Indian Health Care Sector

[bala]

40 US cos to send staff to India for healthcare

At least 40 American corporations have signed a health plan, which allows sending employees abroad, including to India, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, where they could save more than 80 per cent on the cost of medical procedures.

United Group Programs, a health insurer in Boca Raton, Florida, began offering the programme six months ago. More than 150,000 North American and European are currently seeking medical treatment abroad.

[Raju]

Flu Can Bide Time In Icy Limbo Before Re-emerging, Biologist Believes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 210430.htm


[quote]Dr. Scott Rogers is talking about the potential for long-dormant strains of influenza, packed in ice in remote global outposts, to be unleashed by melting and migratory birds.
“We've found viral RNA in the ice in Siberia, and it's along the major flight paths of migrating waterfowl,â€

[shyamd]

Only 128 doctors per lakh population in India

New Delhi, Dec. 2 (PTI): The doctor-population ratio in the country does not paint a very flattering picture of the status of medicare, with only 128 doctors available for every one lakh people.

The ratio works out to a dismal 1:781, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Friday.

As per the statistics of the Medical Council of India, the allopathic doctor-population ratio at present works out to an even worse 1:1722.

There are more than six lakh practitioners of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy in the country, Lakshmi said.

There are 262 medical colleges with an annual intake of around 29,500 students, she said in response to a question on the steps being taken to improve the ratio.

"As existing in other professions, even in the medical sector, some doctors resort to migration abroad for improvement in one's prospects for professional, academic and financial considerations, which is a common feature in a number of countries," she said replying to a question on whether migration of doctors to foreign countries was one of the reasons.

[shyamd]

The True Oath

In India's jungles, remote hills, dusty plains these specialist doctors have sacrificed all they had to spread hope
ANJALI PURI

A low, broad ledge runs around a single-storey building, with 250 numbered spaces marked on it. Sitaram and his mother are on number eight. They left home 24 hours ago and took a 75-km bus ride to reach Jan Swasthya Sahyog at Ganiyari in Chhattisgarh by afternoon. First, Sitaram, a farm labourer quickly secured their place on the ledge with his gamcha, then lowered his unsteady, trembling mother, suffering perhaps from Parkinson's disease, on to a mat on the floor, where she waited. For the day to pass, for night to fall, for morning to arrive, and for OPD to begin.

Now, finally, will this 65-year-old woman be seen by a doctor she can trust, for a fee of Rs 6. If she needs tests, they will be done on the spot, if she has to buy medicines, it will be at a fraction of market rates. That's how it will be for 249 others too who've come on foot, by bus, bullock cart, or wedged between two attendants on a "motorcycle ambulance", making a beeline for the "Ganiyari doctors". There are no queues at the dismal government community health centre at nearby Kotah, where the block medical officer tells us: "It's the healthy time of the year."

For four doctor couples, most of them alumni of Delhi's premier AIIMS, this scramble to get treated at the centre they set up seven years ago is heart-lifting—and gut-wrenching. It validates, week after week, their decision to turn their backs on a world of prestigious specialist posts, lucrative practices, opportunities to go West, and take on the challenges of working in rural Chhattisgarh.

But it also drives home a shocking contrast between limitless need and the limits to what a bunch of good doctors can do. "It is obscene," says Dr Yogesh Jain, who gave up his post as Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at AIIMS in '99, to be here. "If that was my mother, sitting there, I would be very angry."

These highs and lows are woven into the daily life of a very small number of doctors scattered across the country who've opted to offer cheap, high-quality care to rural populations caught between "quackery and crookery", as Prof Amartya Sen once put it. In settings like Ganiyari, or Sittlingi in rural Tamil Nadu, where doctors Regi George and Lalitha Regi work among adivasis, you see doctors as you may never have done: non-intimidating, empathetic, humbled by their patients' struggle to make a living off the land; maintaining detailed case notes for the hundreds of patients who flock to their clinics.

You see them relieved to be able to end the immobilising fatigue and despair of a 30-year-old mother of two with anti-TB drugs, or be able to save a six-year-old suffering from deadly falciparum malaria. And you see them extremely proud of the barely literate women they've trained to become competent medical workers. Says Sunil Kaul, an ex-army doctor (he secured his release only after a long court battle), who now lives and works in Bongaigaon, Assam, "The 40 health workers we've trained are the kind of women who would make fantastic IAS officers—they look after 10,000 to 15,000 patients in villages with social indicators lower than Bihar."

