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From the desk of editor in chief

2020; Medknow; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4103/jiaomr.jiaomr_107_20

0975-1572

Dipti Bhatnagar,

COVID-19 and healthcare impacts

As we bring out our second issue of JIAOMR, on behalf of the editorial team, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and warm wishes to all our patrons, authors, reviewers, and readers for their support towards the journal. With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown, quarantine, and social distancing have all found parlance in our daily vocabulary. None of us could have imagined the gravitas of these things to come a couple of months ago. Travellers were busy planning their road trips, corporates were busy planning their next quarter, and we all were busy with our mundane and repetitive lives. Suddenly, like a lightning bolt, the lives of one and all were rattled and normal life went into a tailspin. Fear, anxiety, and stress eclipsed the entire society. The initial few days of the lockdown spelled doom, gloom, and depression. As the famous saying goes “However long the night, the dawn will break.” As we all progressed into the quarantine life, the human coping mechanism to deal with the unfathomable catastrophe has kicked in. People of all age groups be it be kindergartners, millennials, medical and dental professionals, and even the elderly have adapted to these challenging and stressful times. Here, I take this platform to thank our fraternity members who are working with utmost professionalism and dedication as our first line of defense against this epidemic of mammoth proportions. We at the editorial board are putting in all efforts toward rapid and unbiased appraisal of the submitted manuscripts. It has been our endeavor to make the process from submission to publication simple and effortless and on time. We invite papers from all over the world for publication in our journal within the scope of our speciality. This journal is also a platform for sharing your novel contributions and any valuable proposals onto streamlining our progression are encouraged. In these unpredictable circumstances, it is too difficult for anyone to continue with their normal lives and daily routines. Thus, as the editor, I wish to thank everyone for supporting, contributing, and reading our journal. I would also request all the members to help us by getting the journal subscribed through their institutions. Due to the ongoing lockdown, the hard copies of the journal will get delayed. I hope the members will cooperate with us as we deal with the logistical challenges during the ongoing pandemic. This year so far has been tragic for the IAOMR fraternity as we lost two of our great legends who have contributed enormously for our specialty in their own ways. I take this opportunity to pay homage to the stalwart and a great personality in the field of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Dr. A.B. Surveyor who left us on May 3, 2020. Dr. A.B. Surveyor was an outstanding teacher, man of wonderful intellect, yet, simple, ever helpful, affectionate, and a pioneer in the field of Oral Medicine and Radiology in India. We had not even overcome this grief that we got the news of untimely demise of our kind friend, colleague, teacher, and incoming president Dr. Soheyl Sheikh. He was about to take over as the president of our academy in the upcoming National IAOMR conference at Khammam. He was a kind-hearted and humble soul with a great sense of humor. Dr. Soheyl was a determined visionary with the gift of innovative thinking He has contributed enormously for the upliftment of our academy. His sudden demise has come as a shock for all of us in the IAOMR fraternity. On behalf of the editorial board, I take this opportunity to pay homage to him. It was privilege for us to have such towering personalities among our fraternity as the guiding lights. In whatever role we knew them, they stood apart as someone special. As the saying goes “A good teacher is like a candle burning, It consumes itself to light the way for others.” These words aptly put the life of one of our best teachers and mentors in perspective. I wish the spirits of Dr. A.B. Surveyor and Dr. Soheyl will guide us in all our future endeavors and may their souls rest in peace.