BIMDA members take global health care approach
by Kathy Hagood
The Brevard Indo-American Medical and Dental
Association is well known for the international medical missions its
members make not only to India but also to Latin America, Africa and
other parts of Asia.
When BIMDA
kicked off in 1995, its focus was to provide a social networking group
for area doctors, dentists and pharmacists of Indian origin.
“There was a
real need to help bring together the growing professional community,”
said Glad Kurian, the honorary
executive director
and co-founder of the group,
which now has about 200 members.
As BIMDA
grew and became a nonprofit organization, it expanded its mission to
include educational opportunities so its members could benefit from each
other’s expertise, learn more about cutting-edge medical concepts and
gain required continuing education credits.
“BIMDA
allows for more collaboration among the medical professions. We learn
from each other,” said Dr. Sumant
Pandya, MD, chairman and president of
the group.
The group’s
signature annual event is the BIMDA Medical Expo & Symposium, which is
set for April 12 this year. The educational expo is also the group’s
biggest annual fund-raiser, providing monies for BIMDA’s donations to
international, national and local charitable efforts.
Over the
years BIMDA has increased its support for charitable outreach efforts,
including offering seed money for its members’ medical missions and
donations to assist national and international areas hit by natural
disasters, including hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes. Individual
members also make their own personal contributions to such causes.
Pandya, a
pathologist, said medical missions have a contagious attraction for
group members. BIMDA members also enlist physicians outside the
organization for their missions.
“It’s an
infectious process. Members come back from their missions with such
enthusiasm,” he said.
Medical missions typically last only a week
or less because doctors must use time that otherwise would be spent on
vacation or other personal activities.
“We can always do more, and we should do
more, but it’s important to do something,” Pandya said.
Pandya went on his first mission medical
mission in September with the Titusville-based Doctors Goodwill
Foundation. He was encouraged to join the mission by fellow BIMDA member
Dr. Kanti Bhalani, M.D.,
who founded the foundation
in 2003 with other Parrish physicians
to provide charitable medical services both locally and internationally.
Pandya and his wife, Dr. Snehlata Pandya,
M.D., a retired OB/GYN, went with
Bhalani,
also an OB/GYN,
and other area physicians on a three-day outreach to a hospital in
Barquisimeto, Venezuela. The group
brought donated supplies and equipment with them.
“All of our area hospitals and many medical
vendors are good about donating excess inventory and equipment.
Of course we can always use more donations, which allow us to do more to
help,”
Sumant Pandya said.
During the September mission, Sumant Pandya
gave seminars on disease detection and consulted with laboratory staff
on various medical cases during the mission.
“It was a very fulfilling experience. I
really felt like a made a difference,” he said.
Another
BIMDA member, Dr. Mukesh
Aggarwal, M.D., has been going on medical missions once or twice a year
for more than a decade. During his last mission, over the Thanksgiving
holidays, he performed more than 90 cataract surgeries.
“The long flight is exhausting, but
the work is very satisfying. When you see the smiles on the faces of the
people, that makes it all worth your efforts,
Aggarwal said.
Encouraged by a
colleague, the ophthalmologist went on his first medical mission in 1993
to the Dominican Republic. He wasn’t able to perform surgeries but did
treat a variety of eye ailments.
“You have to
have a sterile environment to operate, which is a challenge on a medical
mission,” he said.
In 1996, Aggarwal began working with the
Maheshwar Foundation in Melbourne, visiting a
remote area west of Dehli. The next year he went with the group to the
northern Punjab region of India. Finally he had proper facilities to
perform cataract surgeries.
“The
villagers are often exposed to large amounts
of UV radiation so they tend to develop cataracts early,” he said.
Maheshwar helped set up a clinic in the Tanda
area which now has grown into a hospital. Aggarwal has put his own
resources toward the hospital and medical missions in the Punjab area,
including donating a $10,000 operating microscope. The Merritt Island
and Suntree Rotary Clubs have also assisted with donations.
Aggarwal and
others on the Maheshwar
missions also try to address non-medical needs of the area Punjabi
population as they can. For example, because temperatures can get
chilly, they distributed 100 blankets this year.
“You don’t
think about what a difference a blanket can make to a person, but when
they don’t have one it means everything,” Aggarwal said.
Another BIMDA member who frequently goes on medical missions is Dr.
Silas Charles, M.D.,
president-elect and
co-chair of BIMDA. Charles and
his family continue to foster the Christian Cancer Centre, Hope Village
and Leprosy Mission, which they founded in India.
Through on-going efforts, orphans and those
suffering from cancer, leprosy and AIDS/HIV are cared for. Charles also
leads medical missions to the area to bolster treatment efforts.
The
radiation oncologist and president of Cancer Care Centers of Brevard
Inc. is a tireless fundraiser for a variety of local, national and
international charitable causes. He like other BIMDA members emphasized
that it takes many people working together to make medical missions
successful.
"I
am just a spoke in a wheel made up of friends and coworkers that have
teamed up to bring hope to the hopeless, not just in India, but where
ever our God-given gifts and talents may be utilized," Charles said.
For more
information on BIMDA, visit
www.bimda.com