As specialisation is a luxury the situation can't afford, you see specialists going back to their textbooks. ENT specialist Madhabi Bhargava also treats childhood illnesses and examines pregnant women, urologist Pradeep Trehan has found himself performing emergency caesareans in rural Haryana. You also see, in rural areas, doctors tested and yet exhilarated by the sharper levels of observation and superior decision-making needed to manage serious illnesses without recourse to a battery of investigations; or the improvisational skills required to carry out surgery under trying conditions. "I've been my lab assistant, my paramedic, my radiologist, my anaesthetist," says pioneering rural surgeon R. Tongaonkar, who has performed highly subsidised surgeries for four decades at his small hospital in Dondaicha, in Maharashtra's Dhule district.

But you also see rural doctors enormously frustrated. Firstly, in the poorest parts of the country, by chronic hunger masquerading as normality. Woman after woman walks into a forest clinic, in her bright, best nylon sari, with carefully applied sindoor and a tentative smile for the doctor. To my untrained eye, she doesn't look like a famine victim, but the doctor grimly—and accurately—assesses that she weighs what a 12-year-old should. Because she goes to bed hungry every night, more diseases will attack her, and in more severe forms.

Equally frustrating for rural doctors is their close-up view, whether in the hills of Uttaranchal or the plains of Maharashtra, of a state healthcare machinery that's cynical, corrupt, non-accountable and non-functional, forcing patients to opt for rapacious private practitioners, quacks—or no medical care at all.

What also angers doctors working in rural areas are misconceptions that are rife about the healthcare needs of "simple and hardy" rural people. Rural poor, they point out, are prone, not just to the worst communicable diseases, but all the so-called "lifestyle diseases" lazily correlated only with urban excess, and never with rural poverty and stress. For instance, the rural poor show up, far from obese, with diabetes so advanced that diagnosis and amputation happens in a single session. Yet, affordable access to insulin is a dream when even getting a basic malaria test is hard.

Finally, what also disheartens rural medics, despite the daily endorsement they get from those they serve, is the dwindling numbers of doctors willing to join them. Some come to help out for a few months, at a camp or two, but rarely, to stay.

But still, these doctors wouldn't rather be anywhere else—job satisfaction is very high among this tiny minority. Well known among rural doctors are Abhay and Rani Bang, whose pathbreaking work on infant mortality and women's reproductive health in Maharashtra's Gadchhiroli district has changed global health policy. Here, we focus on those known to far fewer.

[shyamd]

India Inc lends patient ear to hearing impaired
[quote]C H Unnikrishnan / Mumbai December 18, 2006
India’s leading corporate houses like Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Construction Company, HDFC, Deutsche Bank and a few others have joined hands to help re-building work skills for the hearing-impaired, who are otherwise healthy and normal but remained an economic burden.

The corporates have now come forward to help the country’s deaf population, which is estimated to be over five million at present, to go for cochlear implants.

Cochlear implants that is considered to be one of the costliest surgeries, is still not picked up in India due to high cost, lack of awareness and dearth of specialised surgeons.

Since the country is fully dependent on imported implants, the device that is implanted within the patient’s ear along with the audio, language identification and brain translation counselling, a surgery currently costs Rs 5 to 9.5 lakh not taking into account the cost of hospitalization, in India at present.

The cost followed by lack of awareness are the two most serious reasons for not enough Cochlear implants being done in India. As on date there are about 1.5 -2 million children who are in need of cochlear implant.

On an average only about 150 - 200 implants are done in a year. There are only about 25 -30 cochlear implant centers in India. Of which 5 are in Mumbai including PD Hinduja Hospital, Jaslok, Bombay Hospital, INS Ashwini and Cumballa Hill.

The automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra, through its charitable arm Mahindra Foundation has recently donated 60 cochlear implants to hospitals specialised in the surgery.

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) which has joined in the initiative a while ago had also contributed about 25 implants followed by HDFC Bank, Duetsche Bank, Pidilite Industries, there are 15 to 20 companies have shown interest in joining the movement.

Dr. M V Kirtane of PD Hinduja Hospital, who has initiated a cochlear implant workshop at the hospital for the patients, health councillors and other stake holders, says India does not have the technology to make an cochlear implant device.

