MedSpin

Quote: Medical School and Public Toilets

2008-01-21T17:33:00.002+05:30

"Medical school is like a public toilet, those who are outside desperately want to get in while those inside desperately want to get out" - Unknown

Amazing X Ray: Indian Girl With Eight Limbs

2007-11-06T23:56:00.000+05:30

Amazing x ray...

A two year old girl in Orissa , was born with four arms and four legs. She will be operated today to separate the parasitic limbs.

(Via India Uncut )

An Interesting World Map of Inhabitants per Doctor

2007-10-18T23:52:00.000+05:30

This is a map of the world with Population: Doctor ratio figures written all over it.

Click the map for a bigger view.

According to the latest available statistics from World Health Organization, there were 0.60 doctors in India for 1000 persons in 2004. That converts to 1666 persons for 1 doctor in India.

I wont comment on this now. I will place this information in perspective in the coming days.

Got this map from this site

Famous Non - Doctor : Che Guevara

2007-10-14T07:40:00.000+05:30

I found this line in an article in today's Times of India about Che Guevara

"There is no shortage of motorcycles or well-to-do doctors in India but it takes more than diesel to start a fire."

This line is in context of doctors, and youngsters in general, fighting for causes like reservation and not, according to the author, for 'real' causes.

While I am not sure I agree with the methods Che Guevara believed in, about whom the article is about, that does not stop me from admiring his zeal to make a difference to lives of less fortunate.

I don't think it is right to hold Che Guevara as the standard against which today's doctors are evaluated.
He was a revolutionary who was also a doctor, and not the other way round. And an icon of Pop culture.

Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

Blood and Blood Products in Davangere

2007-10-13T21:06:00.000+05:30

If you are a Intern or a Postgraduate in Davangere, you might find this info handy

SS Institute of Medical Sciences:

Contact Phone Number: ( 08 192 ) 266 016 - Connects directly to blood bank.

- Open 24 hours a day.

- Accepts Blood requisition forms from all blood banks.

Products available

1. Packed RBC ( Preferred over whole blood in all anemia, except due to blood loss)

Price : Rs 400 per pack

Quantity : 250ml

Donor : Needed

Time : If available, Packed RBCs of required group will be given immediately after donation of 1 unit blood of any group.
If the required blood group is not available, it takes about 6 hours to separate RBCs from donated blood. Usually Rh positive groups are available. Usually Rh Negative blood has to be processed, and hence available 6 hours after donation.

2. Whole Blood ( Prefer Packed RBC instead of Whole blood in all anemia, except due to blood loss )

Price : Rs 400 per pack ( Same as Packed RBC)

Quantity : 450ml

Donor : Needed. (Of any group for Rh +ve blood, for Rh -ve blood depends on availability)

Time : If available, blood of required group will be given immediately after donation of 1 unit blood of any group. Usually Rh negative blood require same group donors. Rh positive blood is usually available.

3. Platelets

Price : Rs 600 per pack

Quantity : 250ml ( Separated from 450ml of blood)

Donor : Needed ( Of any ABO group, Rh +ve or -ve has to be same)

Time : If available, platelets will be given immediately after donation of 1 unit blood of any group.If unavailable, it takes about 6 hours to separate platelets from donated blood.

4. Human Plasma

Price : Rs 200 per pack

Quantity : 250ml ( Separated from 450ml of blood)

Donor : Not Needed

Time : Given immediately on request.

Photo Courtesy : Every stock photo

Quack Quack Quack

2007-09-10T13:58:00.001+05:30

--------------
There was this city doctor who started a practice in the countryside. He once had to go to a farm to attend to a sick farmer who lived there.

After a few house calls the doctor stopped coming to the farm.

The puzzled farmer finally phoned him to ask whats the matter, didn't he like him or somethin'.

The doctor said, "No, its your ducks at the entrance...every time I enter the farm, they verbally insult me!"
----------------

I found this good one over here. If you didn't get it, read the title of this post and the punch line.

