Doctors and drug industry

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Reading Time: < 1 minuteAre 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 … Read more

1985 batch reunion

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Reading Time: 4 minutes“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it … Read more

Physicians meet- only to part

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Reading Time: 4 minutesReminiscences- this weekend was filled with them. On December 19- thirty years since the first resident obtained her MD Medicine from the institute -a third of the hundred residents from the department of medicine gathered in Sevagram. Beginning 1979, exactly hundred residents had completed their MD training in the Medicine department, a number that aroused … Read more

Medicine is Skin Deep

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Reading Time: 2 minutesSunday morning. I was rounding with my residents. We moved as a group to the ICU, stopping at each bed. A middle-aged woman with a heart attack. A boy fighting malaria. A young man battling HIV and TB. We checked their vitals, reviewed test results, and adjusted their treatment. At bed 7, a young woman … Read more

Violence in hospitals

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Reading Time: 3 minutesLast week, a previously healthy 50-year-old man died in our hospital following a massive stroke. A CT scan revealed a deep intracerebral hemorrhage. Sudden death evokes a torrent of emotions—shock, denial, frustration, anger, and grief—not necessarily in that order. Shortly after the patient’s death in our ICU, a furious mob of nearly 50 people bypassed … Read more

A tale of two consultations

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Reading Time: 4 minutesA couple of days ago, I happened to see my friend’s grandchild. The three-month old baby, the child’s mother noted, had slow wandering eye movements and did not seem to focus well. The child had albinism- a disorder that affects colour of hair, skin and eyes. The mother was getting jittery. Will my son be … Read more

Are India’s best hospitals India’s best?

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Reading Time: 2 minutesOn 15 November 2009, The Week released its annual list of the country’s best hospitals, categorized by specialties such as cardiology, oncology, orthopaedics, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, and paediatrics. The rankings were based on a 14-city survey conducted by The Week in collaboration with IMRB, a market research agency. The survey included responses from 10 specialists across … Read more

Mammograms – much ado about nothing?

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Reading Time: < 1 minuteA 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

Mammography in a rural teaching hospital

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Reading Time: 4 minutesA 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