As of now all of them are imported. “On an average, 1 in every 1000 children is born deaf. An average of 25000 children are born every day ie. almost 25 children need cochlear implant everyday,â€

[shyamd]

Ranbaxy ties up with GoI for research

MUMBAI: Domestic pharma major, Ranbaxy Laboratories has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in the area of New Drug Discovery Research (NDDR).

Under the scheme "Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme" (DPRP) that provides loans to in-house R&D laboratories and Scientific and Industrial Research Organisations (SIROs), DST, a government of India department, would provide financial support by way of soft loans to Ranbaxy to undertake NDDR activity.

"This public-private partnership will enable research oriented companies like Ranbaxy to explore and develop innovative medicines at affordable costs and thereby combat diseases more effectively," Ranbaxy Vice President NDDR Pradip Bhatnagar said in a statement on the BSE.

Two NDDR programmes in the therapeutic areas of anti-infective and inflammation, have been identified under the agreement with the Ranbaxy and the funding by DST would enable it to conduct the pre-clinical toxicity studies or safety studies.

Ranbaxy hopes the studies in these areas would facilitate its molecule's progression to the market.

Introduced as early as 1994-95, the DPRP promotes inter-alia collaborative R&D in the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector.

[Raju]

Not really related to 'Indian' healthcare industry, but general..

Autism Declines As Vaccines Remove Mercury

A new study shows that autism may be linked after all to the use of mercury in childhood vaccines, despite government’s previous claims to the contrary.
An article in the March 10, 2006, issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS.org) shows that since mercury was removed from childhood vaccines, the alarming increase in reported rates of autism and other neurological disorders (NDs) in children not only stopped, but actually dropped sharply – by as much as 35 percent.


Using the government’s own databases, independent researchers analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives. Authors David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. analyze data from the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the California Department of Developmental Services (CDDS) in "Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines.â€

[Tilak]

US Fireman Gets "Bruce Willis Look" In India

A US firefighter has undergone plastic surgery at a speciality hospital in India to look like Hollywood celebrity Bruce Willis, a newspaper reported Sunday.

John Joseph Conway, a 43-year-old fireman from Chicago had checked into the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi with a photograph of his hero, Willis, star of the Die Hard action movie series.

"I am a firefighter. I need to look the part. I wanted to improve my jawline. Bruce Willis has a nice, strong jaw," he told the Hindustan Times daily after the surgery.

Vivek Kumar, part of the medical team which operated on Conway on Thursday said doctors studied his face for three days to give him the look he wanted.

"After he contacted us on email, he said that as a man who jumps into burning buildings, people in the community look upto him and he needed to maintain his macho image," Kumar was quoted by the paper as saying.

Conway, who spent 1,600 dollars on three-hour-long surgery, said he was satisfied with the surgery. He now plans to bring his 63-year-old mother for a 1,500 dollar-face-lift, as well as his sister for surgery.

The three would spend 4,600 dollars for the medical procedures, post-operative care and hospital stay, approximately one-tenth the amount they would have to pay in the US.

The Conways are among the growing number of 'medical tourists' who are visiting the South Asian country for treatment that is not only cheap but comparable to the best in the world.

India is considered the leading destination for medical tourists, according to new market research. Medical tourism in India is growing by 30 per cent a year, studies say. It is estimated at 320 million dollars currently and is expected to top 2 billion dollars by 2012.

[Raju]

Kerala's crisis in public health

CR Soman (IANS)

February 4, 2007

Kerala is on the brink of a public health crisis. The state, which sets an example for the rest of India and third world countries in providing primary health care, now gropes in the dark and is fast losing the edge. The great achievements in the fields of mortality and fertility have reached a plateau, the near universal immunisation coverage achieved in the nineties has fallen in most districts.

The state is regularly visited by emerging outbreaks of leptospirosis, dengue fever and other insect borne viral fevers; the latest entrant is chickungunya. Natural ecology has been tampered with and the once-famous backwaters of the state are polluted and weed infested. Waste disposal in the municipalities and corporations still remains a formidable challenge. Conventional methods like land fill evoke furious protests from local inhabitants. Critics have re-christened 'God's Own Country' as 'God's own junkyard'.

The state health department is no longer the prime mover of health development. With less than a third of physicians, beds and institutions under the government, the state health services department is a mute spectator to the rapid decay of health services, particularly primary healthcare. Many primary health centres are unmanned. Drug procurement and distribution systems are outmoded and complaints of drug unavailability appear frequently in the media. The state-run medical colleges have no longer bright young academics to work for. They opt for more lucrative placement in the burgeoning private sector instead. Many super-specialty departments face the threat of closure in the absence of new recruitments.

