GENE THERAPY HOLDS PROMISE FOR CANCER TREATMENT: PROF. MOHAPATRA

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 18: Genetic therapy could hold the key to future treatment of cancer, eminent neuro-surgeon, Prof. Ashok Mohapatra said on Tuesday.

Gene therapy can be an alternative to surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, now being followed to kill cancer cells, Prof. Mohapatra, presently Director (Health Programmes) at the SOA (Deemed to be University), said.

In the 1970’s, organ transplantations including heart and kidney were considered difficult but have become routine today. Now gene therapy is the evolving method for treatment, he said.

Prof. Mohapatra was speaking at a ‘Continuing Education Programme’ organized by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS), faculty of pharmacy at SOA, and sponsored by the Pharmacy Council of India. He spoke about the possibilities gene replacement and gene transplantation which could be used to kill the diseased cells.

Dr. Soumendra Rana, Assistant Professor in the School of Basic Science at IIT, Bhubaneswar, also addressed the CEP. Prof. Sudam Chandra Si, Dean of SPS, said that around 60 faculty members were attending the three-day programme.

HOCKEY WORLD CUP GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO FOCUS ON ODISHA TOURISM

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 16: The 14^th Men’s Hockey World Cup, to be held in the Odisha capital from November 28 to December 16 this year, would present an excellent opportunity to focus on the state’s tourism potential and market the same, Dr. Jitendra Nath Mishra, former Indian Ambassador to Portugal and Laos, author and an expert on the game said on Thursday.

            “International hockey can spin off on tourism and has enormous potential,” Dr. Mishra said while addressing the Orientation Program for freshers at the School of Hotel Management, faculty of hospitality and tourism management at the SOA (Deemed to be University).

            Several thousand people from other countries will converge in Bhubaneswar for the hockey showpiece having 16 countries in the fray and they would need hotel rooms, excellent cuisine and relaxation avenues, he said adding the state government might have to step in to boulster infrastructure.

            Dr. Mishra, who has been appointed advisor by the Odisha government on sports and tourism, said many of these tourists would be interested in the city, tourist places, food and fabrics. “Visitors would value their money and hospitality would be important,” he said.

            The meeting, presided over by the SOA Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Amit Banerjee, was also addressed by Mr. S.C.Hota, Director, Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar, Mr. Nisar Ahmed, Corporate Chef at the Mayfair Hotels and Resorts and Mr. Prasanna Ray, Accomodation Manager at the Fortune Park Sishmo, Bhubaneswar.

            Stating that the need was to put Odisha on the world map, Dr. Mishra said there was need for team effort to improve quality of service as “we don’t keep deadlines” unlike people in other countries.

            Mr. Hota said the aviation and hospitality sectors complimented each other and the growth in aviation promised good employment prospects. “The passenger traffic at the Bhubaneswar international airport was growing at 44 per cent and it augured well for the future,” he said adding the IAAI proposed to construct two hotels, one of 5-star and the other of 3-star category, outside the airport in the city.

            Mr. Ahmed recounted his experience in the hospitality industry saying it offered enormous future for the students. However, he stressed on the acquiring of skills which were needed to succeed in the industry. “You have to take the profession seriously, surround your skill with knowledge and stick to values to succeed,” he added.

DISCIPLINE, DEVOTION, DEDICATION KEY TO SUCCESS IN LEGAL FIELD: JUSTICE GHOSE

Bhubaneswar, March 12: Law students must cling to three things—discipline, devotion and dedication— to emerge as top-notch legal minds in the country, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Member, National Human Rights Commission and former Judge of the Supreme Court, said on Sunday.

“These three things will take you to the top and help you realize your inherent potential,” Justice Ghose said while addressing the valedictory function of ‘Legal Spectra-2018’, the four-day All India Law School Meet organized at the SOA (Deemed to be University) here.

Justice Bijay Kumar Nayak, former judge of the Orissa High Court attended as guest of honour while Prof. Amit Banerjee, Vice-Chancellor of SOA presided.

Narrating his own experience as an aspiring lawyer when he joined the bar in Kolkata in 1976, he said he had a nerve-wracking experience when the then judge of Calcutta High Court Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee forced him to argue an arbitration case before him.

“I had just joined the profession and was asked by my senior to plead for time in an arbitration case. But the judge insisted that I must argue the case right away,” he said.

