Dear Friends,

Greetings from ASI Head Office.

Trust you and the family are well.

In the era where COVID 19 has transformed the delivery of surgical care in the country, I embarked upon bringing out a Consensus Document – broad based guidelines that aims to empower our Members about a few pragmatic and practical Messages during these most unprecedented times in our lifetime.

Three weeks ago, I had assembled a Panel comprising of Dr. Abhay Dalvi (Vice President), Dr Arvind Kumar (Immediate past President), Dr. Sanjay Jain (Hon. Secretary), Dr. CRK Prasad (Hon Treasurer), Dr. Dilip Gode, Dr. Shiva Misra, Dr. Santhosh John Abraham – Past Presidents (2015 – 2018) and a couple of experts – Dr. Shivaram & Dr. Somashekhar, who have been at the forefront in analysing COVID related data.

After taking active inputs from the Panel & indeed, from several opinion makers amongst the membership at large, I zeroed down on twenty-seven key questions that needed to be addressed.

To ensure everyone on the Panel are prepared, questions were further sub sectioned and passed on to each Panel member well before calling for a web based virtual Panel discussion, which was held on 3rd May.

Panel members presented evidence relating to each of the questions posed to them. All the 27 key questions were discussed in great detail and the proceedings of this meeting were audio recorded to ensure accuracy.

This Consensus Document is the end product of this fruitful discussion.

I am most grateful to the esteemed Panel, and equally, my heartfelt gratitude to Dr Somashekhar who has painstakingly compiled the key discussion points in a publishable format.

Click Here to Download ASI’s Consensus Guidance Document

Pleased to inform you that “ASI’s Consensus Guidance Document” would feature in the June 2020 issue of the Indian Journal of Surgery.

Stay Safe…

Warm personal regards.

Yours in the service of ASI…


Dr. P. Raghu Ram
MS, FRCS (Edin), FRCS (Eng), FRCS (Glasg), FRCS (Irel),
Honorary FRCS (Thailand), FACS

President
The Association of Surgeons of India