This year has been a difficult year for the entire world and full of turmoil for the humanity because of the novel coronavirus SARS CoV2 pandemic taking its toll. Most of us had to make major changes in our lifestyle, way of earning the livelihood and even the way we learn. Medical conferences had been no exception to it and was the prestigious NATCON.
This was the 75th NATCON held under the aegis of the Tuberculosis Association of India (TAI) and the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College, Indore. Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine under the leadership of Professor Dr Salil Bhargava was given the uphill task of organizing this conference early this year. It was the time when the pandemic was still a juvenile and it could not be imagined what monster it may turn into. Gradually as the pandemic progressed, it was decided that NATCON would not be organized on a real world platform and hence the idea of virtual NATCON 2020 was born.
Under the able leadership of Dr K S Sachdeva (President NATCON2020)Prof. Dr V K Arora, Professor Dr Salil Bhargava (Organizing secretary) and the guidance and efforts of tuberculosis Association of India (TAI) NATCON 2020 was organized on a virtual platform from 18th to 20th ofDecember 2020. It became the first conference in the field of Pulmonary Critical Care medicine andTuberculosis to be organized on a virtual platform and the scale on which it was held was huge, to mention 2480 delegates registered for the conference.
Also one could not have imagined some time back that workshops can also be organized successfullyon a virtual platform, still the conference consisted of 12 brainstorming workshops on mechanical ventilation Non-invasive ventilation, sleep breathing disorders, allergy and immunotherapy, pulmonary function test, bronchoscopy and thoracoscopy, quality improvement in Health care management in (QIHCM), Airborne infection control (AIC), chest radiology, how and what to do-civil society, MDR tuberculosis and pediatric tuberculosis. Of these workshops on QIHCM, AIC and how to how and what to do-civil society were the most unconventional ones and were completely unheard of. Still they were nevertheless meticulously Planned and executed and added much to the learning of delegates. Other workshops work were on Conventional Pulmonary, Critical Care and Tuberculosis related topics and consisted of extensive lectures and live demonstrations from eminent faculties in the field. Overall it was a great plethora of learning.
On Evening of 18th December inauguration of NATCON 2020 was done by Dr. Harsh Vardhan · Union Minister, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Shri Vishwas Kailash Sarang, Minister for Medical Education, MP Govt.,Prof. (Dr.) Sunil Kumar, DGHS, Dr KS Sachdeva, DDG(TB), Dr VK Arora, Dr Sanjay Dixit, Dean.
In this awards were declared by Dr. V K Arora. Platinum Jubilee Anniversary, special issue of IJTB, and a souvenir was also released on this occasion.
The scientific program also consisted of update which lasted for 2 days and (19th and 20th of December 2020. This fabulous virtual platform was arranged by M/s Alp cord Network Events and conferences Management Company. It consisted of various sections like 5 halls for the conference sessions, 1 section for display of e-posters and a section for stalls. Scientific session started at 8 a.m. on both days and continued till evening. During the sessions prestigious oration were given mentioned as under:
Dr PK Sen, TAI gold medal oration award was awarded to Dr Rupak Singla.
Dr S P Agarwal TA I oration award was awarded to Dr Padmapriya.
Dr SN Tripathi Memorial oration award was awarded to Dr Sudhir Prasad.
Lupin-TAI oration award was awarded to Dr Rajesh Swarnakar.
Dr OA Sarma oration award was awarded to Dr Vishnu Sharma.
Apart from these prestigious orations, several keynote addresses were delivered by stalwarts such as Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Professor Dr Randeep Guleria, Dr OP Kalra, and international faculties like.
Dr Tom Freden, Dr Ken Castro and Dr Chen Yuan Chiang. There were symposiums by other International speakers like Dr Suvanand Sahu and Dr Courtney Mingmen, Dr Xavier Padanilam and Dr Simon Tibre.
Among the five halls one hall was dedicated to all the lectures on covid-19 which ranged from Epidemiology, prevention, management and complications of covid-19. There were dedicated streams for current guidelines and Critical Care also.
Special mention should be given to Hall D where in various new technologies in healthcare were discussed and demonstrated. It was particularly unprecedented for topics like these to be discussed on such a large forum of pulmonologists and was really interesting, informative and enthusiastic.
On 19th December evening A cultural Eve was organized with a theme “Thank you TB Champions and Thank you Covid warriors’. Program was conducted By Dr. Sanjay Londhe. Ms Preet Pathak presented dance. Mr Himesh Reshamiya & Dr Sri Ramnene conveyed their wishes for the delegates.
On the last day of conference a valedictory function was organized, where Dr Salil Bhargava thanked all faculty members, delegates, Organizing team. Dr V K Arora congratulated team NATCON for Excellent organization of the conference. Also the results of posters and platform presentation were declared. In the valedictory function the name of Dr. Salil Bhargava, Indore, Dr. R. Sridhar, Chennai, Shri Tejinder Ahluwalia, Delhi and Dr. Nikhil Sarangdhar, Mumbai were approved for the Central Committee.
The virtual experience provided by the technical team was seamless and it was unbelievably realistic. Also the smooth functioning and excellent time management by the organizing committee which is rarely seen in the contemporary on-site a physical conference was heart-winning. Given the high quality experience it may not be an overstatement that virtual conferences are not the future but the present of continuing medical education.