Tag Archives: India

Recognition at last

February 2, 2022

Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States Andrew Moyer, in his Peoria laboratory, discovered the process for mass producing penicillin. USDA-ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research. Public domain.    “Though she be but little, she is fierce.”  — William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream     The adage “out of sight, out of mind” appears to […]

The “Ne-Uro” mess

January 10, 2022

Nishitha Bujala Hyderabad, Telangana, India   Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash When I took my oral exams in the final year of medical school, I was tested on surgical instruments by an external professor. He appeared to be in his sixties and stern. As a conversation starter, he asked my favorite specialty. “Neurology,” I […]

John Hunter, his wolf dogs, and the inherited smiles of Pomeranians

November 5, 2021

Stephen Martin United Kingdom   Fig 1. Title of Hunter’s Royal Society wolf dogs paper. © Author, from original, CC-BY 4.0 John Hunter, 1728-1793, was a polymathic doctor. Besides being an anatomist and clinician, he was also interested in early genetics, exemplified by his “Observations tending to shew that the Wolf, Jackal, and Dog, are […]

The doctor behind the labcoat

November 4, 2021

Varun Raj Passi Bangalore, India   “Sanjeev’s Phantasms” by Chetna VM. Sanjeev knew he was not asleep, and the very fact that he was conscious enough to know this made him worry. The relentless clicking of the wall-clock above his bedstead amplified his anxiety. He knew that the more clicks he registered now, the less […]

Sister Kenny: the forgotten Nightingale

October 21, 2021

Anand Raja Devaraj Sushama Kerala, India   Elizabeth Kenny photographed in 1915. Unknown photographer. Item held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Medical practices flourish and fall out of favor with time. Some become the norm only to turn redundant later; others prevail after a hard battle for acceptance. A campaign is even […]

A “most perfect interchange”

October 15, 2021

Satyabha Tripathi Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India   The Doctor. Luke Fildes. 1891. Tate Gallery, London. Via Wikimedia. “[Lydgate held] the conviction that the medical profession as it might be was the finest in the world; presenting the most perfect interchange between science and art; offering the most direct alliance between intellectual conquest and the social […]

The use of force in medicine

October 8, 2021

Angad Tiwari India Mallika Khurana Japan   We walk the wards where Williams walked. Picture from Brueghel and Other Poems by William Carlos Williams: Collected Poems 19650-1962. New York: Directions Publishing Corporation. Source William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), regarded as “the most important literary doctor since Chekhov,” was an American Pulitzer prize-winning writer and poet who […]

Abhay Sadhak (fearless seeker): Baba Amte

October 8, 2021

Utkarsh G. Hingmire Nagpur, India   Baba Amte. This file is a copyrighted work of the Government of India, licensed under the Government Open Data License – India (GODL). Via Wikimedia. Murlidhar Devidas Amte, affectionately known as Baba Amte, was a lawyer who left his lucrative legal career to devote his life to the treatment of […]

Medical tourism

October 8, 2021

Kozlova Liudmyla Mykolaiv, Ukraine   Doctor with stethoscope and globe in his hand. Photo by Jernej Furman. Via Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Medical tourism is a highly profitable industry that offers a range of medical procedures, highly specialized medical services, and tourism opportunities. It combines travel for health and medical services with recreational tourism. While […]

Origin of the mind

September 14, 2021

Bhargavi Bhattacharyya Kolkata, India   Artificial Intelligence. Photo by Gerd Altman. From Pixabay. How are the mind and brain related? The brain is a ball of nerve cells, or neurons. The mind, the functional unit of the brain, includes imagination, perception, thinking, intelligence, judgment, language, memory, and emotions. How do these basic units, neurons, translate […]