“Though I was not aware of the facts of the case, I had to study hard and argue the case before Justice Mukherjee which I won subsequently,” Justice Ghose said adding “if you study well and present your facts correctly, you are bound to go to the top.”

Stating that he had hardly dealt with criminal matters while he was a judge in the Calcutta High Court, he said he had to study criminal law after being elevated to the Supreme Court as he had to deal with criminal cases.

Altogether 77 students from 14 law schools including from Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam besides those from Odisha, participated in the meet with the local University Law College winning the Spectra Cup for all round performance. Students of the host institution did not compete in the seven events held over the four days.

Justice Nayak said while people without any other option were choosing law as a profession, the legal profession had gained immense popularity of late. “The avenues in the legal profession now are limitless and it has become very challenging as well. Legal firms from other countries have started coming to India and students of law need to prepare to compete with legal brains from other countries,” he said.

Urging the students to learn to argue cases well, Justice Nayak said “if you have argued the case in the court to your satisfaction, you would have done your part irrespective of the fact whether the verdict goes in your favour or not.”

Justice Nayak, who earlier, presided over the Moot Court competition, one  of the events, said he found the quality of arguments by the students good in spite of the fact that they were supplied with limited facts and details.

Prof. Prabir Patnaik, Dean of SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL), the faculty of law of SOA and organizer of the event, Prof. Jayadev Pati, Advisor and Professor and Dr. Madhubrata Mohanty, Convenor of ‘Legal Spectra-2018’ also spoke.

EU DELEGATION ON RESEARCH AND INNOVATION VISIT SOA

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22: The European Union (EU), which is presently implementing Horizon 2020, its biggest funding program for research globally, is keen to explore possibilities of collaboration with the research and academic community in Odisha.

A delegation of European Research and Innovation officials, led by  Ms. Tania Friederichs, Head of Research and Innovation, EU Delegation to India, on Thursday visited the SOA (Deemed to be University) to explore opportunities for international collaboration and exchange in different fields.

The delegates had wide ranging discussion with the SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Amit Banerjee, the Dean (Research and Development), Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda and other academic and research heads. The delegation comprised science, technology and innovation counselors, attaches and directors of institutes from European countries.

Ms. Friedrichs said that Horizon 2020, an 80 billion Euros program being implemented over seven years since 2014, was primarily targeted at excellence in science, industrial leadership and societal challenges.

“The purpose of our visit is to learn more about SOA initiatives in academics, research, innovation and technology transfer and SOA’s expectations regarding possible cooperation with Europe, both at the EU level and with the countries represented in the delegation,” she said adding “we wish to inform you about various cooperation and funding opportunities for collaborative research and innovation as well as mobility and skill development schemes in Horizon 2020.”

Prof. Banerjee, who welcomed the delegation, said SOA would definitely look forward to fruitful cooperation with the European Universities and institutions of excellence. “We have to find out where we can collaborate,” he said.

Prof. Nanda made a presentation about SOA, presently ranked the 20^th best university in the country, which is the youngest Deemed to be University to find a place among the top twenty.

Dr. Vivek Dham, Advisor-Coordinator, Research and Innovation to the delegation, explained the objectives of the visit while representatives of different European nations made presentations about the possibilities and opportunities in their respective countries. It was followed by an intense interactive discussion.

Some members of the visiting delegation expressed happiness that SOA already had MoUs with universities in their countries.

Besides Ms. Friedrichs and Dr. Dham, the other members of the delegation included Mr. Alain Ghislain Baetens, First Secretary in the Embassy of Belgium, Ms. Anna Lunander, Counsellor, Innovation and Science in the Embassy of Sweden, Ms. Inger Midtkandal, Science and Technology Counsellor at the Royal Norweigian Embassy, Dr. Srinivas Kaveri from the Embassy of France, Dr. Indraneel Ghose, Senior Thematic Advisor for Education, Research and Innovation, Embassy of Switzerland, Mr. Andrzej Stuczynski, Third Secretary, Economic Section in the Embassy of Poland, Mr. Sune Kaur-Pedersen, Counsellor, Innovation and Research at the Danish Embassy, Dr. Hilda Viola Farkas, Counsellor for Science and Technology, Embassy of Hungary and Dr. Massimo Spadoni, Scientific Attache in the Embassy of Italy.

