Mangaluru : The Indian Medial Association College of General Practitioners (IMACGP) Karnataka Sub Committee, IMA, Mangaluru and Family Doctors Association, Mangaluru to Organise Karnataka State-level Conference in Mangaluru on Sunday October 20th.

The conference will delve, among other topics, on making family doctors relevant in the changing health scenario. The day-long event will be held at A.V. Rao Conference Hall of IMA Mangaluru from 9 a.m.

Among the important sessions at the conference is the one on ‘Family Doctors: Vanishing breed’ at 9.30 a.m.

Addressing a press conference in Mangaluru on Wednesday, J.N. Bhat, a senior family physician, said general practitioners need to rejuvenate to meet the changing healthcare needs. The chairman of the conference organising committee Annayya Kulal said importance of MBBS graduates should be re-established in society as these medical graduates form the core of the healthcare system.

Dr. Annayya Kulal said the session will delve into importance of working in primary, tertiary and referral care centres and also of communication with patients. Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K. Anand, who is a doctor, Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan, District Health officer H.R. Thimmaiah and Superintendent of Government Wenlock Hospital D.S. Shivaprakash will take part in a session.

The conference will start with the session ‘Osteoporosis: Say no to fragile bones’, which will be moderated by M. Chakrapani, Medical Superintendent of KMC Hospital, Attavar. There will be session on “Family doctors: Pioneers of holistic care, champions of community health” in which the Dean of KMC Mangaluru B. Unnikrishnan, IMACGP’s Honorary Chief Secretary Anburajan and Director of IMACGP Andhra Pradesh P.S. Sharma will take part.

This will be followed by session on ‘Family physician profession — then, now and later’. Pro-Chancellor of Nitte Deemed to be University M Shantharam Shetty and President of Karnataka Medical Council Yogananda Reddy will take part in the session.

There will be sessions on ‘Medical education in regional languages’, ‘Medial ethics-law: Scopes and Challenges of MBBS Graduates’ and ‘Palliative and geriatric medicine’.

Dr. Annayya Kulal said that between technical sessions there will be presentations of old melody songs by doctors.

IMA Mangaluru president R.K. Ranjan, Conference Organising Secretary G.K. Bhat Sankabithilu, and Conference Treasurer Shekhar Poojary also spoke.