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IMA Opposes NExT Implementation, Citing Affordability And Accessibility Concerns

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The NMC has sought comments from all the stakeholders on the implementation and preparation of conducting the National Exit Test (NExT) by filling up the feedback form by February 7. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to the National Medical Commission (NMC) stating that the implementation of the NExT without proper evaluation would jeopardise the affordability and accessibility of medical education and urged it to reconsider certain provisions. The NMC has sought comments from all the stakeholders on the implementation and preparation of conducting the National Exit Test (NExT) by filling up the feedback form by February 7. The stakeholders have also been requested to go-through the NMC National Exit Test Regulations, 2023. NExT defeats vision of affordable medical education The doctors' body said bringing in the NExT defeats the vision of the prime minister and government of affordable and accessible medical education by seriously hampering the survival of medical i

Untangling Rosalind Franklin’s Role in DNA Discovery, 70 Years On

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Historians have long debated the role that Dr. Franklin played in identifying the double helix. A new opinion essay argues that she was an “equal contributor.”   On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published  a landmark paper  in Nature, proposing the double helix as the long elusive structure of DNA, a discovery that a decade later earned the men the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the final paragraph of the paper, they acknowledged that they had been “stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas” of two scientists at King’s College London, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. In the 70 years since, a less flattering story has emerged, thanks in large part to Dr. Watson’s own best-selling book, “The Double Helix.” In the book, he not only wrote disparagingly of Dr. Franklin, whom he called Rosy, but also said that he and Dr. Crick had used her data without her knowledge. “Rosy, of course, did not directly g

Many medical students under stress: study

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According to a study, 358 suicide deaths among medical students (125), residents (105) and physicians (128) had been reported between 2010 and 2019; additionally, 1,166 students dropped out of medical colleges; there were several appeals for intervention from students and parents. A recent Right to Information (RTI) response from the National Medical Commission (NMC) said that 64 MBBS and 55 postgraduate medicos died by suicide in the last five years. Additionally, 1,166 students dropped out of medical colleges. Of these, 160 were studying MBBS and 1,006 were pursuing postgraduate courses. ALSO READ Revisiting two cases of medico deaths Concerned over the incidents of suicide and suicidal ideation among medical students, the NMC, India’s apex medical education regulatory authority, late in 2022  asked all medical colleges in the country to compile  data on suicides, and drop-outs among undergraduate and postgraduate students over the past five years. The decision by the commission to s

Moving forward with a newer concept of Universal Health Care

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It must encompass primary, secondary and tertiary care for all who need it, and at affordable cost without discrimination Do we believe in health as a basic human right, which India’s Constitution guarantees under right to life? In contrast, we believe in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health: a certain totality of health to the realms of mental and social well-being and happiness beyond physical fitness, and an absence of disease and disability. This means that we cannot achieve health in its wider definition without addressing health determinants. This necessitates a need for an intersectoral convergence beyond medical and health departments such as women and child development, food and nutrition, agriculture and animal husbandry, civil supplies, rural water supply and sanitation, social welfare, tribal welfare, education, forestry. Healthcare As An Optional Public Service (HOPS) as a route to universal health care We all subscribed to the slogan “Health for All by

Baby steps for tackling India’s malnutrition woes

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By Dr K Srinath Reddy A mix of dismay and debate has been the reaction to the persistently high rates of childhood undernutrition reported by the last National Family Health Survey. Dismay because the reported prevalence of 35.5% stunting, 32.1% underweight and 19.3% wasting in children under five years of age does not bode well for their present and future health or cognitive development.   The debate centres around the question of whether the global standards by which these metrics are defined, are applicable to Indian children. Another area of concern is whether such children will be harmed by supplementary feeding because it may make them stunted and obese as an unintended consequence.   Undernourished children are highly susceptible to serious infections because of poor immunity. They are physically inactive because of low muscle mass and reduced lung capacity. They suffer cognitive impairment, which diminishes their potential for education and employment. This loss of b