WORLD LEPROSY DAY OBSERVED AT IMS AND SUM HOSPITAL

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 1: Reporting of new cases was emphasized at a World Leprosy Day program organized at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medicine of SOA (Deemed to be University), on Tuesday even as medical professionals vowed to fight for the elimination of the disease.

The World Leprosy Day is observed on the death anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

An awareness campaign was conducted on the occasion with Prof. Bikash Ranjan Kar, Head of the department of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy (DVL), speaking about the social stigma and misconceptions associated with the disease. Dr. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of SUM Hospital, who presided over the program stressed on reporting of new leprosy cases and incidence of childhood cases.

The theme for the day this year focused on ‘Zero Disability in Girls and Boys’.          The gathering was also addressed by Dr. Ajay Kumar Jena who spoke about the awareness for the patient at every level of health care system. Leaflets to create awareness were distributed in the gathering.

NEW KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM NOT AS UNIVERSAL AS WE THINK: PROF. SARANGI

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 29: By leveraging the strength in human capital and Information Communication Technologies (ICT), India can become a major global knowledge based economy, but there was need for making technology more human, speakers said at an international conference on Multidisciplinary Applications in Knowledge Economy (MAKE) organized by SOA (Deemed to be University) here on Friday.

“Technology empowers those who control it and we are becoming pawns in the hands of technology,” Prof. P.C.Sarangi, Vice-Chancellor of Ravenshaw University said.

“The new knowledge system is not as universal as we think and it has consequences,” he observed while pleading that technology should become more human as the prevailing knowledge system acted as a unifying and dividing factor at the same time.

Prof. R.N.Tripathy of Delhi University felt that knowledge was instrumental in dividing the society while forwarding the example of the ‘Rosogolla controversy’ describing it as a needless debate that raged between two states.

“What has become more important today is not knowledge but the ownership of knowledge.  Intellectual Property Rights has created a division between the developed and developing countries,” he said.

The two-day conference, organized by the Institute of Business and Computer Studies (IBCS), the faculty of management sciences of SOA, has attracted participants from USA, UK, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Ghana, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Prof. Triloknath Pandey and Prof. Annapurna Pandey from the University of California, Prof. Loet Leydesdorff from University of Amsterdam and Dr. Bhabani Shankar Nayak from Coventry University, UK would be addressing the plenary session.

Pointing out that every civilization had its own repository of knowledge, Prof. Sarangi said it would be a misnomer to hold the view that the knowledge system started only in the present or previous century.

Addressing the inaugural session, Prof. P.K.Nanda, SOA’s Dean (Research) and officiating Vice-Chancellor of the Deemed to be University, said SOA’s mandate was to create and disseminate knowledge.

SOA had taken the initiative in multidisciplinary research with 12 research centres and 35 research labs, he said adding 219 researchers were presently engaged in various research projects.

Prof. Anup Samantaray, Dean of IBCS, said knowledge based economies used ICT, innovation and research, higher education and specialized skill to create, disseminate and apply knowledge for growth.

“What India needs is supportive laws, improved infrastructure, removal of barriers in trade and investment, skilling of labour force, higher spending in research and development and innovative financing in small business,” he said adding systematic integration of reforms in these areas and strengthening of the country’s competitive advantage must be undertaken to create and sustain an effective knowledge economy.

Dr. Sasmita Mohanty, Associate Professor of IBCS and Convenor of the conference, proposed the vote of thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

SUM HOSPITAL ACQUIRES SPYGLASS TECHNOLOGY FOR LIVER DISEASES

The Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here has become the first healthcare facility in Odisha to acquire Spyglass-DS, a cutting edge technology for the treatment of biliary and pancreatic diseases.

The new facility was inaugurated by the state’s minister for health and family welfare, Mr. Pratap Jena on Friday who hailed the move saying it would help extend quality treatment of liver and pancreatic ailments to the people.

Explaining the function of the new equipment, Dr. Manoj Kumar Sahu, Head of Department of Gastroenterology in the hospital, said it was a new innovation which would enable the Endoscopist to easily enter into the biliary and pancreatic ducts, explore deep in the liver to visualize the disease, obtain tissue for diagnosis and provide effective treatment at the same time.

“This is an immense improvement on the earlier method of ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography). In the earlier system, doctors were often confused about biliary problems to properly diagnose cancer or non-cancerous conditions like Tuberculosis or Lymphoma,” he said adding “on many occasions patients were subjected to unnecessary surgeries.”

