AAPI partners Indian medical students in organizing huge virtual conference

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Web Medquest held a virtual conference, including keynote speeches, workshops, Medical MUN Case/Paper presentations, and literary and cultural events, from May 15-18, 2020, in partnership with the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI. It was attended by over 12,000 participants from India, the United States and from around the world.

The meet was organized by four medical undergraduate students – Shubham Anand, Snigdha Sharma, Shubhika Jain and Samarth Goyal, according to a press release.

“Web Medquest is India’s first and biggest online medical conference conducted in India with over 12,000 registrations including undergraduates, interns and postgraduates,” said Anand, the Organizing Chairman, of the meet.

The webinars also consisted of UNESCO Bioethics seminar, USMLE/PLAB orientation and an enlightening seminar on “Mental health and productivity during quarantine.”

Dr. Suresh Reddy, President of AAPI, in his keynote address, spoke about “Atychiphobia and Serendipity.”

Quoting from world renowned leaders, he spoke about the “Fear of Failure Phobia.” He said, “Normal amount of doubt regarding success in certain project, relationships or examinations is usually present in most people. However, when the fear of failure takes on an extreme form then it is termed as Atychiphobia,” he said.

Dr. Ravi Kolli, Secretary of AAPI and a Board Certified Psychiatrist, in his address, highlighted the challenges the medical students are facing at the very crucial stage of their psycho social and brain development and how it can negatively affect them. He explained the scientific rationale and the benefits of various coping mechanisms including, mindfulness cultivating optimism, emotional intelligence, yoga, exercise proper nutrition, sleep hygiene as well as value of  social connections and  gratitude and spirituality in combating the harmful effects of chronic stress and challenges.

“I am proud to have the younger generation as mentor,” said Dr. Lokesh Edara, a keynote speaker and Chair of AAPI’s Education Committee. “Shubham Anand is a mentor to us on how to conduct a webmedquest.”

Lauding the creativity and the organizing skills of medical students from India, he said, “Students in India are brilliant and they are lucky to excellent faculty. We need some changes in medical education. These debates will result in change in medical education so every doctor nurse paramedics in India graduate equal to the ones in the US and other developed countries.”

On “Overcoming the Fear of Failure” Dr. Reddy suggested that “Some simple things you can do that will make you become more comfortable with risk-taking.  To make a breakthrough you have to be willing to make mistakes.”

He added: “Make as many mistakes as you need to learn. Failure is a strengthening process. Success is going from ‘Failure to Failure’ with great enthusiasm. Make Failure Respectable. There is no sure thing as ‘failure.’ It is only an event on the learning curve –  unless you do not learn from the event.”