The first Regional Meeting of GAPI this year was held on October 12, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia at Legends Club. Under the leadership of current GAPI president, Dr. Hemant Yagnick, this regional meeting is the first one of the five planned meetings this year. The purpose of this is to showcase the Regional Leader and Board of Director and the local team’s organizational capabilities to bring in the local GAPI member physicians, medical vendors and local leaders together one evening to get updates on medical issues, regulations and local issues. These meetings will occasionally showcase many medical vendors and sponsors who support the GAPI mission and fundraising goals.

The organizing committee for Augusta meeting this year was headed by Dr. Hemant Yagnick, supported by current Secretary Dr. Tarak Patel, Past GAPI President Dr. Vijay Maurya, Past BOD Dr. Varsha Kulkarni, current BOD Dr. Chetan Patel, Dr. Prabhakar Battu and Dr. Sarita Sharma,. The Event Chair was Dr. Vishal Sharma, for this year‘s meeting. He opened the meeting with welcoming the Chief Guest, Dr. Sudhakar Jonalgadda, President Elect of AAPI this year and current GAPI EC and BOD members. Attending the meeting were President Elect Dr. Chandana Prabhudev, Past President Dr. Syamala Erramilli, current BODs Dr. Uma Jonnalagadda, Lalitha Medepalli, Dr. Rani Reddy, Dr. Annapurna Bhat among other guests. More than 90 physicians and their spouses attending the meeting this year. After the welcome address by Dr. Vishal Sharma he introduced Dr. Hemant Yagnick, the current president of GAPI who addressed the gathering with the mission of the organization, history and current goals of increasing membership ranks, strengthening the organization by improving communication and putting GAPI back into a position of financial strength this year. He detailed the charitable work including health fairs, free clinics in Atlanta and Augusta attended by GAPI physicians and charitable activities for breast and colon cancer research, women empowerment, cardiovascular diseases and many such community activities over last several months. GAPI has also provided scholarships to seven college going students for $1500 each this year.

He invited Dr. Sudhakar Jonalgadda, to speak next as the President-Elect of AAPI. He detailed the current updates in the upcoming CME tours taken by AAPI and his goals for next year when he takes over as the President of AAPI. He also introduced some current AAPI members who are the leaders of their respective state chapters and vying for positions in the upcoming up elections. In attendance were Dr. Raj Bhayani from NY/NJ, and Dr. Amit Chakraborty from St. Louis, who are running for Secretary of AAPI and Dr. Anjana Sammadar contesting for Vice President of AAPI this year. Dr. Raghu Lolabattu, AAPI Alumni Chair spoke about his role afterward and encouraged more participation in membership for GAPI and AAPI to local physicians. He’s also contesting for AAPI board of trustees this year. This was followed by a presentation on Hospitalists; an update by Dr. Chetan Patel, current BOD of GAPI, it was very well received. Dr. Vamsi Kota, presented next on CAR-T cells and CRISPR, the future of medicine, which is a very new and promising area in medicine. Sponsored talks by 27th Investments, American Allergies, Prior2IPO and Legally Mine followed for the next part of the meeting.

Dr. Chandana Prabhudev, President-Elect of GAPI also addressed the gathering and asked everyone to continue and increase their support for GAPI this and next year. Dr. Tarak Patel helped conclude the academic part by asking  Dr. Vijay Maurya, Past President to hand over the certificates of appreciation to the young volunteers for the meeting. He also did the vote of thanks to all the attendees, vendors and guests. The end of the evening was with dinner and musical program by Dr. Amit Chakraborty, Sapna and friends ably supported by DJ Thomas. In the end, thanking everyone Dr. Yagnick announced the GAPI Annual Meeting will be held in Augusta on May 9th, 2020 and asking everyone in GAPI to join and make the event a grand success. This concluded the regional meeting in Augusta with a satisfying note with plans to meet again next year after serving the community with educational, organizational and charitable goals this year.