Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV), Deemed to University, accredited by NAAC with A Grade, Pondicherry hosted the International Health Research Convention 2019 between 19th and 21st of July at its main campus at Pondicherry and off-campus at Chennai. The three-day academic extravaganza focused on academics, research, patient care, and entrepreneurial skills as applied to Health Science Professions. The Convention hosted 15 workshops. 12 conferences, 2 stakeholders meetings, and 3 startups. Patronage was rendered by the World Health Organisation, (WHO), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Medical Council of India (MCI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Madras Medical Mission besides two overseas universities, namely IMC University of Applied Sciences, KREMS, Austria and Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. At the Convention over 50 international speakers, 200 national speakers and nearly 1500 delegates thronged the convention. As a first of its kind in private health institutions, in South India, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth enabled this International Health Research Convention and included nodal agendas including Ayushman Bharat, Stakeholders meeting pertaining to Scrub Typhus and Entoamoeba histolytica, recommendations pertaining to prospective policy changes in the Health Professions Educations and the unique one day endeavor titled “Writing and formulating Evidence-based research paper” conducted by the Vice-Chancellors of various universities.
The formal inaugural ceremony took place on 20th July 2019 at the jam-packed B.C. Roy Hall of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth. Eminent guests of honour, Dr. Srikanth Prasad Tripathy, Director, National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai, Dr. S.R. Rao, Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, Government of India and Dr. Siva Subramanian, Georgetown University Hospital, USA spoke eloquently on the various facets of scientific research with an inclination towards fostering research culture in Higher Education institutions and more so in the light of ethics. This would automatically enable SBV to carry the research across the globe. Prof. Subhash Chandra Parija, the Vice-Chancellor of SBV emphatically informed the august gathering “that human resources and workforce acquire a separate pedestal, for infrastructure alone would not project the higher education institution positively in the comity of Universities”. Adding further he said that, “in an era of globalization there occurs an immediate need to advocate and embrace as well into the folds of the University, Artificial Intelligence, Data mining, and Big data, besides Internet of Things (IoT). Shri. M. K. Rajagopalan, Chancellor of SBV released the souvenir of IHRC 2019 in a glittering way. The Organising Secretary General of IHRC, Prof. P. Karthikeyan, Head, Department of ENT, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute welcomed the august gathering while the other Organising Secretary General of IHRC 2019, Smt. Asha Suresh Babu, General Manager (Administration), SBV highlighted the Objectives of the Convention. Prof. R. Kannan, Joint Organising Secretary thanked the gathering.
The three-day convention infused scientific temper besides undertaking academic activities aimed at depicting Evidence-Based Scientific Research sans Ethical dilemma. This would drive home the point that the validity of scientific research enabled for sake of humanity should endear itself with ethics in order to take scientific research, across the globe and transgressing the barriers – the need of the hour and the tenet for future.
