HISTORY OF IRA STATE CHAPTER

The state chapter of IRA was born in June 2007 with the support of five founding members: Dr Bidyut K Das, Dr Bijay Kumar Mishra, Dr Bharat Panigrahy, Dr B N Mohanty and Dr J P Das. The founding President of the association was Dr Bidyut Das. In Eastern India this was the third after West Bengal and Assam Chapters. Rheumatology was in a nascent stage and not many doctors knew about the scope and ramification of the subject. This was true across the country and very few medical colleges in the country taught rheumatology to the under graduates or post graduates.

Under this context the IRA chapter was created to spread awareness of the subject among the medical fraternity and the people across the state to enable them to benefit from disorders that needed specialised attention. A membership drive was initiated, and currently we have 182 life members who are part of the growing family of rheumatology fraternity in the state. The association has been holding regular CMEs, conferences, symposia and inviting eminent national speakers to grace the occasions at different points of time. It holds annual conferences in December and CMEs in various districts. The state chapter has been a host to four East Zone Rheumatologists’ conferences between 2007 to 2023, called EZRACON, which has increased the bonding between the rheumatologists in the Eastern states of the country like West Bengal, Odisha North -Eastern states, Jharkhand and Bihar. It also had the honour and privilege to host the national conference, IRACON in 2010, for the first time, at Bhubaneswar, under the guidance of Dr Bidyut Das as Organising Secretary.

The state chapter has come a long way since its inception in 2007. Many of its members have brought national and international laurels in scientific conferences. Odisha is witnessing a great movement in rheumatology with the help of the state chapter. Every nook and corner of the state has been pervaded by an awareness of the subject and the people are benefiting from this new specialty, and the state IRA is on the path of excellence.