WINNING FRIENDS: Congress rep Joseph Wilson (far left) with former AAPI head Jayasankar (2nd from rt)

When Seema LUTHRA was offered a top post in neuropathology at a hospital in Rhode Island (RI), she was overjoyed. After decades of practice in Massachusetts with regular licence renewals, it seemed a good mid-career break. But her hopes were dashed soon enough when Luthra, not her real name, applied for a new licence in RI.

The RI authorities wrote to her medical college in Pune to verify her MBBS credentials, even though these had been verified earlier by the Educational Council for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and the Massachusetts licence board. True to Indian form, the medical college in Pune did not reply. The RI board sent them a reminder and waited ... Finally, the hospital decided to offer the job to the next candidate in line.

Indian doctors in America need no longer face such distressing situations with procedures now set to change. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) has used its influence with the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) to centralise ecfmg's credentialing and verification systems. AAPI acquired membership of AMA only last December.

"Skin colour plays a role. If we unite and have a long-term vision, we succeed." Dr Kiran Patel, President, AAPI

Last week in Chicago, the powerful Indian body saw a change of guard. A Zambia-born doctor of Indian origin took charge from Dr S. 'Jay' Jayasankar as the new president. Dr Kiran Patel from Tampa, Florida, is a cardiologist and founder of Well Care Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO)-the 15th largest Medicaid HMO in the US with annual revenue over $1 billion.

Patel is keen to organise second generation Indian American physicians to work on overseas projects. "The colour of the skin does play a role and if we don't come together, we will find ourselves cheated in several ways. If we unite and have a long-term vision, we can succeed," he said.

Immediate on his agenda is a push to Congress for a budget appropriation-already set down by Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Thad Cochran of Mississippi-to fund a research on the high prevalence of diabetes among Indian-Americans. The appropriation to come up for vote soon will be a fresh test of AAPI influence-this time on Capitol Hill.

It was no coincidence that Pallone was an active presence at the Chicago meet, where he rubbed shoulders with spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Delhi's Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, Indian Ambassador at large Bhishma Agnihotri and movie star Raveena Tandon.

With 9,000 members, a constituency of 35,000 physicians and a combined net worth of over $20 billion, AAPI shatters statistics. The Indian Diaspora is just 1.7 million of the 277 million US population, but one out of 20 physicians-and one out of 10 medical students in the US-are of Indian origin.

Clearly, the doctors propose to leave no stone unturned in their quest for greater recognition in America, while at the same time keeping their Indian roots intact.