SP Kalantri

Medical Errors

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Four hundred thousand patients in the hospitals in the United States die every year because of medical errors—from mistakes that could have been prevented.  The BMJ article, published three days ago, says that “if the medical error was a disease, it would rank as the third leading cause of death in the US.” Preventable medical … Read more

Super specialists

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When I began practising Medicine at MGIMS, whenever I ran into a medical problem, which I thought I could not solve, I would seek a super specialist’s help. This indeed made sense. After all, their years of training and rich experience would help me order the best test, choose the drug that works or pick … Read more

Mammograms: Overdiagnosis

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Did I stir up a hornet’s nest when I tried to examine the benefits and harms of mammography? I’m  glad I did. I might have been less than generous in my remarks about mammography, but that does not diminish my unqualified admiration of those who believe that it works. I am happy that some of … Read more

Screening for breast Cancer

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Recently, I was part of a team that was caring for a woman with breast cancer. “Would I have fared better had I undergone mammography when I turned 50?”, she asked me. She is right because a neighbouring medical school is offering mammography on wheels—bringing technology to the doorsteps of rural women who cannot access … Read more

Vive La Difference!

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Worldwide, women have shaped medical education, healthcare, and research. They now make up half of all medical schools— at MGIMS, in a dozen batches (86, 87, 90-94, 98-99, 2001, 2011 and 2014) girls outnumbered boys. They have led the institute, the department, and the units. They have also published papers that have changed the face … Read more

What should Siddhartha Mukherjee do to earn a promotion?

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I chanced to read Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s profile on Simon and Schuster website this evening.  “Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. He is the author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia … Read more

Mrs Behere

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Mrs Mani Behere—passed away today evening at her home in Sevagram. For over a decade, she had worked in our department of Psychiatry as a faculty. A kind-hearted woman—always sporting a genuine smile on her face, and exuding warmth and love—she fought a long battle with metastatic breast cancer and endured her illness with fortitude. … Read more

Naushadnama

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Last week, I re-discovered the golden era of Hindi film music. I picked up a book that took me to an era when the rhythm was the king. I read the entire book—cover to cover— and learnt a great deal about Naushad, the last Mughal Musician and his contemporaries: C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, Shankar-Jaikishan, Kalyanji-Anandji, … Read more