Dear NABI members I am, honoured and privileged to be your president for the year 2022. I pay my gratitude to our predecessors, for their leadership and outstanding contributions to NABI. I am inspired by their commitment, efforts and their achievements to take NABI to new heights. My sincere thanks to our esteemed members for their efforts treat burn injuries and to spread knowledge about burns with measures of its prevention through various platform to general public. Some the members are doing commendable works in this field.

Past 2 years have seen the most turbulent times in the history of World Health with COVID 19 creating havoc all over the world. This unprecedented epidemic left deep scars in our minds. Many of us have lost our near and dear. My heartfelt condolences to all those who could not make through this epidemic. We were compelled to remain confined and avoid meeting with each other. For last two years we could not meet physically. But this unprecedented situation had some blessing in disguise. We invented new means to remain in touch with each other and now maintain these new means of communication even when the epidemic is on the decline by God grace. With the help of newer technology, we started meeting on the internet. NABI Webinars were conducted and still are continued to share our knowledge and work along with public awareness. We are posting these on ‘You Tube’ too.

Friends, I always say that “ONCE A BURN PATIENT, ONE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN A PATIENT” so, PREVENTION is the most important aspect of Burn. We all know that almost 95% of burn incidences are preventable. So, during my tenure as President NABI I am trying to spread this message to general public especially to children of receptive age group. When a child is told about anything particularly in school, not only he or she but family members, and as such community gets benefitted. So, we have given a slogan “TEACH THEM YOUNG” under which we are trying to reach out to the children of 6th to 8th standard which is the most receptive age. We are trying to include a chapter on BURN PREVENTION in school curriculum too. I personally have taken talks in schools and hospitals in Ladakh. I have given interviews In LEH and KARGIL AIR and Door Darshan. These talks and interviews are helpful in spreading the awareness through these. We all can do similar things in our areas. Many of our esteemed members are doing this.

This year initiatives have been taken to opening of SKIN BANKS in north India. Efforts for Burns registry is being made with authorities and a programme for rehabilitation of amputees is being formulated.

This year we are starting a new modality of conducting the annual meeting of National Academy of Burns of India as per the wish of our most senior patron Dr. J. L. Gupta with the idea to spread the knowledge and awareness in all parts of the country. So, now onwards Presidentship is dissociated from the conducting the conference which is to be rotated zone wise. In fact, it has started from the last year only but we will be having the conference in physical form for the first time under this pattern. This will also encourage the esteemed members to bid along the presidentship from the same zone so that conference may be held in their zone only.

The conference this year is being conducted by South Zone and Dr Raja Sabapathy, a very renowned and senior international figure in the field of Plastic Surgery has gracefully accepted to conduct the conference at Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. I am privileged to have him as my organising Chairman.

The theme of the conference has been chosen very correctly as “IMPROVING OUR OUTCOMES IN BURNS” and we all have to make efforts to justify this. Dr. Sabapathy’s expertise in conducting the conference and his hospitality is well known. So, I am sure the conference will be a great success. I appeal all of your to attend this in large numbers.

With this I as President, NABI, welcome you all to attend the conference, share your ideas, work and hon up your skill.

Thanks.

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings to you from Coimbatore. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to NABICON 2023 to be held at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, India. The dates are 3rd to 5th Feb, 2023. I extend this invitation on behalf of our NABI President Dr Rakesh Srivatsava and all of us at Ganga Hospital.

The burden of disease of Burns is high in India. Every burn is not just a medical problem but a social catastrophe. It is a situation that a growing economy like India can ill afford. As we continue to march in improving burn care in India, we thought that it would be ideal to have ‘Improving our Outcomes in Burn Care’, as the theme of the 2023 conference. Under this banner we would discuss strategies and share experience from prevention of burn injuries to aesthetic acceptance to integration into society of the Burn Survivors.

On the first day, on February 3rd 2023, we plan to have a live surgery workshop where we would show surgery both on acute burns and surgery for post-burn contractures. We plan to demonstrate surgeries such as perforator flaps, free flaps, tissue expanders, use of skin substitutes, and LASER for Post-burn hypertrophic scars and contractures. This would be an excellent opportunity for young surgeons to learn how the masters perform the procedures and clarify their doubts.

On February 4th and 5th 2023, we will have orations, talks, best paper sessions and a quiz by eminent national and international faculty. To make it more interesting, we will have more panel discussions where we will present cases to the faculty and ask them what they would do in each situation. We believe this would help us improve our decision-making in acute burn care.

This would be a total “In-person NABICON meeting” after a gap forced by the pandemic. We are excited to welcome you to savour the traditional Ganga Hospitality. You would also love visiting Coimbatore where the citizens have started the Coimbatore Next initiative to make the city one of the best cities in the world. We are sure that you will not only leave learning the advancements in burns but also improve our outcomes in burns, build more friendships and have a great time

Please do mark the dates 3rd to 5th Feb, 2023 in your calendar. Coimbatore looks forward to welcoming you