From the Desk of Secretary General, FOGSI Dr. Madhuri Patel
Dear FOGSIans,
Compliments of the season!!!
I wish you a very happy, successful, and inspiring 2024. It is indeed an Honour to be the Secretary General of the most vibrant organisation of obstetricians and gynecologists. My sincere gratitude to everyone who has contributed in grooming FOGSI, what it is today. As 2023 ends and New Year begins, I must admit that we have accomplished a lot together, this is exactly the focus of FOGSI, bringing people together, giving them a vision and platform to serve for the women’s health. We know that collective efforts give a better result than individual efforts. FOGSI has effectively evolved as the most influential voice in both the national and international arena. I express my sincere gratitude to all my predecessors who led FOGSI to this pinnacle. It goes without saying that dedicated leadership and encouraging members of FOGSI have contributed immensely in the success of the Federation. I believe that with concern in our thoughts and determination in our actions, we will positively accomplish FOGSI’s Mission and promote our Vision.
Updates from FOGSI office.
Membership:
The membership management system is dynamic. It gets updated throughout the year. Now the members can update and verify their data independently as demonstrated on the FOGSI website. There are two levels of access, one by the members on member.fogsi.org and another by the FOGSI office. If there are problems in updating his /her data, he /she can contact the FOGSI office. Updating the member data is very important for E voting. Currently, we have 270 member bodies, 57 A category, 129 B category and 84 C category. In December 2022, the total membership strength of FOGSI was 39,607. In September 2023 that is within nine months, there was a massive jump of 2,110 new members as a result the strength of the membership increased to 41,717. In December 2023 that is within three months there was again a massive jump of around 1,294 new members, hence today our membership strength is 43,011.
Election process of FOGSI:
We had the election in the month of August onwards. The entire election process went very smoothly. We have further improvised the voting procedure by introducing general and unique links for the members. There were 28,754 eligible voters in 2023, out of which 17,674 voted, it means 61.47% voting. We need to reach the 100% mark, I am sure it is possible.
FOGSI Professional Indemnity Policy:
FOGSI professional indemnity scheme is with ICICI LOMBARD and we have partnered with Cover You as a third party. The FOGSI professional indemnity scheme with Cover You began in June 2020. So far, we have 11,587 members out of which 6059 new members and 5528 members who have renewed their scheme.
FOGSI Social Security Scheme:
The nominee of SSS member receives a fund on the demise of SSS member. An online enrollment application with a new email address, [email protected] has been started. We have added G-Pay so that members who are hesitant to pay Rs. 300/ DFC by other gateways can do it directly, their name confirmation will be received by the bank. We encourage people to use G-Pay for payments. QR code is displayed on the FOGSI’s website in the membership tab under SSS scheme. Till today we have 1,670 SSS members.
SMS :
We are aware that SMS messages are extremely effective to remain in touch with each other. AICOG receives 30 SMS per year free from FOGSI. No individual would be named in the SMS, only the conference’s emails/contact information are mentioned. This year we have sent 26,11,853 SMS that is approximately 3 lakhs SMS per month.
FOGSI Website:
FOGSI website which can be visited by logging www.fogsi.org. It contains all the information which a member can avail on a single click. If any information that the member desires is not found on the website I request them to contact the FOGSI office we are now in process of making FOGSINET (FOGSI NETWORK SITE + APP). This will help our members to build the business, it will be the country’s largest database of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians.
Social Media :
FOGSI is live on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkdin, Instagram, and Google Business. They are all functional.
FOGSI Premises:
Our second floor premise is for IT/ITES use. After a lot of efforts, we could procure the certificate from the appropriate authority for the IT/ITES use for three years. We have updated the premise and made it functional with a new look. This enabled us to conduct the FOGSI MCM and AGM September 2023 smoothly, thus we could avoid the hotel expenditure, a huge saving of FOGSI funds.
JOGI:
JOGI our bimonthly journal is performing very well, it is available in digital as well as in printed forms. The printed journals are distributed to all our 43,011 members free of cost. This year we have published and printed six regular issues of which one was theme based on “Infertility”. Along with these six issues, two online supplements were published, one of original articles and the another of mixed bag. We have four pages dedicated to FOGSI’s important information for members. I thank and congratulate the Editor in Chief, Dr. Geetha Balsarkar, the entire Editorial Board, National Corresponding Editors and Peer Reviewers for the success of the mouthpiece of FOGSI.
ICOG:
ICOG is an academic wing of FOGSI, it has 179 members and 2,224 fellows. It has certificate courses for six months in Reproductive Medicine, Gynaecological Endoscopy, Fetal Medicine, Ultrasound, Vaginal Surgery and Critical Care in Obstetrics. Dr. Laxmi Shrikhande, chairperson of ICOG has started a web series that has been running since December 2022, that is 13 months and has so far completed approximately 100 webinars. Dr. Laxmi Shrikhande and myself are trying for ICOG to be recognised by NMC, If this happens then it will be the best thing to happen for all our future ICOG activities.
Training:
We have basic and advanced training centres under which for Ultrasound Training (Basic is for seven days & advance is for 14 days), Endoscopy Training( Basic is for seven days and advance is for 14 days), Colposcopy Training( Two to three days) and Infertility Training( IUI & Stimulation Protocol , (Basic for seven days and advance for 14 days). Training centres are informed that they should not use the FOGSI logo because it is a trademark and may cause legal problems. Only one doctor’s name would be printed on the certificate, followed by the institution, and in case two doctors are there then the other doctor will be considered as faculty.
I extend my gratitude to my mentor Prof. C. N. Purandare, and would also like to thank Dr. Sanjay Gupte, Dr. Kamal Deshmukh, Dr. P. K. Shah, Dr. Alka Kriplani, Dr. Krishnendu Gupta, Dr. Sadhana Desai, Dr. Usha Saraiya, Dr. Sita Tilwani, Dr. Alpesh Gandhi, Dr. Shantha Kumari, Dr. Hrishikesh D. Pai, Dr. Jaydeep Tank, and my current office bearers, especially Dr. Suvarna Khadilkar, Dr. Parikshit Tank and Dr. Niranjan Chavan. I am glad that my office bearers, our members throughout India, and my staff make up a powerful team as we start this New Year together. I sincerely appreciate their dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work. I hope that FOGSI will be more successful in the upcoming year which can only be accomplished with the support and cooperation of all of our members. I pray to God to guide me in my journey led by the distinguished lineage of our past leaders.
Warm Regards
Dr. Madhuri Patel
Secretary General, FOGSI
