GAPI Officials

Atlanta CGI Hon Ajit Kumar.

Atlanta’s well known and respected Gastroenterologist and GAPI Treasurer, and the event coordinator, Dr.Indran Indrakrishnan graciously welcomed Hon.Ajit Kumar who during the social hour, intermingled with the attendees and enjoyed the tasty snacks.
Dr.Indrakrishnan extended a warm welcome to all the attendees and recognized the past GAPI Presidents for their dedicated work to bring the GAPI to its present state and the featured speakers, attorneys Scott Commander and Jeff Segal MD JD.
GAPI President Dr.Dilip Patel spoke about GAPI’s history and its evolution from a social networking group to a vibrant Organization with over a thousand members playing a commendable role in deserving charitable causes, community service and education over the past 25 years.
Dr. Indrakrishnan introduced the first speaker, Scott Commander, an experienced trial attorney who specializes in the trial of complex medical malpractice cases. He spoke on the topic of "How to Reduce Your Risk of Being Sued." In a compelling speech, he addressed the Four C's of Risk Management: Compassion, Communication, Competency and Charting. He also drew on his past experience as a plaintiff's medical malpractice lawyer and gave the GAPI audience a view from the perspective of the patient considering the decision to sue for malpractice, attempting to dispel some of the myths about medical malpractice lawsuits.



Dr.Indrakrishnan then introduced the second speaker, Jeff Segal MD JD, an attorney & a neurosurgeon, who has established himself as one of the country’s leading authorities on medical malpractice and on online defamation of doctors. In his riveting speech, he first addressed frivolous lawsuits and explained what tools can be used to address them. Then he switched the presentation to the explosive emergence of online reviews of physicians; the challenges; and what can be done to level the playing field. Online reviews by patients are often anonymous. Doctors are foreclosed from responding because of HIPAA. And the average rating site only has 3-4 reviews per doctor; hardly representative of the doctor’s practice. Amidst resounding applause Dr.Indrakrishnan presented appreciation plaques to both the esteemed speakers.
The Chief Guest, Hon Ajit Kumar, Consul General of India in Atlanta,was introduced by Dr.Indrakrishnan. who has arrived in Atlanta from Germany, where he served as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 2007 to 2011.

Consul-General Ajit Kumar complemented GAPI for their several voluntary activities and wished them success for all their future endeavours. He spoke of the remarkable transformation in the last decade in the Indo-US strategic relations. He lauded the Indian- American community for being a vital bridge and catalyst in strengthening the Indo-US relations. He elaborated that Indo-US relations have become increasingly multi-faceted covering cooperation in several areas such as trade and economic, defence and security, education, science and technology, high-technology, civil nuclear energy, space technology and applications, clean energy, environment and health. People to people interaction has provided further vitality and strength to bilateral relationship. There have been regular contacts at political and official levels and a wide-ranging dialogue architecture on bilateral, regional and global issues has been established.
Following the excellent talk by Hon. Ajit Kumar, Dr Indrakrishnan presented a commemorative plaque to him and quipped

Hon.Ajit Kumar felicitated by Dr.Indrakrishnan
Ms.Grace Puri CFP with Ms.Gayathri Indrakrishnan CPA

that he received a plaque from Hon. Ajit Kumar only a month ago bestowed by Greater Atlanta Tamil Sangam as’ the person of the year 2011’ but this presentation to Hon Ajit Kumar was not intended to be a tit for tat! The quip elicited loud laughs and applause from the
attendees !.
After the chief guest’s remarks, Dr Indrakrishnan invited four long-time GAPI/AAPI members to make brief remarks:
GAPI board of trustees and secretary for Medical Association of Georgia, Dr.Manoj Shah, encouraged the GAPI members to join MAG, the only state wide physician organization which looks after the welfare of the physicians in a multi-faceted manner.
Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, an AAPI regional director, South region, conveyed Greetings from the President of AAPI, Dr.Kanumuri, and reminded the audience that AAPI is now offering Patron membership for $100 and exhorted them to take this advantage and become member of AAPI members and Support the national organization.
Secretary of AAPI, Dr.Ravi Jahagirdar, a special invited guest from Florida, outlined the wellness initiative, including Community Walks and CPR classes offered by AAPI.
Dr. Sreeni Gangasani spoke about the progress & challenging issues related to the free GAPI clinic at Global mall which is being conducted every first Saturday of the month from 1.00 PM to 4.00 PM for uninsured Georgians. He requested the physicians to volunteer their services at least once a year . More physician volunteers signed up to provide free service after his persuading plea.
Following a sumptuous dinner, Ms Grace Puri CFP from Ameriprise Financial, the largest financial planning company in the country ,thanked Ms Gayathri Indrakrishnan, CPA for GAPI for giving them an opportunity to sponsor this years’ Atlanta GAPI meeting and generously presented a donation check to her, to help run the GAPI free clinic. Following this , Chris Reynolds, CFP and Grace Multani, CFP, presented an informative and engaging seminar, about the merits of Comprehensive Financial Planning. Their message was that having a documented financial plan that lists one’s goals and dreams combined with the strategies to implement them is critical to one’s fiscal health.
Fun time was marked with Raffle prizes and mystery prizes that were given as amusing surprises!
The memorable and joyous evening concluded with a Vote of thanks by Dr.Indrakrishnan expressing his gratitude and thanks to the Hon.Ajit Kumar, Guest speakers, the sponsors, attendees & all the volunteers for a splendid evening