2023-2024 ISCD President
Dr. Ranjodh Gill
MD, FACP, CCD

 

ISCD recently welcomed Dr. Ranjodh Gill as the President of our Board of Directors during the Annual Business Meeting of the Society on March 31, 2023. Dr. Gill has been an active ISCD member for over 12 years and is a professor of Medicine at Veterans Administration Medical Center. Dr. Gill has been teaching and practicing endocrinology for over 25 years and his special interests include male hypogonadism and osteoporosis. He is a certified clinical densitometrist and actively treats metabolic bone disorders and reads DXAs for his hospital. Below is his first initial address to the ISCD membership.


It is a personal milestone and a tremendous privilege to be inaugurated as the incoming president of International Society for Clinical Densitometry. I am deeply humbled, yet extremely honored to accept this position. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the ISCD membership and its board for entrusting me with this task. This position comes with a lot of hard work and responsibility and I hope that I can measure up to your expectations. I want to take this opportunity to thank my family for their support and sacrifice. I will be remiss if I do not thank a most gifted and super nice individual, Dr. Robert Adler who is my mentor and a role model. He is a constant source of inspiration for me.

Now a bit of history of DXA and ISCD. In 1987, Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), a technology for measuring bone mineral density (BMD) was first introduced. In 1993, the Society for Clinical Densitometry (SCD) was established which subsequently, in 1997, became what is now known as ISCD to reflect the true composition of its membership and we are celebrating 30 years of ISCD. The ISCD is an international medical organization dedicated to advancing and promoting high quality musculo-skeletal health assessment in the service and pursuit of superior patient care. One of its important missions is to develop and update official positions which started in year 2001 and published in JCD in 2002. Since, several Position Development Conferences have been held including the 2023 PDC which just concluded and was held in conjunction with the current ISCD annual meeting.

We have had to evolve over the years in keeping with the changing times and restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first in-person meeting in four years after the last one held in Kuala Lumpur in 2019. It is a huge undertaking and I thank the ISCD board, the organizing committee, the current ISCD president, Dr. Yangling Zhao and our CEO, Peter Brown for their wonderful organizational efforts in putting this together.  The ISCD leadership team is comprised of voluntary members who dedicate their time and service selflessly for advancing its cause. Its membership is drawn from all across the globe and the membership model was recently revised to offer a tier system to suit individual needs. However, it faces retention and financial challenges. The challenges come in many forms some of which include communicating with a global membership base, organizing various teaching and certification courses as well as organizing annual meeting that is acceptable to all.

The ISCD needs to remain flexible and well prepared to stay abreast with the constantly changing health care environment. We serve a diverse and international membership with variable needs and financial means. What makes it even more challenging is the fact that there may be competing interest in other organizations and there is only a finite amount of funds one can dedicate to professional development, memberships and meetings. In my mind, our task is dual, which is to retain the current membership and to invite newer members to replace outgoing ones. Our focus has to be on becoming more creative while staying fiscally appropriate. We also have to broaden and increase our reach to penetrate the young physicians and ancillary health care providers so that the foundation of ISCD is solid for future. I am extremely pleased to notice that ISCD delivers instructional and teaching material of the highest caliber, and its voluntary leadership and board structure are strong. I am certain and hopeful that we shall continue to stay strong and relevant with the help of all of you. I want to salute and thank each of you for your continuing affirmation and support.

Ranjodh Gill, MD, FACP, CCD
President of ISCD