Dear Colleagues,

As you are aware, the IRA’s flagship academic event, the 39th Annual Conference for the IRA, IRACON is scheduled to be held from 21st to 24th November at Bengaluru. The organizing team is working hard to bring you a mix of unmatched scientific content and smooth logistics. Please visit IRACON 2024 – Bengaluru (iraconbengaluru24.com) for more details. 

The IRA would be putting up an “IRA stall” at the APLAR congress to be held at Singapore later this month. This international event will see a substantial Indian representation with many of our trainees supported by the IRA travel grants showcasing their research. I hope to share some photographs and details of the IRA Stall in the next volume.  

The IRA’s webinar series “IRA eConnect 2024-2025” continues to grow from strength to strength with your support. Its third installment termed “Grand Rounds in Rheumatology’ with Dr Nigel Haroon (Canada) and Dr Bimlesh Dhar Pandey as expert faculty was held on 2nd August 2024 and was hugely popular. 

The IRA strives to support rapid progress in all areas of rheumatology including clinical care and research. A limited number of travel grants is available for rheumatology trainees or IRA members below 40 years of age who have their abstracts accepted at conferences abroad. 

As a member of the IRA, you can apply for funding for your research. Please visit GRANTS (indianrheumatology.org) for more details and to apply. To propagate the awareness of rheumatic diseases among UGs and postgraduate trainees, IRA’s support is available for our members who wish to organize IRA UG-PG Rheumatology CME in teaching institutions. 

Please keep visiting the Indian Journal of Rheumatology: Sage Journals (sagepub.com) to read interesting articles. Please do consider the Indian Journal of Rheumatology which is the official organ of the IRA for your next submission. 

As a stakeholder, your views are very important. Please mail me your suggestions and queries at secretary@indianrheumatology.org. 

Best wishes