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The mandatory thesis submission in medical postgraduate education is a futile exercise

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Not every training doctor requires homework or imposed deadlines to develop valuable skills: the real focus should be on teaching doctors on how to read and understand research, by providing hands-on research training without the pressure of mandatory submission Poor research training - a multi-faceted problem Most undergraduate students are not taught research. The requirement of a good foundation in statistics also makes learning research challenging and often less interesting, as the dislike for numbers is often what pushes people to pursue medicine. Knowledge of the human body—its physiology, the what, when and how of diseases, and the principles of diagnosis and treatment—is far more intriguing to students. For most medical students, their first exposure to research occurs during Community Medicine postings in their third year. As scientific critical thinking but rote learning is the requirement to clear all exams, undergraduate research is considered an ‘extracurricular activity’...
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Gone too soon — the subject of youth suicide in India

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Suicide is the tragic and untimely loss of human life, all the more devastating and perplexing because it is a conscious volitional act. India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of suicides in the world. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports that 1.71 lakh people died by suicide in 2022. The suicide rate has increased to 12.4 per 1,00,000 — the highest rate ever recorded in India. But these figures are underestimated due to an inadequate registration system, the lack of medical certification of death, stigma and other factors. Unfortunately, 41% of all suicides are by young people below the age of 30. Suicide is the leading cause of mortality for young women in India. A young Indian dies by suicide every eight minutes, which is a loss to family, society, the economy and future of the country. Suicide in the young is a major public health problem in India. There is no single factor Suicide is a complex human behaviour and it is futile to locate a single ...
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FORDA, RTI activists point at corruption nexus over non-payment of stipend to PG medical students

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As many as 100 postgraduate (PG) students  of  a private medical college in Sullia, Karnataka recently complained  of   no n- payment   of  their monthly stipend by their college authorities. This has once again opened the can  of   worms highlighting the problems faced by the PG medical students across medical colleges in India. Karnataka students claim their persistent requests for stipend have fallen on deaf ears  of  the college authorities. Earlier this week, the PG students decided to stage a protest against the college management if their  stipends  were not released. This is not a single case, as several private medical students across the country have complained  of   non-pay ment   of   stipends . As per the National Medical Commission (NMC), PG doctors must receive Rs 45,000, Rs 50,000, and Rs 55,000 for their first, second...
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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...
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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 ...
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