Indian Association of Pathologists & Microbiologists - Maharashtra Chapter

The Journey of MAPCON : 1979-2012
Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (IAPM), founded in 1949, meets every year to conduct scientific deliberations and exchange of scientific information. As the number of members of the delegates attending the meeting increased substantially, it was thought better to have regional chapters, in addition to the annual meet. A suitable amendment was added to the constitution of the IAPM- item 4 of byelaws. Dr. K. D. Sharma, the then president of the IAPM, took the lead in our state and requested Drs. Subhash Kelkar, B. R. Solanki and S. R. Patil to organize a meeting at Aurangabad. This was the beginning of Maharashtra state chapter of IAPM later designated as MAPCON. The state and union territory of Goa joined us subsequently.

The main purpose of starting the state [regional activity was to give forum or a platform for young pathologists to present their scientific data. There was overwhelming enthusiasm in this respect. We had to resolve that only one paper per institution would be accepted for presentation. In addition, there were guest lectures, occasional seminars. Thus the programmed was quite compact. In 1986, we started slide seminar and immediately it became 'hit'. Five slides from each four with diagnosis and one for discussion) Institution were pooled and circulated to all, This was a valuable scientific material for all post graduates to see any time of the year. The discussion on slides was indeed very informative.