This technology, Dr. Sahu said, could very accurately diagnose the problem and help the doctor plan the best treatment for the patient. “Stones of any size and number inside the bile ducts can be crushed by Spyglass laser and removed completely. In some cases of very advanced pancreato-biliary malignancy, it provided good palliative treatment so as to improve the quality of life of the patient.

“We aim to provide patients world class treatment in SUM Hospital at affordable cost who would not require to travel to big cities for treatment”, he said.

Expressing happiness over such technology being acquired by the SUM Hospital, the minister said many modern technology was now available in this hospital extending great opportunities to patients for getting treated. Dr. Sahu explained to the minister the different facilities available in the Gastroenterology department.

Prof. Gangadhar Sahu, Dean of IMS and SUM Hospital, Dr. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent, professors, faculty members and doctors welcomed the minister. IMS and SUM Hospital is a constituent of the SOA (Deemed to be University).

EMINENT NEUROSURGEON FROM SOA HONOURED

Renowned neuro-surgeon Prof. Sureswar Mohanty, presently professor and head of Neurosurgery department at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital run by SOA University here, has been presented the Education Expo TV CRS honours at its 2^nd Academic Brand Awards after being chosen the best researcher and best  director  for 2017.

Prof. Mohanty received the awards at a function held in New Delhi on Sunday.

Recipient of four national awards earlier, Prof. Mohanty had done his M.Ch. at AIIMs, New Delhi after which he underwent advanced training at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London.

With more than 200 publications to his credit, Prof. Mohanty served as Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Institute of Medical Sciences under Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi for 33 years.

He has already received national awards instituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Medical Council of India (MCI), Neurological Society of India (NSI) and National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) for his research work. He had visited reputed institutions including the Institute of Neurosurgery, London, Burdenko Institute, Moscow and Cleveland Clinic, USA as a visiting professor.

Prof. Mohanty had also been conferred with the lifetime achievement award by the Uttar Pradesh government and the Uttarakhand Neuroscience Society.

LEPROSY ERADICATION SUCCESSFUL IN MOST STATES: DGHS

Bhubaneswar,  Oct. 28: Efforts of the government to eradicate leprosy had been largely successful in most states though the problem persisted in the states of Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand besides the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the Director General of Health Services, Prof. Jagdish Prasad said on Saturday.

“The government has launched a door to door campaign to identify leprosy cases and 40,000 cases had been detected after health workers had visited 40 crore houses in these identified areas,” he said while delivering a public lecture on ‘National Health Programmes’ at the SOA University here.

“In Odisha, 5100 new cases had been identified,” he said.

Prof. Prasad, a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, said Odisha, along with Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Meghalaya, accounted for 80 per cent of malaria cases even as the government had drawn up a plan to eliminate the vector-borne disease in the country by 2025.

“Odisha accounts for 40 per cent of the malaria cases and we aim to reduce the incidence in the country by one-third this year,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of the SOA University, Prof. Amit Banerjee presided over the meeting attended by professors, teachers and students of the faculties of medical and dental sciences in the university. The Dean of the faculty of medical sciences, Prof. Gangadhar Sahu also addressed the gathering.

Pointing out that diabetes, hypertension, stroke, chronic obstructive lung disease and cancer were the five non-communicable ailments that accounted for around 60 per cent of deaths in the world, Prof. Prasad said most of these diseases could be kept at arm’s length only through healthy habits and lifestyle.

“Regular exercise, yoga and abstinence from smoking and alcohol could help a person to avoid such non-communicable diseases,” he said.

Prof Prasad said the government, in consultation with the Medical Council of India (MCI), was taking steps to revise the syllabus of the MBBS course to ensure that students did not require to study in great detail many aspects of medical science in which they could specialize subsequently.

“The new syllabus may be ready in another one and half years,” he said.

“What is the need to teach a student at MBBS level ten different surgeries when all they need is to acquire a good knowledge as to how to treat common diseases,” he said while urging students to take great care in studying the subjects of anatomy, physiology and pathology for a strong foundation.

Interacting with the doctors and faculty members, Prof. Prasad said the issue of antibiotic resistance was a raging topic world over and the government had requested MCI to make it mandatory for every medical college to have a pharmacovigilance committee to monitor use of antibiotics.

“Antibiotic resistance is worse than cancer as it cannot be treated and will kill,” he said.