Aligarh: Padma Shri Prof. Harsh Mahajan of Delhi has urged the doctors of Radiology Department of J. N. Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University to be clinical radiologists and interact with the patients.

Prof. Mahajan addressed the inaugural session of Continuing Medical Education Programme (CME) organized by the Aligarh Unit of UP State Chapter, Indian Radiological and Imaging Association on Imaging of Pediatric Abdomen and Radiology of Urogenital System as the Chief Guest.

Prof. Mahajan said, "A sea change is taking place in the radiological patterns with time and it is becoming the first choice for the people who seek to enter into doctor's profession."

He also advocated for initiating a super specialty centre in this area as the growing burden of radio diagnosis needs are required to be met at the earliest. He pointed out that there are only about 800 MRI machines working in the country.

Earlier, welcoming the guests and participants of CME, Ibne Ahmad, Chairman of the Department of Radio Diagnosis and Chairman of the Organizing Committee said that radiology is an important branch of medicine on which physicians and surgeons are becoming increasingly dependent for better patient care.

Radiologists play a crucial role in diagnosing ailments of children who are comparatively at disadvantage due to their inadequate ability of expression.

Organizing secretary of the CME, Dr. Mohd. Khalid said that the and Department of Radio Diagnosis (Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College), where he is also Reader, has grown enormously from a mere X-ray clinic to a state-of-the-art USG, CT and MRI facility to keep pace with the developments in this field in India and abroad.

Dr. Khalid said that postgraduate students are exposed to all facilities and imparted a rigorous training by the faculty of the department. He hoped that the CME would prove to be a golden opportunity for the PG students to learn the latest developments that are taking place in the field of imaging.

He said that their interaction with the doyens of this field will be of great utility and that an exchange programme with other institutions should be initiated to enable our residents have a training opportunity under the guidance of experts from this area.

Prof. S. Abrar Hasan, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine said that the CME is a continuing process of learning in the field of medicine and the present CME will facilitate our students to learn from experiences of the experts from this field.

The principal of J. N. Medical College and Chief Medical Superintendent M. Ashraf Malik said that the Radio Diagnosis Department is one of the most important departments of JNMC and a trail of developments have taken place in this department over the last few years.

He said that more than 45 thousand X-rays were done by this department during the last year and now the digitalized X-ray facility has been made available at the department.

Dr. Deepak Gupta and Dr. Bhupendra Ahuja, Vice President and Secretary of UP Chapter, Indian Radiological and Imaging Association respectively also addressed the programme.

Dr. Shariq Aqeel conducted the programme while Dr. Dhirendra Gyan, Joint Secretary of the CME proposed a vote of thanks. In the technical session, Dr. Rajesh Gothi, Dr. THS Bedi, Dr. Shagufta Wahab, Dr. B Ahuja and Prof. Sohan Singh delivered the lectured on various topics.