New Delhi. : Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia(JMI) organized a workshop under the MHRD(now MoE)- SPARC sanctioned project “The Cleft Care India Study” on 6^th March 2023 at Mir Anis Hall of the university. The workshop is a collaborative project between JMI and University of Manchester, UK. It was inaugurated by JMI Vice Chancellor Prof. Najma Akhtar (Padma Shree) as Chief Guest, and Registrar Prof. Nazim Husain Al-Jafri as the Guest of Honour.

Dr.Sanjay Singh, Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, JMI who is a renowned maxillofacial surgeon stressed the need of streamlining cleft care, as cleft lip and palate are amongst the most common congenital craniofacial anomalies.

The workshop was attended by the legends of cleft care namely, Dr.Krishnamurthy Bonanthaya from Bangalore, Dr.Ghosla Reddy from Hyderabad, Dr.Altaf Hussain from Chennai, Dr.Subodh Singh from Varanasi, Dr.Dushyant Prasad from Bangalore. Dr.Ritu Duggal, Chief CDER, AIIMS which is the National Center of Excellence for Implementation of NOHP, Dr.Anup Kanase State program officer National Oral Health Program, and Dr.Seema Kapoor, lead of NEEV Mission (Neonatal Early Evaluation Vision) also graced the event. Dr. Naren Aggarwal who is the Editorial Director Medicine, Biomedical and Life Sciences Books Asia from Springer Nature also joined the workshop.

The highlight of the workshop was a panel discussion on “Developing an Interdisciplinary Cleft Care Network System” which saw participation from top clinicians of various specialties such as radiology, pediatrics, gynecologists, speech therapists, geneticists, social workers, orthodontists, plastic and maxillofacial surgeons who joined hands for this noble cause of mapping the cleft care services. Doctors from major tertiary care centers of Delhi like Maulana Azad Medical College, AIIMS, Safdarjung hospital, ESIC hospital, and leaders of cleft care centers from PAN India attended the program.

Dr.Badri Thiruvenkatachari, the international PI of this project from University of Manchester, discussed the lessons learnt and difficulties faced in this project, and also motivated other centers to join hands for upliftment of patient care.

Dr.Panchali Batra, Professor Orthodontics and the principal investigator of the project said that she was happy to announce that JMI has taken the first step to rope-in all clinicians from various fields who are involved since the birth of a cleft patient, and said that these recommendations would be helpful in the formulation of protocols and strategies to improve cleft care at a national level.

Dr.Deborah, Professor Oral and maxillofacial surgery and the CO-PI of the project said that we will try our best to submit the recommendations of the meetings to the policy makers. The monograph which will be published by Springer Nature titled “The Cleft Care Framework in India: a CCIS report” was also launched during the inauguration.

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