Overseas medical degrees to be recognised

2007-08-31T15:27:00.000+05:30

Here is a quick post to alert you to this article from The Hindu.

While this decision is in the right direction, the deal would have been sweeter had the agreement been mutual.

Overseas medical degrees to be recognised

"India will recognise postgraduate medical degrees offered by universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore soon.
“In three months’ time, doctors from these English-speaking countries will be recognised here, enabling them to work in Indian hospitals. At the moment, only unilateral recognition has been accorded. We are talking with these countries to urge them to grant bilateral recognition to enable Indian medical degrees to be recognised abroad,”

Hope to see the English speaking countries reciprocate this gesture.

Ignorants Treating the Innocents

2007-08-27T20:04:00.000+05:30

"Mission impossible: Docs won’t go rural"

This is the title of a news article in today's DNA paper.

The article begins thus:

"The Maharashtra Rural Health Mission is a non-starter, with MBBS doctors from cities and towns refusing to go to rural areas."

I wonder if the Government has spent a moment wondering why doctors don't exactly jump to grab this opportunity to work in rural areas.

Instead it comes up with a brilliant plan that solve the problem in one swell swoop.

"As a result, the government is forced to recruit 2,000 ayurvedic and unani practitioners to participate in the mission, which is actually an allopathic-based health scheme."

and

"Owing to the desperate situation, the mission has recruited 2,000 alternative health doctors to treat people in rural areas, irrespective of the fact that they are not trained in administration of allopathic drugs."

I will leave the discussion about the effectiveness of Alternative Medicine per se(Unani, Ayurveda and others) to another day. This is not about Allopathy Vs Others.

But consider what kind of treatment a doctor, from allopathic or alternative system, will give if he has no idea about the drug that he is prescribing to a patient. If a doctor in his private clinic, again allopathic or alternative, had prescribed drugs about which he had no idea , he would be considered a quack and would be sued. But if the same is done by our mai - baap Govt, it is not only legal but a perfectly reasonable response to the situation.

Considering the quality of the care that patients receive under these doctors, it is no wonder that the government is considering paying the patients to get treated by these doctors. Yes, you read it right. The government pays (the taxpayers, of course) money to the patients to get treated.

"The mission also thought of luring villagers into the scheme by rewarding them with money."

This news item should have been filed under the Wacky/ Bizarre news section as "Govt pays patients to get treated by quacks", were it not for the tragic outcomes that the patients have to bear.

I admire the government which, in its infinite wisdom and benevolence, has made it possible for the ignorants to treat the innocents. Don't you ?

A TV Channel for Medical Students

2007-08-20T13:36:00.001+05:30

From the Policy Wise Blog:

"Doordarshan, India’s national broadcaster has plans to launch a health channel. It is ostensibly meant to help medical students in India. The annual cost: 180 crores. The government will amend the Cable Television Netowrks(regulation) Act of 1995 to make it compulsory for cable operators to carry the channel."

Download Question Papers Of RGUHS

2007-08-17T06:08:00.002+05:30

Hi,

I am an intern in JJM Medical college, Davangere.

On this blog I usually write about things related to medical education, good websites for medical students, medical news, . You can read the latest posts here.

You can download the question papers by clicking on the links below and then choosing which particular subject paper you want.

You can keep track of new question papers and posts added to this site by using email or through Google reader.

	2007 August Final Year Question Papers
	Hosted by eSnips

	2007 Feb Final Year RGUHS Question Papers
	Hosted by eSnips

	2007 Feb Third Year Question Papers
	Hosted by eSnips

	2007 Feb Second Year Question Papers
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	2007 Feb First Year RGUHS Question Papers
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Older question papers can viewed on Netmedico

View other Posts on Medspin

Return to Homepage of Netmedico

Dr. Goolge, MBBS !!

2007-08-15T06:31:00.000+05:30

Google is preparing to enter health care in a big way with Google Health. Google Health seems to be a Electronic medical record, among other things, with a strong focus on the patient.

The first screenshots of Google Health have been posted at Google Blogoscoped blog.

