Indian Academy Of Pediatrics     Pediatric Advanced Life Support

History of IAP PALS Courses

IAP PALS Courses started by a group constituted of Dr. Y.K. Amdekar, Dr. Swati Bhave, Dr. Deepak Ugra and Dr. Ashutosh Patel in 1992 under the guidance of Dr. Surpure from USA. The present IAP PALS Course started in 1994 under the guidance of Dr. Natesan Janakiraman along with a team of trainers from USA. He helped conducting the first ever well constructed IAP PALS Course to train initial bunch of IAP members. Dr. Sunit Singhi, Dr. Swati Bhave, Dr. P. Nalini, Dr. K.G. Kamla and Dr. Lalitha Janakiraman took it forward to various places in India in initial years. This team along with other trained Instructors from initial batch conducted IAP PALS Courses with the only set of equipments available to them till Dr. Uday Bodhankar helped IAP get five sets of PALS equipments as donation from AAP to IAP through Dr. D. Vidyasagar in 1999.

The structure of IAP PALS Office Bearers at that time was International Advisors, National Convener and Zonal Coordinators. The five sets of equipments were distributed amongst five Zonal Coordinators. The group was functioning independently. The beginning of IAP PALS Courses was slow but steady. The numbers grew from mere three to four per year to over fifty annually over last few years. West, South and North Zones have excelled right from the beginning. The Central Zone has picked up lately under the guidance of Dr. C.P. Bansal and Dr. Arif Ahmed. We need to put some efforts in East Zone. The group has maintained its discipline and standard over years.

Initially Zonal Coordinator with the help of National Coordinator was maintaining equipments from the savings from courses that was contributed towards maintaining equipments. In the year 2005 under the guidance of then President IAP Dr. Raju C. Shah the IAP PALS Courses were taken under IAP Executive Board and for the first time the accounts were shifted to IAP Secretariat. It was decided that the group will function as a Central IAP activity, and shall be working with close coordination with the President and the Secretary General of the Central IAP. It was decided that the financial requirements of the group shall be directly taken care by the central IAP.

In the year 2005 for the first time IAP PALS courses were given a loan of Rs. 14 lacs to buy new equipments. The loan was paid back to the IAP Secretariat from the savings of courses within allotted time. IAP PALS Courses West Zone contributed a huge sum of funds over and above the equipments maintenance fees. Thereafter, whenever funds are required IAP Secretariat give the loan to IAP PALS Courses and it is returned from equipments maintenance fees.

IAP PALS Course quality is maintained over years. It is due to hard work put in by all Advisors, National Conveners and other Office Bearers of the group. An IAP PALS Update is conducted once in five years to make necessary changes in teaching schedule, contents etc. The updates were conducted in years 2000, 2005 and 2010. Each update is followed by training of Instructors for incorporated changes. The update of 2005 was very important. The changes made in this update give a chance for all participants to play a role of a lead. Dr. Anand Shandilya, Dr. Rajesh Chokhani, Dr. Bhavesh Mithiya and Dr. Suhas Kulkarni played crucial role in this update.

The present structure of IAP PALS Office Bearers is International Advisors, National     advisors, National Convener, Joint National Convener, Zonal Coordinators, Joint Zonal Coordinators, Equipment Masters and State Coordinators. In addition there are National Advisors. The past National Conveners constitute National Advisors. They help in scientific update of the course from time to time. IAP PALS Course has many brilliant minds who work to keep up the quality of the course and have innovative ideas. One such Instructor is Dr. Sukhmeet Singh, who has also contributed in various updates.

Recently, two more important decisions were taken at Execuitve Board Meeting held at Jaipur in January 2011. The first was to start official news bulletin of IAP PALS Courses (BEATS) and second was to start its own website. The BEATS is started from our own IAP Publication House for national publications at Gwalior under the editorship of Dr. Rashmi Gupta with inputs from Dr. Sushma Nangia. The website has also taken its shape. Members can visit IAP PALS Courses website at www.pals.iapindia.org. Dr. C.P. Bansal has been instrumental in completing this task in a very short time. It is important to mention here the contribution from Dr. Amit Shah in developing this website. 

 
Dr. Natesan Janakiraman is the International Advisor right from inception of present IAP PALS Course in 1994. Presently Dr. Ramesh Sachdev is also our International Advisor. Dr. Sunit Singhi was the first National Convener of IAP PALS Courses followed by Dr. Swati Bhave, Dr. P. Nalini, Dr. Lalitha Janakiraman, Dr. Sanjiv Lewin, Dr. Deepak Ugra, Dr. Anand Shandilya, and Dr. Janani Sankar. Dr. L.N. Taneja is the present National Convener. Dr. Taneja has played a very important role in bringing in required changes in present IAP PALS Course material and administration. The group under the convenership of Dr. L.N. Taneja has already planned IAP PALS Updates in all zones.

I am sure that IAP PALS Courses will continue to be the most structured disciplined and popular academic activity of Indian Academy of Pediatrics for years to come. I wish Dr. L.N. Taneja, the present National Convener and his team all the best for the year 2012.

dr. deepak ugra, MD

Consultant Pediatrician, Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai

National Nodal Person, MRCPCH, India, 2010 - 2012

President, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, 2010

National Coordinator, IAP Quiz for Post Graduates, 2008

National Coordinator, IAP Quiz for Practicing Pediatricians, 2006 - 2007

Honorary Secretary General, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, 2006 - 2007

National Convener, IAP PALS Courses, 2005 - 2006