I am doing a survey. Do you know how many Indian medical doctors who use the Internet blog? well, no one does. Neither do we know how many of us are students, how many are on twitter and how many talk about work online. We most definitely do not know if any of us follow professional guides to using social media written specifically for doctors. I want to find out, and I think irrespective of [...]
Let us make things better: the “Indian medical doctors on the web” survey
Let us make things better: the “Indian medical doctors on the web” survey
Top Criminals in Indian Hospitals
Top Criminals in Indian Hospitals
Image by murplejane Ten years inside hospitals gives you a great instinct to pick out criminals. Oh yes, there are a lot of them in the hospitals. Here are the greatest offenders and how to deal with them. The Poor: They can’t afford the services, yet they come. They never do what we ask them to, want multivitamins and “saline” and never come when we ask them to. They are dirty, and don’t pay even [...]
Dear Doctor, Why Do You Care How Many People I Sleep With?
Dear Doctor, Why Do You Care How Many People I Sleep With?
I am a doctor, sometimes, that is my shame. Dear fellow professional: Did someone ever teach you how to ask someone their sexual history? Did you get any systematic training in handling sensitive issues? Do you know if you sound judgemental while posing a question to a patient? Do you know there are professional and standard methods in approaching sensitive issues? Can you put a patient at ease when talking about their substance abuse issues? [...]
Let’s talk about shit
Let’s talk about shit
By the time you finish reading this sentence at least one child would have died in india of diarrhea. The most important cause of diarrhea is contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation. Rose George is a British journalist [wikipedia] and author whose book “The big nessecity [amazon]” addressed the issue of lack of sanitation as one of the greatest killers of the modern world. This is her on Shit and India. How/when did you get [...]
International Post Graduate Certificate course in Health and Human Rights
International Post Graduate Certificate course in Health and Human Rights
The 7th International Post Graduate Certificate course in Health and Human Rights will be organized from 10Th January to 19th January 2011, at Mumbai. The 10 days intensive course is organised in collaboration with the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai. The main objective of the course is to prepare participants to understand and interact with the local, national and international systems relating health and human rights. And to have knowledge of (a) [...]
I am elsewhere; Healthcare as social enterprise blog
I am elsewhere; Healthcare as social enterprise blog
Have started working for a company called 4B Healthcare. Am exploring the concepts of social enterprise and what role the market or a for profit model has in Healthcare for the poor or healthcare as a whole. my main outlet is the Healthcare as Social Enterprise blog, courtesy, the company. Some of the new posts there are Science digest: Bronze age surgeons and psychedelic psychiatry Healthcare Innovation: How can Governments be an Engine? Nurses and [...]
Salvageable?
Salvageable?
Salvageable Adj: capable of being saved from ruin; I was shocked the first time I heard my then boss asking a PG if the patient was “salvageable”. Comparing sick people to shipwrecks didn’t seem respectful or right but before long I found myself asking the same question when dealing with a sick patient, particularity one who was very sick and needed expensive and intensive care. If the patient was not “salvageable” and there was a [...]
Compulsory HIV testing; Violating or protecting Human rights?
Compulsory HIV testing; Violating or protecting Human rights?
On October 9th the Parliamentarians’ Forum on HIV/AIDS (PFA) declared that HIV testing will be made mandatory for all pregnant women. They said that passing HIV from mother to child was a human rights violation and that for a generation that is free from HIV, this needs to be done. Making the test compulsory raises hopes as well as questions. On the positive side is the fact that if the HIV status of the mother [...]
