Vice President Naidu inaugurates IANCON 2019 in Hyderabad

Expressing that changing habits and sedentary lifestyles are a big cause of concern among Indians, Vice-President of M Venkaiah Naidu has highlighted the fact that nearly 55 per cent of all deaths in the last two decades were due to non-communicable diseases, and the country must wake up to this harsh reality.

While inaugurating the 27Annual Conference of the Indian Academy of Neurology in Hyderabad on Thursday, Naidu said, "Conferences like IANCON 2019 along with other concentrated efforts will help spread awareness and contribute towards early detection on the growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases like brain stroke, epilepsy, headaches, and other diseases related to the brain and the spine."

The four days global convention will be attended by nearly 2500 neurosurgeons and neuro physicians from across India, and experts from over 18 countries around the world. The 4-days event, which is organised by the Indian Academy of Neurology, in association with the Brain & Spine Society of India, will host 24 symposia across neurology and related specialities.

Prof. William Caroll, President, World Federation for Neurology was one of the key participants in the convention.

Thanking the organising committee of the conference, the president of Indian Academy of Neurology, Dr. Satish Khadilkar, said, "A wide-range of advances in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, post-operative management, brain strokes, headache along with other practices like disability assessment and management of patient in neuro-intensive care units will be discussed in these symposia.

Dr. Bollineni Bhaskar Rao, Managing Director, KIMS Hospitals, reiterated the role of hospitals and healthcare establishments in spreading awareness about neurological diseases in our society.

"Educating the general public will help identify symptoms like brain stroke, early and rush the patient to a nearby hospital; and this will help in early treatment and reduced morbidity. There is a need for Centres of Excellence for various neurological diseases while simultaneously concentrating on reaching out to patients in remote areas via tele-medicine and empowering Primary Health Care Centres," Rao said.

Dr. Sita Jayalakshmi, Organising Secretary, IANCON 2019 said that with experts from India and across the globe sharing views under one roof, there is a high potential for improved patient management through rapid exchange of ideas.

"IANCON 2019 will also give young neurologists from India project their work to the World through various platform presentations and poster presentations," she added.