This blog is my reflection on regular field visits as part of the urban health action research project that I am currently working on. The field site for the project is a very poor neighbourhood of Bengaluru called K.G.Halli. This neighbourhood has families who earn their living as daily wageworkers to a few upper middle […]
Category: South Asia
Maya Annie Elias: Tobacco control in India—more needs to be done to promote smoking cessation in India
Tobacco use is one of the single largest preventable causes of death and a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases. The burden of tobacco related illnesses prompted the Government of India to initiate various measures for tobacco control. India adapted the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) and passed the “Cigarettes and Other Tobacco […]
Neel Sharma: Does the cost of using technology in medical education unfairly disadvantage developing countries?
Medical education reform has seen significant changes since the days of the Flexner report. What remains true are the rigorous entrance requirements, the scientific method of thinking, learning by doing, and the need to undertake original research (1). The advent of technology over the past decade and more has meant that learning by doing has […]
Gender inequality given short shrift by India’s draft National Health Policy 2015
The Indian government’s draft National Health Policy 2015 is radical in terms of its analysis of the failures of the past. It fails, however, to translate this admission to policy prescriptions that will be gender transformative. In so far as addressing gender inequality in healthcare, the policy frames gender as an area for action under “Nirbhaya […]
A public health commentary on India’s draft National Health Policy 2015
The Indian government’s draft National Health Policy 2015 clearly articulates its goals and principles going forward, which is a laudable departure from previous policy pronouncements. It is very candid in its acceptance of the failures of past health initiatives, but does not identify the reasons for such failure. By failing to do so, the solutions pro-offered for existing problems seem […]
“Anything you get for free is not of good quality:” perceptions of generic medicines
The number of people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India is increasing with each passing year. The World Health Organization estimates that NCDs could account for nearly 60% of total deaths in India. Yet, despite an increased allocation of spending on healthcare by the government in the past few years, out of pocket expenditure by […]
Praveenkumar Aivalli on the status of AYUSH doctors in the government healthcare delivery system in India
AYUSH—an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy—is a system of medicine that has been integrated into the Indian national healthcare delivery system to strengthen public health in rural India. In 2005, when the Indian government launched the national rural health mission (NRHM) to improve healthcare delivery especially for the rural population, integration of […]
Richard Smith: A global university for healthcare workers
WHO estimates that the world is short of 12.9 million healthcare workers, and Devi Shetty, the cardiac surgeon and chairman and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, thinks that radical steps are needed to provide these workers. Money for healthcare for all will come, he believes, but it cannot be achieved unless healthcare workers are available […]
Richard Smith: Surgeons spend their time putting a price tag on human life
Physicians and surgeons across Asia, Africa, and Latin America spend their time putting a price tag on human life, said Devi Shetty, cardiac surgeon and chairman and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, at the World Summit on Innovation in Heath in Doha last week. His mission is to reduce the costs of health to make […]
Tushar Garg: India needs to teach its doctors more about the care in healthcare
I was taking a patient’s blood pressure in a clinic when I heard one woman—who was poor, uneducated, and a first time attendee there—being asked a question by a resident doctor. When the patient kept murmuring something inaudible, perhaps trying to remember, the resident told her to return when she knew the answer to the question. […]