On being a Patient
W orldwide, an estimated three million coronary angiograms and angioplasties are performed each year. These interventions are used to look for blockages in coronary arteries and to open them with balloons and stents. Global Industry Analysts predict that by the year 2017, the global market of coronary angioplasty products is likely to be close to US$ 1.84 billion (about 10,200 crore Indian rupees). Big numbers, these. Last Monday, I contributed a tiny drop to the angioplasty ocean. Admittedly, the drop was small but it caught the eyes of those treading along the shore. For, they were unable to fathom what made me land up in a cardiac catheterization lab. Cardiologists use several risk assessment tools to estimate the person’s 10- year risk of developing...
Read MoreDr Bal Swaroop Chaubey (1934-2011)
T his is not an elegy lamenting the collective loss of Dr Chaubey’s students and colleagues. We lost him on 20 November 2011, and we will be missing him immensely. I wish to highlight the superb qualities embodied in this extraordinary teacher- physician- the like of whom we might never see again. Born on 2 June 1934, Dr Chaubey graduated and subsequently obtained MD (Medicine) from Government Medical College (GMC), Nagpur. He pursued his entire career at GMC, Nagpur where he served as a lecturer in Medicine and rose to head the department from 1972 to 1976 and 1978 to 1983. He was also a former Dean, GMC, Nagpur. Dr Chaubey was a quintessential physician nonpareil, following on from Dr Ramesh Nigam, Dr PK Devi, Dr C Balkrishnan and Dr JN Berry and preceding...
Read MoreDoctor, Visitors and Conversations
A day before, a professor of medicine from our medical school met with a minor road-traffic accident. On a brightly lit sunny morning he was driving his battery-driven two-wheeler at 20- kms an hour. The road he was driving on was full of potholes. He saw a car coming from the other end and both vehicles, desperately trying to inch past a large pothole, brushed each other. Both the professor and the car owner escaped with minor injuries. The vehicles escaped with simple dents. The professor was quickly brought to the hospital and had a small cut over the forehead stitched and dressed. He was sent home an hour later. Wardha is a small town and our 61-year-old professor enjoys almost a demi-god status in the town. For over three and a half decades, he had been a...
Read MoreTweedledum and Tweedledee
S he lay on the hospital bed- grateful to the doctors for having successfully fixed her broken bone. She had just been wheeled from the operating room to the ward and was looking forward to going home a day later. Her post-op orders read- nil by mouth for two hours and 2 litres of intravenous fluids. The surgeon also wanted the staff nurse to add Injection Neurobion (Vitamin B) to the intravenous drip – because he believed that vitamins hasten recovery and promote would healing. The ward round finished, the surgeon left the ward. A fortnight ago, the hospital information system had introduced a basic version of computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) in the hospital. The application was designed for the prescribers who could use it to write orders online. All...
Read MoreWhen MGIMS met NAAC
A ccreditation. Never before on MGIMS campus, did this word buzz as much as it did in the last week of April. Accreditation, for dummies, is a peer-review process that assures the quality of the education students receive. MGIMS believes that accreditation is an important mechanism to assess, evaluate, and improve the quality of the programs it offers to students. In India this task is done by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission (UGC). NAAC evaluates educational institutions using established criteria, standards and procedures. MGIMS having never undergone a formal evaluation before, thought that the time was ripe to undergo an external evaluation- and who else could this job better...
Read More10 Reasons why India won the World Cup Final
S atyamev Jayate Even before the first ball of the World cup final was bowled, the entire world witnessed a bizarre happening. Dhoni flipped the coin in the air for Sangakkara to call. Sangakkara mumbled his call, and had apparently lost the toss but the toss ended up being disputed – the first time such an event taking place in a world cup match. Blame it to the cacophony generated by the boisterous Mumbaikars at the Wankhede stadium- or to the match referee Jeff Crowe who failed to lend his right ear to Sangakkara’s whispered call or to Ravi Shastri who said that the toss was drowned out by the din or to the great generosity and sportsman spirit shown by MSD- the coin was spun again. Sangakkara correctly called this time and chose to bat. Obviously Sangakkara...
Read MoreWorld Cup 2011: 10 reasons why India beat Pakistan
D honi winning the toss Chasing 250+ in a World Cup semi-final is not an easy task. The Mohali pitch was not ugly, but contrary to what most Pundits – Saurabh dada included- had predicted, it not a batting beauty either. As the inning progressed, the pitch turned slow, the balls stopped, and the batsmen found it difficult even to rotate the strike. All the experts had read the wicket wrong! Dhoni opted for Ashish Millions of eyebrows were raised when Ashwin was left out in the World Cup semifinal. Justifiably so. How could Dhoni ignore Ashwin whose bowling and fielding was talk of the nation? But Ashish today bowled with the heart and brain of a miser: he gave just 33 runs in his ten overs. His last over to Wahab Riaz was a treat to watch- four consecutive...
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