Medicine, Mind and Me

"Resource-limited settings" is a term that I've to now reconsider.

I have used it in the past to talk about Vivekananda Memorial Hospital. But when I think about it from the perspective that this article brings, VMH was the most resource rich hospital I've seen. Sure, there may not have been a ventilator ICU or a neurosurgeon. But the lack of such materials had always been compensated by other invaluable resources - dedication of staff, community level mobilization, and holistic approach to healthcare.

How can we measure "resource richness" of a facility only along the dimension of medical devices available in that place?

More Than a Word: Neo-Colonialism in Today’s Vocabulary. | BMJ Global Health blog

Decision making is almost always complicated by uncertainties. The more information that can provide context, the more stakeholders that are part of the decision, the better the chances of reaching a good decision.

In the past few weeks, world leaders have had to make very difficult decisions. Lock down entire country? Put money into healthcare? Risk economic disasters to prevent health disaster?

I guess the biggest problem they would have faced in making these decisions is uncertainty. Because medicine is a field of uncertainties. The first thing a doctor learns when helping patients is that they can never be sure of anything other than the fact that they have to act. Diseases, cells, organisms, molecules, environment, human behaviour - there are a lot of moving parts in medicine. Parts that you can't control. Parts that you can't even predict.

A doctor is a performance artist who uses an imperfect science to help alleviate suffering. In Osler's words, "Medicine is …

It's been a long time since I posted any question papers on this blog :D
I've been doing a distance course in medical law & ethics from National Law School Bangalore. I love the course. So much so that I didn't take exam the first time so I could extent the duration.
This time I had to take at least two papers. (I'm taking four, and skipping dissertation for next time).
This is paper 1 which is common to all diploma courses (among child rights, cyber law, and so on).
I've ticked the questions I answered.