There are worse problems. Recent studies suggest that Kerala has the highest burden of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and over-nutrition. Conservative estimates put the number of people with diabetes at three million; people with hypertension at 4.5 million and those with overweight and obesity at 10 million.

Every year in Kerala, between 45,000 and 50,000 people die of heart attacks, while stroke kills over 20,000. In comparison, the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS is just over 200. But both the government and the people perceive HIV control as a greater priority than lifestyle interventions aimed at curbing the epidemic of non-communicable diseases.

It is the healthcare industry that benefits from this sordid state of affairs in Kerala. Private hospitals offering sophisticated tertiary care are mushrooming, even in villages. By-pass surgery and coronary artery stenting are buzzwords familiar even to the children. One would be lucky if an MRI scan is not ordered if you reach a physician with a headache. The doctors prescribe laboratory tests even for minor ailments.

They may argue that a variety of investigation is necessary for complete profiling of the disease in modern medical practice. According to the Indian Medical Association, the doctor would be in trouble if the diagnosis goes wrong. It argues that they practise defensive medicine. But defensive against whom? Implied in this approach is the assumption that people, individually and collectively, are enemies of the medical profession. The IMA cites stories of attacks against doctors and increasing trend towards litigation against hospitals to buttress their arguments.

These are convincing arguments for the naïve. The sad truth is such arguments are alibis offered to mislead and misinform. The over-use of technology and drugs is driven by greed - a greed that is fuelled and perpetuated by an unholy nexus between doctors, the drug industry and the diagnostic sector. Huge rewards are offered to the physicians for prescribing expensive investigations. Anywhere between Rs 2000 and 2500 is offered as commission for an MRI scan; 40 per cent of the fee levied from laboratory investigations reach the doctor as commission.

Private hospitals make more money through over-investigating patients in their own laboratories than from providing care to the patient. Profit at any cost is the watchword. Doctors in the government sector also gain through the nexus between the industry and the profession. The government has made no attempt to regulate the healthcare industry, and often goes out of the way to provide them with more concessions and soaps.

Naturally, the victims are common men. Falling sick has become a reason for one to be pushed into debts. The Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad's (KSSP's) studies revealed that at least 15 per cent families spend over 30 per cent of their income on healthcare alone. While private healthcare costs exceed Rs 55 billion per annum, the government expenditure is falling steadily. The government's failure in providing affordable healthcare is likely to fuel public anger. Hospitals and doctors are likely to be targets of public attacks. Facilities for medical education are being auctioned off to the highest bidders.

To complete undergraduate course in a private medical college requires Rs 3-5 million. Naturally, they would expect quick returns for the investment. Fleecing the people would be the only choice! Those who get state-funded medical education are only too eager to fly abroad. And those who choose to stay home prefer to work in cities and towns, leaving primary health centres unattended.

Medical care in the state has become dehumanised and privatised. Commodifying healthcare - increasingly driven by profit - will demolish all that the state had achieved in the health sector during the last decades of the 20th century.

The big question is: will the present government, keen to articulate people's causes but principally concerned with factional feuds ever be able to stem the rot and usher in rays of hope?

The future looks bleak for Kerala.

(Dr CR Soman is a leading public health expert and a former professor at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and also chairman of Health Action by People, an NGO working in the field of public health. He can be contacted at [email protected])

[shyamd]

Report about the challenges of Rural healthcare . December 2006. National Rural Health Mission.

http://mohfw.nic.in/ENGLISH%20NRHM.pdf

It goes into the problems of healthcare and how it is being solved.

[Omar]

The government had recently suggested DRDO to come up with cochlear implants in India,. But, there is no definite idea as how long will it take for the country to develop the technology.

Can someone explain to me why the burden of responsibility for developing a cochlear implant falls on the DRDO? Why aren't private sectors cos. not licensing the technology from abroad to manufacture it in India? If the cost of licensing is too expensive, GoI should subsidise the costs to offset in order to keep the cost of the device affordable.

[shyamd]

Hospitals turning into tombs in rural India

Surpura (Madhya Pradesh), Feb 11 (IANS) The paint-peeling single-storey building wears a ghostly look. Cobwebs hang from the walls, used syringes and cotton swabs lie on the blood stained floor and the rooms are in darkness. And the doctor is nowhere to be seen.

