Types of patients who wreck their own treatment.

After seeing so many patients over the last couple of years, I have come to a conclusion that some type of patients come with their fate sealed in their own hands. Unknowingly they deny sound advise and believe hearsay and unverified news, often falling into trouble. The sad part is that their pride does not...

Is this the worst time to be a patient?

Being a patient is a bad phase of life. But being a patient these days is even worse. One may argue that we are at the peak of technological advances in medical science, so why do I say so? Here's why. All the tech news which makes people hopeful of a cancer-free future, custom designed...

Health care hue and cry – Unaware patients.

The average Indian patient is royally unaware of the shit when the boulder of disease hits him suddenly. Its something like being slapped by a court case, the difference is that the terms are non-negotiable. If you have a certain disease it will follow its course of nature irrespective of your social, economic, emotional status...

Health care hue and cry – Shortage of doctors.

Shortage of doctors India produces some of the best doctors in the world. A lot of developed countries depend on Indians for their supply of capable doctors. Then why the hue and cry in India itself over medical treatment and negligence. Firstly, becoming a doctor takes years of formal education. And while a young person...

Health care hue and cry – Prohibitive cost.

Every day I stumble upon news after news of chaos and violence creeping into the space of healthcare, which ironically, is the industry responsible to keep people live and kicking. As a budding doctor on the cusp of making sense of the profession I worked so hard to be part of, it scares and baffles...

5 things I wish they would have taught us in medical school.

Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community. - Rudolf Virchow (of the Virchow's triad fame). It is surprising to see remarkably intelligent folks who have been roughed, cut and polished by blood, sweat and piss (literally) under the intense eyes...

Patients vs Clients

When I started to train as a doctor, more than a decade ago, society in India still believed in doctor's nobility and sanctity of profession. Though it was a dying trend then too, but mostly, positively palpable. Then globalization happened. Indians became gullible recipients of anything western. Folks in India tasted the world of client...

How to spot fake medical advise.

India is a country of hard working but not highly educated people. In 2011, literacy rate in India was 74.04%, much below the global average of 84%. Add to that the frenzy with which we consume social media, which is mainly for English speaking audience, literacy rate is more of a representational figure of how...

Super saline – Patients believe that only I/V medication is the real deal.

Patients often come with pre formed notions of how their treatment should look like, rather than how it is supposed to work.

The high contrast Indian Healthcare

Welcome to India. Here we have some of the lowest ranking pubic health services in the world and surprisingly the second largest human population in the world. I fell a chill down my spine even as a type these words. We are only little less populated than China, which is a several times larger country...