BANGALORE: one of the most influential and professional bodies in the U.S. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) is encouraging research in the field of medicine as for long it has been an ignored side. The funding is created by Texas- based plastic surgeon Dr. Rajaram Bala.

The income from perpetual endowment will be used for research award for the best research presentation at the AAPI convention, in San Antonio, Texas, from June 25-29, the association president Jayesh Shah announced. Thanking Bala on behalf of the executive committee and the AAPI family, Shah citing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said, "I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts."

He also urged other physicians of Indian origin to consider an endowment to AAPI, the largest ethnic medical organization in the U.S. with 130 local chapters, specialty societies and alumni organizations, to encourage young investigators to pursue the academic pathway. "Philanthropy and charity differ," said Bala who was born in Mayiladuthurai, in Tamil Nadu. "Charity relieves the pains of social problems, whereas philanthropy attempts to solve those problems at their root causes."

Bala's endowment is aimed at encouraging the application of the scientific method, a harnessing of curiosity, encouraging young physicians to engage in scientific research. Bala, whose father was a farmer with high school education and mother a homemaker was the first in his family to go to college and the first physician. After finishing high school in Mayavaram and medical school in Stanley Medical College, he did his post-graduation in surgery in India and came to the U.S. in the 1960s.

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