Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
Insights into medical ethics, human rights, and the art of teaching in a rural medical college.
Reading Time: 15 minutesOn 17 September 2022, I was conferred Gifted teacher Award, named after my teacher Dr BS Chaubey. I was interviewed on the occasion of this award. Sir, we know you as a teacher but we would like to know about your childhood. Born on August 15 —I was the youngest of six siblings. My mother … Read more
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThis morning I was asked by Dr NR Datta, head of the Radiation Oncology department of our hospital to talk on Ethical Challenges in Cancer management. I addressed the following issues in my Powerpoint Presentation. The audience- faculty, resident, technicians, nurses, and social workers- also shared the challenges that they see in their daily practice. … Read more
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe pressure of NEET PG has emptied classrooms. MBBS students feel that learning medicine while attending patients will not get them a postgraduate set. The process of training and learning for medical students has been deeply affected by NEET. How did NEET affect the training of medical students in India? It has decimated the joy … Read more
Reading Time: < 1 minuteI 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
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSample two histopathology reports of a specimen of chronic cholecystitis. The first one reads, “The graceful, fragile gossamer folds of mucosa are completely altered in appearance, being loaded down by dense yellow opaque masses, much as a delicate birch tree might be weighed down by a load of snow.” The second one reads, “Grossly, the … Read more
Reading Time: 2 minutesMGIMS students, interns, residents, lab technicians, healthcare workers, teachers- yesterday night they all teamed seamlessly to deliver more than the musical night had promised- entertaining and enthralling the audience with super-hit Hindi filmy sangeet. Little wonder that they kept the audience- all ears to the musical melodies- spellbound for full three hours. So, when the singers kept … Read more
Reading Time: 3 minutesI simply cannot understand why Binayak Sen is back behind the brutal bars again. Yesterday afternoon a session court at Raipur found him guilty of sedition and treason and sentenced him to life in prison. Those who love and admire Binayak were shocked to know that such a distinguished ethicist, pediatrician, human right activist and … Read more
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe MD theses, finally, are over. Focused research questions, great introductions, meticulous methods, well-laid out results and structured discussions. But what the theses won’t have this year is their most readable section – acknowledgements. The section, guides loved to leaf through in the close confines of their office. The section that boosted their self-esteem. The … Read more
Reading Time: 6 minutesDespite more than a half century of proclamations on primary healthcare, most rural facilities in India continue to lack enough providers, equipment and infrastructure to offer effective and efficient care. In the latest effort to address this inequitable distribution the union health and family welfare minister announced a plan requiring doctors to practise in rural … Read more
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow do medical students learn to make impossible decisions every day? They can share their problems with their colleagues and seniors, and learn decision-making skills which will carry over into their practice once they graduate. At the MGIMS, a group of residents and interns has started informal discussions of case study scenarios. The idea is … Read more