ISBMR 16th Annual (virtual) conference 2020

The President Dr. Usha Sriram welcomed all the executive members and requested Brig. Kukreja to conduct the meeting.
The points were discussed as follows :

1.  Finance : It was brought out that there has been no activities including Osteoporosis Essentials this year and hence no income. The state of accounts were shared and were passed by voice vote.
2. Membership : There are today nearly 550 members n ISBMR. It is all because of the drives undertaken by the executive committee members. Thank you very much.
3. Social Media : While the twitter handle has come some distance, the website still needs some more doing.
4. FLS programme : Dr. Sanjay Bhadada and DR. Manoj Chadha gave the present status from their centres which was highly appreciated. Due to Covid -19 , however further programme is suspended and centres are not able to start.
5. State Chapters : These also became a casualty of Covid-19.
6. Education Programme : This would be given further inputs. This year’s programme was really productive and educative. Two companies are coming forward to sponsor these with an initial grant of Rs. 2 lakhs.
7. Research Grants : It was decided to re-start the research grant this year. Intimation should be sent to all about this and papers called for.
8. SPS Teotia Travel Grant : Dr Rao will send the details, since there was no travel due to Covid-19, hence this took a back seat.

1. The president, Dr. Usha Sriram welcomed all those present, She explained about holding the meeting virtually due to Covid situation.
2. Gist of GBM of 15 th Annual Meeting were read out and passed by voice vote.
3. Brig. Kukreja briefly brought out the financial situations as there as hardly been any change since last year. The accounts were passed.
4. Social Media – While the twitter handle has been fairly active, the website needs some more attention.
5. 17 th Annual Conference 2021 : After lots of discussions, it was decided to award the next conference to Hyderabad, hopefully physical or virtual or hybrid. Chandigarh the second contestant would be considered the next year.
6. FLS Programme : Update of the two FLS programmes being run in Chandigarh and Mumbai was given. More programmes could not be started due to Covid situation and involvement of the physical staff in fighting the situation. As and when it improves more centres would be opened.
7. State Chapters : These also could not be progressed due to the present situation and would be done as Covid situation improves.
8. Education Programme : This would be given further inputs. This year’s programme was really productive and educative.
   9. Research Grants : It was decided to re-start the research grant this year. Intimation should be sent to all about this and papers called for.
   10. Vote of Thanks : The President thanked everyone to make the programme a grand success. Everything went clockwise.

The 16th Annual National Conference of the Indian Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ISBMR 2020) was held on a virtual platform on the 30th, 31st of October and 1st of November 2020. The first day of the programme was a CME devoted to general practitioners. The topics included various aspects of osteoporosis including approach, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, secondary osteoporosis and the many facets of primary hyperparathyroidism and these were covered extensively by experts in these fields.

The main conference commenced on the second day with a brief introduction about the evolution of ISBMR from its inception to its current day stance, by Brig Satish Kukreja, Honorary CEO of the society.

The second day witnessed the prestigious MMS Ahuja oration and the SPS Teotia oration were delivered by Dr Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan and Dr Thomas V Paul respectively. Prof. Ghada addressed the critical topic of diabetes and bone followed by Prof Paul who shared his experience on the utilization of DXA scan beyond bone mineral density.

Other key topics included “COVID-19 and vitamin D” by Dr Ambrish Mithal, “Capture the fracture” by Dr Sanjay Bhadada and “Unravelling the pathogenic mechanisms of rare metabolic bone diseases” by Prof Wim Van Hul. The talks were followed by a panel discussion on “Therapeutic options and combination therapies” by eminent faculty that included Prof Sudhaker Rao, Prof Nikhil Tandon, Dr Usha Sriram and moderated by Dr Manoj Chadha. This was followed by the general body meeting on the same day.

The last day on the 1st of November witnessed an enthusiastic participation from DM/DNB trainees in Endocrinology from across the country in the poster and oral presentations as well as an interesting “visual quiz.” The “Meet the Professor” session on “male osteoporosis” was a case-based discussion done jointly organized by PGI Chandigarh and CMC Vellore with Prof Subhash Kukreja. Prof Subhash
Kukreja and Dr Ritu Trivedi were kind enough to judge the posters and Prof Sudhaker Rao and Dr Usha Sriram had consented to judge the oral presentations.

This year, there were over 1800 registrations, with 56 abstracts, of which 8 were platform presentations and the remaining were submitted as posters.

The final round of the visual quiz for endocrine trainees on rare metabolic bone disorders was preceded by a preliminary round in which teams from 21 colleges had participated. Overall, this first virtual conference of the ISBMR was a grand success, graced by the presence of several eminent teachers and mentors who have always been the strong pillars of support for this prestigious body. We look forward to welcome you to the next meeting that will be hosted in Hyderabad.