have failed.  While President Obama's initiatives, especially the Affordable Care Act, do take population health into consideration and his policies have included public health programs more than others in the past, the benefits of public health and prevention in its entirety should be considered, not just the services that are “proven” by health policy expert opinion versus that of those on the front-lines delivering the care.   This is why the recent guideline changes in cervical cancer and breast cancer screening which would limit the screening depending on age are so controversial, for example. We need to look at what can create an overall “healthier population” first. If everyone is able to access a doctor but all preventive needs are not going to be covered or paid for depending on someone's insurance, gender, ethnicity or age, then we're missing the boat on equitable health care delivery. We treat the individual rather than the population at present in the United States. A population health approach is literally the secret for transforming health care in the United States today. 

What would you say if one of the presidential candidates asked you specifically what could be done to improve health-care in the United States?

There has been constant discussion during this election about the cost of health care. While we need to decrease costs and increase efficiency, unfortunately, the amount of documentation that a physician needs to complete for each individual patient is extraordinary. With universal health care both in Massachusetts and nationally, there will be an increase in the number of patients that is seen by any individual physician. With increasing paperwork, there is less time spent on each patient which drastically impacts quality of care. One major improvement would be to help reduce paperwork by streamlining documentation requirements for the everyday physician in practice to increase the amount of time that can be spent on direct patient care, thereby delivering quality health care to the most important person in this equation, the patient.  

What fuels your passion for medicine and dedication to the field, both through professional efforts and with IMANE?

My passion has always been public health, specifically in developing countries; I went into medicine to be able to provide the best health care and humanitarian assistance to the underserved populations across the world. I am fortunate that I was able to accomplish this through my work with the Centers for Disease Control where as one of their disease detectives, I was able to work on the global polio eradication initiative in Uttar Pradesh in Northern India which was then the hotbed for all polio activity in India, a country that incidentally just celebrated one year of being polio free this January. Global health has always been my passion, specifically in the arena of infectious disease prevention and to have been able to participate in the movement to eradicate the next human disease after smallpox, especially one that impacted India so greatly, is what fuels my dedication for constant improvement in the field of medicine through research, teaching, patient care and administrative medicine. I saw that opportunity for organizational improvement with IMANE and the challenges it faces today. I feel that IMANE has a huge scope to provide quality improvement initiatives, through community outreach on important health topics affecting the Indian community such as tuberculosis and diabetes, through physician advocacy, mentorship for young physicians, and educational activities. 

How would you respond if a child or teenager asked you why they should become a doctor when they grow up?

Being a doctor is one of the most rewarding professions that one can belong to; you have the flexibility to address the needs of the community through various sectors. You can find a cure through research for a deadly disease affecting millions, you can inspire a young medical student through teaching to become an accomplished healer, you can touch an individual’s heart through direct patient care, or you can impact populations by developing national or international health policy. The possibilities are endless but the personal satisfaction 

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