While inaurgating the conference Dr. Surya Kanta Mishra, the Minister for Health & Family Welfare stressed on initiating a “ Perfect Partnership” between doctors, caregivers and public at large to tackle the problems of the disease.Topics for the platform presentation included Genetics of AD, Human Memory, Neuropathology of Dementia, Understanding Vascular Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Neuro imagining in AD. Besides, Treatment challenges in Dementia, Barefoot Approach to causes and Cures of AD, Management Tips to caregivers, Ethics and Dementia and Creating Awareness of the public was presented. A special session was presented by the city doctors on their work with Dementia Study in Kolkata.

The panel of international speakers included Dr. P M Doraiswamy, Chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, USA, Professor Martin Rossor from Institute of Neurology, London, Dr. Tamitagama, Founder/President of Alzheimer and Related Disorder Foundation, Sri Lanka, Dr. Edwin Yu, President Alzheimer Association, Hongkong and Ms. Dianna Kerr from the Unversity of Stirling, UK.
The national experts included Dr. S K Shankar, Professor & Head from NIMHANS, Bangalore, Dr. S M Katrak, Neurologist from Jaslok Hospital & Research Center, Mumbai, Dr. Ambar Chakraborty, Professor & Head Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Kolkata, Dr. Trishit Roy, Professor & Head from Bangur institute of Neurology, Kolkata, Dr. S Kalyansundaram, Secretary, The Richmond Fellowship Society, Dr. Manjari Tripathi, Assistant Professor of Neurology, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr. P S Mathuranath from Cognition & Behavioral Neurology center and of course our Chairman from ARDSI National Office, Dr. Jacob Roy with eminent others.

Around 302 delegates attended the two-day conference from all over the country and abroad. A large number of carers and students also attended.
The “Public Forum” at the end of the Conference was designed to facilitate families and professionals to learn from each other on how best to care for elders with Alzheimer’s Disease. Various issues like policies of the elderly to practical aspects of caring to Aging as a health care challenge and medico-legal issues were addressed.

There are an estimated 18 million people with dementia worldwide and these figures are projected to reach 34 million by the year 2025. It is also predicted that by 2025, 75 % of the world’s dementia population will lie in the developing countries alone. India’s community is aging which means that the number of people with Alzheimer and related dementias is also on the rise. Currently we have an estimated 4 million affected victims. It is also shocking to note that West Bengal has about forty lakh elderly people over 65 years with 80, 000 of them suffering from Dementia. Kolkata itself has about 46,000 dementia patients.

The ARDSI Conference is a unique forum for professionals and carers to meet and interact. This conference achieved all its goals in that respect. The organization and the scientific programme were greatly appreciated by all those who attended. We also had the opportunity to have Mr. Jogesh Dutta, the renowned mime artiste who gave us a wonderful performance on the 1st evening.

The organizers are grateful to all who had supported the conference to make it a grand success.

Nilanjana Maulik, Secretary
ARDSI, Kolkata