In a peculiar bit of irony, a study found that 50% of doctors have a high risk of cardiovascular diseases-that’s nearly double that of the general population. The multiple reasons for this high risk include the pressure to meet corporate targets. The study was conducted in a medical college hospital around Chennai, but owing to […]

Upendranath Brahmachari was one of the most legendary medical practitioners that India has ever known. Sadly enough, his name is not familiar to most in this day and age. He was brought up in a family that already had a medical practitioner-his father who was a physician with the East Indian Railways. Upendranath-who was was […]

Researchers claim that the world’s first birth by cesarean section in which both the mother and child survived may have occurred in 1337 in Prague. It was on February 25 of that year that Beatrice of Bourbon, the second wife of John the Blind, the King of Bohemia gave birth to her only child. The […]

Dr C Radhakant is a doctor based in Vishakhapatnam who has developed a new tool to teach medical students and to train MBBS doctors who serve in primary health centres. The virtual patients that he created using computer graphics are useful in the study of psychiatry. Dr Radhakant is a professor of psychiatry at the […]

Claims of medical negligence are being made without justification across the nation. In this context, a recent ruling that an unsuccessful surgery is not negligence comes as a huge relief to doctors. It’s worth looking at the case that prompted such a ruling. Case Satender Kumar fractured his right leg from a fall at home […]

Arthur Conan Doyle is the alumnus of the Edinburgh Medical School- one of the world’s oldest medical institutions. But of course, that’s not exactly what he became famous for. Like fellow alumni- Alexander Fleming (discoverer of penicillin) and Joseph Lister(who initiated the practice of sterilizing instruments) Doyle was someone who became famous for something other […]

Many are the changes that have come over medical practices in the last few centuries. Procedures which once took hours of labor can now be performed in mere minutes and with the minimal pain on the patient. Earlier, while bullets had to be extracted and cauterized irons had to be used, anesthetics were not exactly […]

An analysis of almost 200 studies involving 129,000 medical students in 47 countries have found that the prevalence of depression was 27 percent while 11 percent reported suicidal ideation during medical school. Curiously enough, just 16 percent of depressed students reportedly sought treatment. A study regarding this appeared in the December 16 issue of JAMA. […]

The Indian government is contemplating the idea of allowing foreign medical graduates to practice in the country without any need for exams or tests, says reports. The proposal that is vetted by the ministry of law and justice is expected to be notified soon. The move is meant to tackle the acute shortage of doctors […]

It’s a very tight corner that doctors and hospital administrations are in when they get patients like Jayalalithaa. As a Mumbai doctor who has treated many Bollywood bigwigs and politicians said, “The media goes crazy and when there is a politician involved, there are calls from within the party and the opposition to know everything.” […]