India’s new Companies Act with its rules mandating corporate social responsibility (CSR) came into effect on 1 April 2014. The objective of CSR is for businesses to exist as responsible citizens of their socio economic milieu and contribute to social good. As such, CSR pervades every aspect of a corporate organization’s functioning. How then do […]
Category: South Asia
The BMJ Today: Information for patients and clinicians
Diabetes is among the most common non-communicable diseases in the world, and peripheral neuropathy is the most common symptomatic complication of this disease. Small and large fibers are affected, and patients may exhibit a variety of clinical syndromes, including symmetric distal sensorimotor neuropathy, mononeuropathy (single or multiplex), radiculopathy, plexopathy, and even autonomic dysfunction. In about […]
Arima Mishra and Sandesh Kotte: Where does the healthcare of Indian people figure in political parties’ election manifestos?
In their recent book, Uncertain Glory: India and its contradictions, Sen and Dreze lament the fact that despite India’s consistent economic growth, the country falters on basic social indicators like health, nutrition, and education. This is partly because these issues have never figured prominently in the political and public spaces. The […]
KM Venkat Narayan: Roads in India – a fast growing death trap
Today I received a sad email about a 24 year old family friend who died in a road traffic accident in Mumbai. Rohan Sardar skid on the road while riding his bike, suffered a head injury and, after much delay at the ill equipped, civic run Shatabdhi Hospital, was moved to Kokilabai Dhirubai Ambani Hospital […]
The BMJ Today: The glass ceiling, upcoming elections, and big tobacco
As I look around our open plan office, towards where our editor, Fiona Godlee, sits, it would seem that the glass ceiling has been shattered at The BMJ. But, in her personal view, Medicine still needs feminism, Helena Watson argues that there are “legions of feminist issues still left to fight.” […]
The BMJ Today: If you hear hoof beats in Texas think of horses, not zebras
As Saurabh Jha writes, “The likelihood that someone with cerebral aneurysm hit by a bat develops subarachnoid hemorrhage (near certainty) is not the same as the likelihood that someone who develops subarachnoid hemorrhage after high impact trauma has an aneurysm, hitherto undisclosed (very low).” But would you order tests so you could absolutely rule it […]
The BMJ Today: Is medicine marching towards an era of greater openness?
In the latest Endgames picture quiz, a 41 year old man presents to the emergency department with a two week history of worsening shortness of breath, productive cough, intermittent fever, night sweats, and non-pleuritic pain in the right side of the chest wall. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary abcess secondary to community acquired pneumonia. […]
The BMJ Today: Paying people to live healthier lives and tackling climate change
This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fifth Assessment Report. The scientists who wrote it warn of the serious impact that climate change—unequivocally influenced by human activity—will have on humans and other species in the planet. The IPCC calls for world leaders and policy makers to promote adaptation strategies to mitigate […]
Nathan Sivagananathan: Trail—improving cancer care in Sri Lanka
In 2011 Nathan Sivagananathan and Sarinda Unamboowe set out to transform the lives of patients with cancer in the northern region of Sri Lanka. For over three decades the northern territory has been in the throes of terrorism, with little room for economic or social development. The ongoing war made the 400 km journey to […]
The BMJ Today: Vitamin D, probiotics, and polio
We have been longing for a final word on whether vitamin D supplements improve health. An umbrella review published today included 107 systematic literature reviews and 74 meta-analyses of observational studies looking at serum levels of vitamin D, as well as 87 meta-analyses of randomised trials testing vitamin D supplements. A total of 137 outcomes […]