Medical conferences are fast degenerating into melas that educate, entertain, amuse and irritate and deceive—not necessarily in that order. One can smell, see and feel the drug industry everywhere, advertising on the walls, shaping the contents and style of educational programmes, tempting with gifts and free meals, travel and other amenities. In 2003, MGIMS became …
Drug Industry
Tongue twisters
I am unable to pronounce the names of many new drugs. I tried hard and then gave up. Incurable diseases and unpronounceable drugs- the combination is deadly.
Cardiac stents
Cardiac stents became cheaper—and relatively affordable— this year. Beginning this evening, knee implants in India are all set to get about three to five fold cheaper. Surely, this news should be music to the ears of those who were forced to spend their life, knee-deep in pain and misery. And this was not a knee-jerk …
Doctors and drug industry
Are the medical professionals so poor, as a BMJ editorial asked long ago, that they cannot afford to buy their pen, pad or pizza? And are the doctors so ignorant about the new therapies and new drug discoveries that they need help from medical representatives and the drug industry? Very few doctors learn during their …
Medical Representatives and Doctors
Smart ties, black bags and glib tongues. It has been more than four years since Kasturba hospital saw medical representatives on campus. We took this measure to counter the growing perception that interaction between doctors and medical sales representatives was harming our patients’ economic health. Not an easy decision. Some doctors clearly felt uncomfortable. “Medical …
No more medical representatives in Sevagram
Smart ties, black bags and glib tongues. It has been more than a month since we saw this combination in our hospital. Few weeks back, we decided to say no to medical representatives on campus. We took this measure to counter the growing perception that interaction between doctors and medical sales representatives was harming our …