Posts Tagged ‘ethics in medicine’
Sailing the Osler’s ship of medicine in the third millennium
Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology -Patient page, cardiology -Therapeutics, Clinical cardiology, general medicine, Medical education, Medical ethics, medical quotes, Two line sermons in cardiology, tagged clinical acumen, dr venkat quotes, ethics in medicine, evidence based medicine, guidelines protocols, principles of practice of medicine, rcts in medicine, william osler on March 31, 2021|
Why evidence-based medicine continue to have a turbulent course?
Posted in Cardiology quotes, cardiology-ethics, tagged best medical quotes, dr venkatesan quotes, ethics in medicine, evidence based medicine, evidence vs experience based medicine, hippocrates ethics, limitations of ebm, medical education, medical ethics quote, medical industry, principles of practice of medicine on February 13, 2021|
Because . . . its current course is not always in the right direction & not everyone is ready for course correction as well!
Reference
Principles of medical education : Do we have problems with our priorities ?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged best quotes in medicine, dr venkatesan quotes, ethics in medicine, hippocrates, medical education, principles of medical education, quotes in noble profession on January 2, 2021|
Two queries that linger in the medical profession for a long. I am afraid they aren’t addressed specifically by the stakeholders.
Question 1
Foe a moment, let us assume there is no option to answer all three are equally important. Medical colleges are supposedly Godly places where high-quality noble professionals would germinate, let into the community thereupon, to heal the ill and suffering. The teaching faculty has a huge responsibility. They must ensure that students are transformed into responsible caregivers in the first place. They should be made to understand that the knowledge they acquire has a short half-life and medical education is all about continuous learning and unlearning. Unless teaching and research are morally genuine and scientifically perfect, the things we do in the name of patient care is going to be redundant. Hope you got the answer right!
Question 2
Now that, we got the answer to the question 1, here is a more difficult question.
Out of the four, only one addresses the skill and expertise. The rest of the three generally happen away from the bedside. The answer is strikingly clear I guess.
Postamble
I agree the answers to these queries can be extremely sensitive, and contentious for many of us. Little deeper lies the truth. Hope, the quote from the much-stigmatized father of modern medicine “Primum non-nocere” will help find the answer.
Medical distillery : How to eliminate evidence based falsehoods in medical literature ?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged audit of medical science, bioethics, cleansing of medical literature, Dr. Jhon Loannidhis, ethics in medicine, medical science distillery on October 5, 2020|
If science is considered as a journey towards truth,.. knowledge, data, and statistics are the key companions in this infinite voyage to an unknown destination. While hundreds & thousands of scientists do travel in this turbulent road daily, pursuing their mundane work, there are very few researchers worried about the true purpose of their journey, the quality of the road they travel, the dangerous fault lines they create.
It has become a taboo topic to criticize medical science even after realizing the fact that we are compelled to follow and glorify some of the best nonsense.
Dr. Jhon Loannidhis Professor of statistics and public health from Stanford University is of a different genre. He became so popular after his landmark paper
Loannidis JPA (2005) Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. PLoS Med 2(8): e124.
His lectures are so important to us. Physicians need to listen to his talks, infested with absolute truths, unpalatable though.
Final message
It is my wish there is a need for a new specialty called quality assessment of published medical literature and knowledge distillery.
Awesome Doctors are not created in medical schools
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ethics in medicine, hippocrates otth on medical education, Iam documentry Tom Shadyac, medical education, Patch adams, Tom Shadyac on July 1, 2020|
Who is a doctor? Where are they made?
I haven’t clearly understood the true meaning of customary Dr tag, my name carries for more than 3 decades, till I saw this. Wish, this video is played to all young medical students on their graduation day.
I am realizing with guilt, it requires a Holywood movie buff to remind us the true meaning of the famous WHO – definition of Health, done in the most holistic fashion in the year 1948.
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
So, technically, whoever serves to improve these three components and alleviate human suffering becomes a doctor.
