It’s a matter of pride and joy for West Bengal as Dr. Dwaipayan Mukherjee has been elected as the President of ‘the Association of Otolaryngologists of India (AOI). After many years a doctor from Bengal has assumed the national presidency of any medical organization in the country. Dr. Mukherjee was honored at an event organized by AOI’s West Bengal branch at the Kolkata Press Club on 17th February. During a press conference, Dr. Amitabh Roy Choudhury, President of the West Bengal branch of the Association, expressed that today marks a day of pride and joy for Bengal’s doctors, as Bengal can play a crucial role in shaping the country’s ENT healthcare policies and engaging in discussions with the central government.
The Association’s State Editor, Dr. Snehashish Barman, shared that at AOI’s recent national conference in Bangalore, Dr. Dwaipayan Mukherjee was unanimously elected as the national president by all ENT doctors across the country. Actually, he is the youngest President in the Association’s 76 year history. Another notable aspect of this election is the relocation of the organization’s internationally renowned research journal or index journal, the ‘Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery,’ from the national headquarters in Bhopal to West Bengal or Kolkata for a period of six years. Publishing research papers of international standards in such journals is essential when pursuing a doctorate or DM from any institute or advancing to the position of a professor in a medical college, especially focusing on specific treatments or research topics. With the journal’s relocation to Kolkata, the quality assessment and publication of research papers presented by ENTI doctors nationwide will be conducted.
In addition, Dr. Utpal Jana, the president-elect of the state branch, Dr. Ajay Khawas, the treasurer, Dr. Bidhan Roy, the state journal’s editor, and Dr. Soumendranath Bandyopadhyay, the chairman of the state editorial board, along with other ENT specialists present at the meeting, shared their insights.
Dr. Dwaipayan Mukherjee expressed gratitude to all attendees in his speech and thanked all the ENT specialists across the country for electing him. He emphasized that all treatments here adhere to European and American standards, and assistance is required from the information of all those countries. However, the weather, physical structures of people, customs, everything differs from the West. Hence, it’s crucial to have guidelines tailored for Indians across all branches of medical science. Additionally, the work of collecting information at the local and national levels regarding ENT treatments will commence shortly. He also appealed for the cooperation of all his colleagues and the media in this endeavor.