Reflections on Medicine and Life by Dr. S.P. Kalantri
Clinical stories and reflections on evidence-based medicine, research, and patient care.
I see three challenges ahead vis-à-vis COVID-19 in India’s rural areas. First, many rural healthcare workers are exhausted and burned out. Second, lifestyle diseases like diabetes, high blood-pressure and heart problems have become more common in rural India in the last decade or so. Third, officials and healthcare workers have to contend with the spectre … Read the essay
The COVID-19 disease is still rapidly evolving and maybe, we were far more cautious earlier than we are today. As we look for treatment, cures and the coronavirus vaccine do we now understand drugs used to treat the novel coronavirus? As patients, do we know enough about these medicines? Are we choosing the right questions … Read the essay
Some physicians are known to write creatively, taking up pen alongside their stethoscopes. Ulhas Jajoo belongs to that creed. A Writer-physician or a physician-writer. This week, Ulhas had his four Hindi books published. He writes about the people he admired, and those who shaped his life and times. He also picks up thoughts and narrations … Read the essay
This afternoon I spoke on several issues that influence our thought processes when we see patients with Covid19- in the community, in the hospital OPD, wards or ICUs. How should we design our therapy? Should we allow ourselves to prescribe untested and unproven therapies because the atmosphere is filled with fear, desperation and panic? What … Read the essay
Fear. Panic. Desperation. Came Covid and most doctors began to prescribe anti-Covid drugs based not on scientific research, but based on anecdotes, media stories, newspapers, TV channels and promotion of drugs by the drug industry. The virus pushed the Evidence-based medicine to the back seat. Physicians were either reluctant to— or didn’t know how to— … Read the essay