WALTHAM, MA—In a major move that may force other medical organizations to include podiatrists as their full members with voting rights, the Indian Medical Association of New England (IMANE) has changed its bylaws to accept podiatrists as the full and voting members of the organization. IMANE is one of the nation’s oldest medical organizations of the physicians of Indian origin.
After IMANE bylaws were changed late last year, Podiatrist Deepa Jhaveri has joined IMANE as a full member. In addition, she has been also elected as treasurer of IMANE.
“I am humbled and excited to be involved in a leadership role as treasurer with the Executive Committee at IMANE,” Jhaveri told INDIA New England News. “I hope to help expand IMANE and make it a stronger organization for networking and social causes in the New England area. I would like to thank my IMANE family for their unconditional love and support and the IMANE leadership including Saras Muppana, Pramod Shah, Dhrumil Shah and past presidents Sapna Aggarwal and Geeta Trivedi and last but not not the least, my dear friend Manju Sheth.”
Dr. Pramod Shah, Chair of the Board of Trustees of IMANE, said podiatrists play an important role in the medical world.
“Dentists are full members of IMANE and are voting members and can hold the positions of leadership. Like medical doctors, podiatrists can be members of the medical staff,” said Dr. Shah. “They (podiatrists) have privileges to consult on the inpatients and operate on the patients like other surgical specialists depending on their training and expertise.”
Dr. Saraswathi Muppana, outgoing president of IMANE said that in the quest of being an inclusive organization, that after the process of IMANE general body meeting and voting, IMANE membership has voted to add podiatry as a specialty along with MD and MDS to be able to hold office/ leadership positions and the right to vote.
“All along MD, DO and DDS were active members. During our annual general body meeting the majority agreed for the inclusiveness of podiatry, all membership were given the opportunity for voting after which the results were announced in favor of including Podiatry as an active member of IMANE where in they can serve in leadership positions and also have the right to vote,” Dr. Muppana told INDIA New England News. “Podiatry students can join young student section and be involved in the medical community. I am pleased that we were able to accomplish this during my presidency year of IMANE 2019. We feel very proud and pleased that we could make this milestone addition happen this year 2019, and our first DPM, Podiatrist to serve on Executive committee is Deepa Jhaveri, DPM.”
Jhaveri grew up in Mumbai and came to the United States for her undergraduate education. She did her undergraduate degree at University of Maryland and continued her podiatric medical school at Temple Univerity in Philadelphia and then residency at Plantation General Hospital in Florida.
Jhaveri has been in private practice and is now credentialed and works at Beth-Israel Lahey Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She has been actively involved with IMANE for over 15 years. She was one of the founding members of the Young Physicians Society (YPS) and co-chaired the IMANE Women’s Forum.
Dr. Manju Sheth, a former IMANE President who had worked with Jhaveri on Women’s Forum, said it was a good idea to include podiatry.
“I want to congratulate Dr. Deepa Jhaveri for her new role as treasurer of IMANE. I have had the good fortune of working with her for many years as Co-Chair of Woman’s Forum and have always been impressed with her vision, rationality and leadership skills,” said Dr. Sheth. “She is also a very good friend so I am thrilled on a personal level to see her growth and commitment to serve the community. I also want to thank Dr. Saraswathi Muppana for her excellent leadership and wish Dr. Dhrumil Shah and his committee all the best for future.”
Dr. Shah is new president of IMANE whose one-year term began on Jan. 1.
“Congratulations to all of us and especially Deepa for your years of contributions to be acknowledged and respected by all,” said Dr. Shah. “We look forward to furthering our organizational mission to foster the values of inclusiveness, diversity, collaboration & creativity.”
President-elect is Akash Patel and Secretary is Dr. Seema Gupta.
IMANE’s Members at Large are: Geeta Trivedi, Mohini Malhotra, Shilha Merchia, Sonali Khond and Paul Mathew. Members of the Board of Trustees are: Pramod Shah, Rajendra Trivedi, Vikas Desai, Kishor Mehta, and Ashol Joshi.Devila Shah was elected Chair of the Nominating Committee and Pramod Shah as Chair of ByLaws Committee. Pooja Chandrashekhar was elected YPS representative.
“It’s great to have podiatrists be able to join leadership team in IMANE with this bylaws change,” said former IMANE President Dr. Sapna Agarwal. “This is a new beginning for IMANE. I am hoping many medical organizations will notice and make changes as well by including podiatrists in the executive positions.”