Welcome to the block level hospital in rural Madhya Pradesh, one of the country's largest states.

Catering to emergency situations of a population of nearly 30,000 people, this scene, shocking to a visitor used to tales of booming medical tourism in five-star city hospitals, is an eye opener to the kind of medical aid the villagers in many areas of rural India receive. It's of no surprise then that, among others, the maternal mortality rate here is very high.

The delivery room of the hospital couldn't have been worse with a broken sink, no bed and a dirty toilet. 'The midwife gets water from outside since there is no running water,' says Sumhira Badhoria, an attendant present. 'We hardly get electricity for two hours,' she adds.

But the most surprising fact is that the doctor who is supposed to be on duty for 24 hours was nowhere in sight at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 'The doctor hardly comes here. He comes about twice a week. We have no choice but to go to the private practitioners and pay a hefty sum,' lamented one of the villagers.

Although the hospital is supposed to have a staff strength of 10, only two attendants were seen. But if this sight is any bad, then the condition of another village about five kilometres away is worse.

Kishupura village has a sub health centre, but broken and abandoned. 'No one comes here. The nurse comes twice a month and goes around the village,' says Sanjay Singh Badhoria, a farmer of the village.

The consequences of such negligence in medical facility? Heart wrenching stories. Rekha, 22, was pregnant with her third child when she suddenly started bleeding heavily. Alarmed, her husband and a few relatives hired a car and rushed her to the Surpura block level hospital but after getting no medical assistance there, they had to take her to a private practitioner who gave her some medication.

Although the bleeding stopped for some time, it resumed soon after at night. With no other option in hand, they rushed her to the district hospital in Bhind, about 35 km from the village.

But by the time the hapless husband could stand in the queue to admit her in spite of saying that it was an emergency, she died.

'It took us more than half an hour to get her admitted. Then we had to look for the doctor. By that time it was too late,' lamented her husband, Anil Singh Badhoria, to the visiting IANS correspondent.

Survived by two kids, a boy aged four and a girl aged three, Rekha's story is one of the many that remain hidden behind silent cries of the innocent, motherless children.

More than 7,000 women die of pregnancy-related issues in Madhya Pradesh every year contributing to 10 percent of the maternal mortality rate in the country. Globally, India accounts for 20 percent of the maternal mortality rate.

[Vishy_mulay]

Alas nothing has changed in rural health care in India. I was praying there will be some improvement but the posted article was what I saw first hand. I was the first MO who actually lived on Rural hospital campus 24X7 for 280 days (mandatory days required) with 2 week vacations. The only solace I have is to really educate young mothers about drinking water hygiene (Boil it tai campaign). Before I became MO diarrheal diseases were major reason for below 5yr morbidity and mortality. Mind you we were in village where water used to come in tanker and we had to store it for whole week. By the time I left we were able to reduce water borne diarrheal diseases significantly low. I learned a very important lesson in this process and that was many in rural India might be illiterate in formal education but they are not stupid. If you take pain to gain their confidence and explain them why they should improve hygiene they do listen. Even if we can tackle hygiene issues, I bet most of the morbidity and mortality will come down in rural India. Another important lesson I learned was that most of the malnutrition I observed was not only due to lack of food but due to certain cultural practices especially during pregnancy. I was surprised how many dos and don't about diet were applied and most of them were flatly wrong (don't eat meat in pregnancy, don't drink milk as it will sour mothers milk etc etc) I went to my MO ship as naive spoiled city brat but I think I came back as a mature individual. Shyamd the WHO reports says 80% people have access to potable water and I dont believe that figure. I was hoping I was wrong about that. Peace

[Vasu]

Anil Ambani bets big on healthcare

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is planning a big splash in healthcare services, and has decided to invest over Rs 5,000 crore.

The plan includes setting up a chain of medicine retail stores at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore, setting up four hospitals for Rs 400 crore each and two medi cities involving initial investments to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore each.

The four hospitals will be set up in West Bengal, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai within the next seven years. The company will also bid for the healthcare cities coming up in Udaipur and Jaipur, with focus on medical tourism.

Sources close to the developments told Business Standard that Reliance Health Venture’s drug retail foray will roll out in a big way nationally within three months. It will acquire or take strategic equities in the existing retail drug chains operating in India and has already bought two small retail chains.