As a fan of all things google, I am very happy that our case sheets and prescription will be better organized. If google makes a few bucks along the way, I don't mind.

More on Electronic medical records and case sheets later.

Update : The New York Times has has an article about Google health.

Anatomy Lecture 01: Organization of Body

2007-08-11T00:27:00.000+05:30

Here is the first lecture from the University of California, Berkeley. As I had mentioned in the introductory post, these are the live video recordings of real anatomy classes in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Watch the Second Video in this series

Anatomy Classes from University of California, Berkeley

2007-08-10T13:41:00.000+05:30

University of California, Berkeley is offering about 40 hours of Anatomy classes online for free to whoever is interested.These are the live video recordings of real anatomy classes in the Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.

The website of University of California, Berkeley has this amazing sentence:

" Berkeley's academic departments consistently rank among the top five in the country. The faculty, renowned for both teaching and scholarship, currently includes seven Nobel Laureates"

The institution also has twenty four Nobel Laureates among its alumni.

The above two sentences leave no doubt about the 'renown-ness' of the institution.

India can lay claim on Nine Nobel laureates in 106 years. The list of 9 includes every Nobel prize winner who can somehow be associated with India; those born India and worked abroad, those born abroad and who worked in India.

At this rate India needs roughly 275 years to match the output of one US university. The stated time is on the assumption that that University of California, Berkeley does not produce a single Nobel prize winner in that period, which is as likely as pigs growing wings and starting to fly.

All this suggests to me that the educational system is deeply dysfunctional.

You don't think so ? You want to remind me something ?
Yeah, I know about the IITs and IIMs , and I remember 'Mera Bharath Mahan'. Thanks.

Anyway, enough about the depressing state of Indian educational system.

Here is what you can do sitting in India or studying in any good/bad/wicked medical college in India. If you have a fast internet connection, you can watch the whole anatomy course as conducted in University of California, paying absolutely nothing to anybody.

Whats more, you can even download it and watch it on your comp whenever you like.
What more could you ask for ? Lap it up.

If you have not realized it yet, you no longer have a valid reason to complain about the crappy Anatomy classes in your college.

Join Medspin

2007-08-06T18:43:00.004+05:30

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On Horses and Zebras.

2007-08-05T11:30:00.000+05:30

"When You Hear Hoof beats, Think Horses, Not Zebras"

This is often quoted to remind medical students that when they come across a physical finding, it is prudent to attribute the finding to a common disease, the 'Horses', rather than to a rare disease, the 'Zebras'.

White with Black Stripes or Black with White Stripes ?

But recently, while working as an intern in the surgery department of a government hospital, I realized that a few of the diseases which looked like Zebras while I studied them in the textbook are actually Horses in real life.

While studying, the disease Tetanus was described in textbooks as disease on the retreat. It seemed that Tetanus had been all but conquered. All that remained to wipe it away from the face of earth was to choke off the dwindling cases of Tetanus in the newborn. Tetanus in adults got a cursory mention. In short, Tetanus looked like a Zebra, complete with stripes and hoofs.

But when I started my two month rotation in surgery, I started sighting Tetanus in adults on a regular basis. Not everyday but one or two cases every two weeks. Enough to make me reclassify Tetanus in adults as a Horse.

Photo Courtesy Kirk

On Rats and Drugs

2007-05-18T23:56:00.002+05:30

"A drug is that substance which, when injected into a rat, will produce a scientific report."

First Post

2007-05-18T19:33:00.000+05:30

I am Bhargava. I finished my final year MBBS and am working as an intern in the Internal Medicine department in a private hospital in Davangere, Karnataka, India.

On this blog I intend to post mostly (non academic) medical and occasional non medical stuff.

Even though posts will be about health and health care, it will be non academic.

Comments and civil discussions are welcome. Anonymous comments are allowed.

Off topic or abusive comments are not. Start your own blog for such things.

I ask you to bear and correct any of my (occasional, I hope) mistakes in spelling , grammar and thinking (also known commonly as plain stupidity). I wont let these stop me from blogging.

You can contact me at netmedico@gmail.com