Science, Stories and Sevagram: A Physician-Teacher's Reflections
Clinical stories and reflections on evidence-based medicine, research, and patient care.
A day before, I wrote that we should not sell mammography as a screening modality in resource limited setting. Today’s Annals of Internal Medicine carries recommendation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on screening for breast cancer in general population. Interestingly, USPSTF in 2002 had advocated for routine screening mammography at age 40; … Read more
A year before, our hospital acquired a mammography unit, aimed at early detection of breast cancer in women. We did so at the behest of Medical Council of India (MCI) – provision of mammography is one of the several prerequisites for granting approval for MD (Radiodiagnosis) post-graduation programme. Eager to win MCI approval, we spent … Read more
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 … Read more
Every few years, our CAT scan machine drops dead- only to purr again. Bought about 10 years back, the machine has scanned about 20,000 heads, chests and bellies. At times, for some inexplicable reasons, the CAT stands still- a CATastrophic event in the hospital. And as engineers-flown from Bangalore- lay their hands on the CAT … Read more
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 … Read more