Belgaum: The inaugural programme of the 23rd Annual National Conference-2005 of the Indian Society for Medical Statistics (ISMS) began here on Friday with speakers stressing the need for innovative approaches to make Medical Statistics a special discipline. The theme of the conference is "Bio-statistics in medicine: challenges and opportunities".

ISMS President Babu L. Verma called for concerted efforts by the society to motivate the Union and State governments and the Medical Council of India to make Medical Statistics a speciality subject.

He said adequate importance is not being given to bio-statistics. Quality of teaching is unsatisfactory. Questions on the subject in examinations are set by Community Medicine teachers. Bio-statistics teachers are not eligible to be appointed as examiners for the MBBS, MD, MS and diploma courses, he added.

The KLE Society's J.N. Medical College has organised the three-day conference under the auspices of the Indian Council of Medical Research and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.

In the absence of KLES Chairman Prabhakar Kore, MLC, KLES Hospital Medical Director M.V. Jali presided over the inaugural function. JNMC Principal V.D. Patil highlighted the historical role of KLES in the field of education. Vice-Chancellor of the Visvesvaraya Technological University K. Balaveera Reddy, who inaugurated the conference, said research should be improved and technological aids made use of.

Dr. Balaveera Reddy said there should be synergy between engineering and medical sciences.

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