The School of Medical Sciences and its attached centres hosted Dr.Meena Chintapally an eminent developmental paediatrician who straddles the United States and India for a guest lecture which was held on 24th January 2023 at the Sir C.V.Raman Auditorium, Science Complex, UoH.
Dr Meena Chintapally is a clinical Adjunct professor at University Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio and has vast clinical experience in treating children with Neurodevelopmental disorders. She has several honours to her credit and has won accolades for her book entitled “Early Brain Sprouts from States to Traits” which serves as a guide to parents and public. Her more recent book entitled “Raising a Healthy Child: Universal Nurturing Techniques to Overcome Adverse Childhood Experiences, Child Trauma, and Behaviour Disorders” has also won a lot of accolades for the simple way it conveys the rearing practices.
Her talk centred around the “First 1000 Days” which refers to the period that begins with pregnancy planning and goes up to when the child reaches his or her second birthday. She conveyed how this period of rapid and accelerated physical and mental growth is very important and therefore offers a unique opportunity to build lifelong health and intelligence. She said that the early interaction and contact with the care giver and care takers are so very critical to make a difference to the rest of the baby’s life. Dr.Chintapally also alluded to the holistic perspective including the spiritual angle in addition to the social, behavioural and clinical angle. Her talk very lucidly highlighted the importance of the same through clinical case scenarios and personal experience of Dr Meena Chintapally.
While welcoming the speaker Dean, Prof Geeta K Vemuganti also conveyed that Dr. Meena has an “umbilical cord” attached to the University through her illustrious past VC Prof. B.H.Krishnamurthy.
Prof. Ramesh Kumar Mishra, Head, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences gave his perspective while Prof. Shamanna introduced the speaker. Close to 80 faculty current and retired, students and scholars as well as invited guests from Apollo hospital and MNR Medical College and private medical practitioners actively interacted with Dr. Chintapally.