Happy to share this on July 1st, the official Doctor’s day in India in memory of the Bharat Ratna Dr.B.C.Roy of Bengal.
Reference
The clip is from the movie Patch Adams, Directed by Tom Shadyac. A Hollywood celebrity movie maker, Virginian professor of communication turned philanthropist, now retired to a minimalist life. He is also known for his famous documentary I am that talks about the problems faced by the world. Though his works are much appreciated, I must say, they are underrated. Deserves more than an Oscar for communicating his thoughts on the medical profession perfectly and for social equality.
Can we mix philosophy with science in medical teaching ?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ethics in medicine on May 14, 2020|
I think it is an Invalid question. Whether you like it or not , medical science and philosophy are always bonded together and its relationship is eternal. It doesn’t make sense to separate them. I think we have misunderstood the meaning of philosophy. While science is presumed truths, philosophy is trying to believe in unknown truths. Philosophical truths are built-into every decision a medical professional takes.
If the expected natural history of any disease is science, unexpected deviations are philosophy. (RT PCR testing for diagnosing Corona is science, why 90% of them are not infective and don’t transform disease is philosophy) When something is not seen or quantifiable like human immunity, it is a perfect example of concealed science or manifest philosophy.
Taking about what we think we know is science, Talking about what we really don’t know is philosophy. The term Idiopathic syndrome finds a proud of the place in every specialty in medicine, Isn’t?
What will be your answer when your patient wants an assurance that a stent, you had just implanted will not get occluded in the next 6 months or so.“I don’t know, I cant assure you about that” will be your most likely answer. (Though, we do it in style, hiding behind the scientific hyperbole decorated with numbers, also referred to as statistics) Please realize, this is the expression of medical philosophy in the finest form.
Final message
My Impression is, philosophical truths should be liberally used in a regular fashion right from the first-year medical school to advanced specialty teaching. This seems essential as science in the current times suffers from too much sanctity. This has spilled over to the doctor population as well, and make them appear invincible.
If only we realize science often trails behind the philosophical truths at least by a few decades, our patients will not be injured inappropriately and prematurely. Mixing science with philosophy in the right composition ( a perfect academic cocktail ) will bring out the best from the noble profession.
Postamble
Can anyone guess, why scientists are given a doctorate in Philosophy degree (PhD ) ?
When are you not available doctor ? . . . Please confirm , I am reaching the hospital shortly.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ethics in medicine on March 12, 2018| 2 Comments »
Yes, Medicine is a funny science ( some don’t agree , Isn’t Art ?) Many of the noble professionals are silently pursuing their job of saving lives and removing human suffering .Meanwhile, people like this author are needlessly bothered about some Imaginary Issues and write stuff like this one , . . that you are reading now !
Yes, there is an invisible tectonic shift taking place in the name of science.The way we practice medicine currently, it fits in with any of the following descriptions . Divine, Godly,dramatic,miraculous , comical ,cruel or even outright brutal ! (I dare not quantify the weightage of each adjectives used above !)
The field of cardiology as I know personally for the past three decades is challenged by uncontrolled growth (How about proposing 1000 dollar PCSK blocker Evolocumab for a meaningless reduction of few mg of LDL over and above Statin ) Further,the technology goes on to Implode at every corners of wall street ,(Mitra clip for mild MR of DCM ! TAVR for aged Aortic valve ) hijacking commonsense and cost (where is the effectiveness ?) of every stake holder .
In the process ,the critical healing power that resides within every biological system is ignored and ridiculed upon .(You become a fool if you say endothelial tissue plasminogen activator and lytic system will take care of a bulk of the intravascular vascular thrombus if we wait, and we shall permanently defer an Intervention! Current space aged physicians want to invade every existing (or non existing ) problem with multi pronged military strategy and guess what will happen to the humble body which becomes the battle ground.
Coming to the content proper
Sometimes I feel God throws some random truths at an unexpected time through some extraordinary men ! Here is a most unusual study of its kind from the Sanctum sanctorum of Medical science , namely Harvard medical school and Massachusetts General hospital .I think it was presented in ACC Scientific sessions 2018 , Orlando and published in Journal of American heart Association.
