Warora wears me out

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Reading Time: < 1 minuteDrenched and drained—and palpably tired—I parked my bicycle and slumped down into the bed. I had every reason to indulge in this idiosyncrasy. I had achieved what I thought was unachievable. A few months ago, when I began cycling—a maturity onset disorder—little did I know that I would be able to complete a 150 km … Read more

Early birds…

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Reading Time: < 1 minuteToday, Sevagram Cyclones—a bunch of bicycle aficionados—motivated each other to set mobile alarms at 4:45 am to get up early on a Sunday morning. The plan was to take a two-way 60 km bike ride—from Sevagram to Bor Dam. So, Sumedh Manikpure (a medical student), Hardik More (an intern), Nikita Bhugra (a resident), Ashwini Kalantri … Read more

Meeting Dr Desikan

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Reading Time: 2 minutesDr. KV Desikan. Ninety-one-year-old man. This morning, I spent an hour and a half with him—forgetting our age differences—and spoke to him on a variety of topics—his tryst with Sevagram, his leprosy work, his medical maladies and how he copes with them, and the modern doctors. With organisational and administrative skills and energy as enormous … Read more

Dr Varun Bhargava and Babulal

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Reading Time: 2 minutesVarun Bhargava (VB) came to Sevagram in 1969. He belonged to the first batch of MGIMS. Four years later, he graduated from MGIMS, went to PGI, Chandigarh to earn his MD (Medicine) and established a highly successful practice in Nagpur. His 100-bed hospital—driven by ethics and science— evokes a level of respect and admiration that … Read more

Medical Errors

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Reading Time: 2 minutesFour 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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Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen 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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Reading Time: 2 minutesDid 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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Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently, 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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Reading Time: 2 minutesWorldwide, 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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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