Cheers and congratulations to the lead author Dr.Anupam B Jena* , Physician and professor , Department of health care policy , and Health economist
* A video profile of author is in the reference
There is no surprise a paper with such a title had a huge media backlash. USA today reacts . . .
My observations and final message
The paper from MGH, Boston dwells a sensitive area ,of course it has come with a gross conclusion (However, I feel it has hit the bull’s eye.) Still, for the critics, I want to tell one thing , who can deny the fact ? the massive evidence base with 100s and thousands of research papers created by cardiology scientific Industry over the decades is largely a damn squib.
(The problem with acquiring this sort of ready to synthesise knowledge stuff is, It sits right inside our brain and bonds irreversibly , refuse to leave even if these dubious practices are proven dangerous ultimately !)
It might appear , the only option to tackle fake science would be through some dramatic ,less than ideal or mediocre research papers (Or even another fake!) As long as final outcome is good for the public don’t bother about methodology of such studies.(Does it sound in any way I am a supporter of Donald Trump ,! No I am not !)
Reference
Now have a look at this (a long post ) which I wrote some time back. Find out whether these scribblings of mine seem to have grown some scientific backing now .
A brief Info about the author of this unusual paper that has put the field of Interventional cardiology into tail spin and fluttering in cross winds !
Four faces of modern medicine
Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology Risk assesment, medical quotes, Social medicine, Two line sermons in cardiology, Venkat quotes, tagged cardiology ethics, ethics in medicine, hippocrates, intentional harm, principles of medicine, risk benfiet ratio, unintentional benefit, unintentional harm on November 16, 2013| 1 Comment »
What Deepawali shall mean to a modern Homo-sapien ?
Posted in Quotes, Science and Religion, Venkat quotes, tagged Deepawali, ethics in medicine, festival of lights, hippocrates on November 2, 2013| 1 Comment »
Today , November 2nd 2013 is Deepawali , Nearly 1 billion people celebrate it
Wishing you all happy and Deepawali , Let goodness and wisdom prevail over evil and Ignorance !
Deepawali is an ancient festival of lights , millions of Hindus celebrate It with sanctity.
It is a war on darkness and ignorance .On this day goodness prevailed over evil (Asura)
Unfortunately , In the current versions , it would seem Asura’s also join Deepawali celebrations and enjoy it with more vigor ! which is supposed to eliminate them !
Please ensure , that doesn’t happen . . . at least in your domain !
God is supreme . . . he will never allow the evil to take over the world ! Be a soldier to God’s Army !
*For more about this great Hindu festival click on the Link here Deepawali
When cost of dying . . . exceeds cost of living . . . this world will go nuts !
Posted in Cardiology classics, cardiology-ethics, Cardiology-Statistics, general medicine, Quotes, Social medicine, Venkat quotes, Wintage cardiology, tagged affluent vs poor health care, cost of living, crude detah rate, do not resucitate dnr, ethics in medicine, health budget, health care priorities, health economics, health expenditure gdp, health insurance, health management, health policy for the future, hippocrates, inappropriate health care delivery, mercy killing, obamacare, primary health care, private vs public health care, sharing medical resources, terminal illness, tertiary health care, who world health organisation, withdrawl of life support, world food program wfo on October 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »
News : In any developed nation , 90 % of total health expenditure is exhausted in prolonging final few days of human life !
When cost of dying . . . exceeds cost of living . . . this world will go nuts !
The current real world experience from India’s five star hospitals indicate, many elderly rich men and women spend their last few days before being buried or burnt .They spent an average of 15 lakh Rs per death . This amounts to the entire “life time” cost of living of majority of Indians .
Image courtesy from Flicker/ Rachel sian photostream
When human organ donation is considered a greatest philanthropic act, there is one more excellent alternative for those who can’t do it .If only every super rich translate their cost of dying into cost of others living ! many new lives will bloom .
The exorbitant rise in cost of dying in India , is a recent development and reflects the affluence , honor , pride and of course lots of prejudice lack of wisdom ! Instead of filling the deep pockets of greedy corporates why not the rich add new lives ? !
Final message
Let all elders with irreversible conditions , who have finished their life , shall die peacefully at home .Why don’t we ( Affluent . . . would be cadavers !) cross sponsor their dying cost to a public health , nutrition or medical fund .
After thought
Oh America , . . . Am I right ,? Obama thought it and implementing it too ! I would believe , his health care policy is a small first step in this direction !
Categories
Archives
- May 2021 (3)
- April 2021 (4)
- March 2021 (3)
- February 2021 (6)
- January 2021 (8)
- December 2020 (4)
- November 2020 (5)
- October 2020 (7)
- September 2020 (7)
- August 2020 (10)
- July 2020 (6)
- June 2020 (9)
- May 2020 (9)
- April 2020 (5)
- March 2020 (7)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (4)
- December 2019 (4)
- November 2019 (6)
- October 2019 (3)
- September 2019 (6)
- August 2019 (3)
- July 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (3)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (4)
- January 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (2)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (2)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (3)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (3)
- February 2018 (3)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (3)
- November 2017 (3)
- October 2017 (3)
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (2)
- July 2017 (2)
- June 2017 (2)
- May 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (3)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (3)
- December 2016 (2)
- November 2016 (5)
- October 2016 (4)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (5)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (4)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (6)
- March 2016 (4)
- February 2016 (3)
- January 2016 (5)
- December 2015 (6)
- November 2015 (5)
- October 2015 (8)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (5)
- July 2015 (7)
- June 2015 (4)
- May 2015 (6)
- April 2015 (5)
- March 2015 (7)
- February 2015 (15)
- January 2015 (8)
- December 2014 (5)
- November 2014 (8)
- October 2014 (7)
- September 2014 (9)
- August 2014 (5)
- July 2014 (11)
- June 2014 (5)
- May 2014 (4)
- April 2014 (5)
- March 2014 (8)
- February 2014 (8)
- January 2014 (5)
- December 2013 (7)
- November 2013 (7)
- October 2013 (14)
- September 2013 (12)
- August 2013 (15)
- July 2013 (15)
- June 2013 (15)
- May 2013 (15)
- April 2013 (15)
- March 2013 (15)
- February 2013 (15)
- January 2013 (15)
- December 2012 (15)
- November 2012 (15)
- October 2012 (15)
- September 2012 (15)
- August 2012 (15)
- July 2012 (15)
- June 2012 (15)
- May 2012 (15)
- April 2012 (15)
- March 2012 (15)
- February 2012 (15)
- January 2012 (15)
- December 2011 (15)
- November 2011 (17)
- October 2011 (17)
- September 2011 (17)
- August 2011 (21)
- July 2011 (20)
- June 2011 (17)
- May 2011 (15)
- April 2011 (17)
- March 2011 (25)
- February 2011 (20)
- January 2011 (20)
- December 2010 (18)
- November 2010 (21)
- October 2010 (21)
- September 2010 (25)
- August 2010 (20)
- July 2010 (10)
- June 2010 (11)
- May 2010 (19)
- April 2010 (16)
- March 2010 (14)
- February 2010 (22)
- January 2010 (18)
- December 2009 (20)
- November 2009 (20)
- October 2009 (3)
- September 2009 (21)
- August 2009 (19)
- July 2009 (12)
- June 2009 (12)
- May 2009 (11)
- April 2009 (15)
- March 2009 (21)
- February 2009 (4)
- January 2009 (12)
- December 2008 (13)
- November 2008 (9)
- October 2008 (22)
- September 2008 (20)
- August 2008 (16)
- July 2008 (14)
- June 2008 (7)
Blog Stats
- 5,423,119 hits
Please give your feed back .
Click below to see who is watching this website live !
- This site will never aim for profit. Still ,this donation link is added at the request of few visitors who wanted to contribute and of-course that will help make it sustainable .
Please Note