Advanced negotiations are on to acquire some of the big pharma retail chains. Further, it has tied up with 20-odd drug distributors and associations in various parts of the country.

Plans are to source drugs directly from the companies and supply to hospital pharmacies and retail medical shops by acting as a ‘national distributor’ to pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers in India and abroad. Reliance Health Venture has ensured ‘sole drug distribution rights’ with 10 leading pharma companies and is targeting at least 30 more companies. It will also set up 25 fully air-conditioned drug warehouses with advanced infrastructure in different parts of the country.

The venture will also take up distribution of medical devices, lifestyle products and over the counter (OTC) drugs. Around Rs 200 crore is likely to be earmarked for giving a facelift and creating brand equity for the Reliance Health pharmacies.

n Mumbai, Reliance Health Venture has already acquired the Mandke hospital, which will be converted into a 650 bed super speciality hospital with six divisions.

About 200 beds will be ready by September and the hospital will be fully functional in 2008. Reliance Health Venture has acquired land in West Bengal and Delhi to set up greenfield super speciality hospital projects.

Reliance Health also has placed bids with the respective state governments for the health city projects proposed at Jaipur and Nagpur. About 100 to 250 acres each will be acquired for the project, which will attract investments in medical tourism.

[shyamd]

National Rural Health Mission Newsletter December 2006

Includes problems, details of how they are going to be solved.

[shyamd]

India plans orphanages for girls

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The Indian government plans to set up a series of orphanages to raise unwanted baby girls in a bid to halt the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses, according to a senior government official.

Dubbed the "cradle scheme," the plan is an attempt to slow the practice that international groups say has killed more than 10 million female fetuses in the last two decades, leading to an alarming imbalance in the ratio between males and females in India, Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for women and child development, told the Press Trust of India news agency in an interview published Sunday.

"What we are saying to the people is have your children, don't kill them. And if you don't want a girl child, leave her to us," Chowdhury told PTI, adding that the government planned to set up a center in each regional district.

"We will bring up the children. But don't kill them because there really is a crisis situation," she said.

Many districts in the country of more than 1 billion people routinely report only 800 girls born for every 1,000 boys.

According to the latest census figures in India, the number of girls per 1,000 boys declined from 945 to 927 between 1991 and 2001.
Better than killing

Asked if the scheme would not encourage parents to abandon female infants, Chowdhury said: "It doesn't matter. It is better than killing them," PTI reported.

Discrimination against girls stems from the low value attached to females in Indian society. Girls are seen as a burden on the family, requiring a huge dowry which many poor families can ill afford. They are generally the last to be educated or to get medical treatment.

Prenatal sex-determination tests are outlawed in India and the government says it is clamping down on doctors flouting the law. But social activists say there are many loopholes which allow those who provide tests to remain free.

Since the law was enacted only one doctor has been convicted of illegally aborting female fetuses.

Chowdhury did not say how much the scheme would cost but said money had been allocated in the next budget for it.

Officials in her office could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

The minister said she also hoped that the cradle centers would provide an opportunity for parents who had a change of heart to reclaim their children.

Chowdhury said emergency measures were necessary as evidence indicated that the practice of aborting or killing female children was spreading.

"It is a matter of international and national shame for us that India with an (economic) growth of 9 percent still kills its daughters," she told PTI.

[Katare]

India`s healthcare spending to cross Rs 200,000 cr by 2012

“Revenues from the healthcare sector account for 5.2 per cent of the GDP and it employs over 4 million people. By 2012, revenues can reach 6.5 to 7.2 per cent of GDP and direct and indirect employment can double,â€

[shyamd]

Planning Commission to strive for increasing public expenditure on health

Special Correspondent

Key task will be to set up PHCs in areas where they do not exist: Ahluwalia


HONOURED: Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University Chancellor Surjit Singh Barnala confers the Doctor of Science (honoris causa) degree on Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, at the 16th convocation in Chennai on Tuesd ay. Health Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran (third from right), is in the picture. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: The Planning Commission is evolving ways to increase the scale of public expenditure on health by the Centre and States put together to at least 2 per cent of the GDP during the 11th Five year Plan, its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here on Tuesday.

The proposed expansion could take different forms, including through public sector primary health centres, community health centres at the block level, a public subsidy on the premium for basic health insurance and the National Rural Health Mission.

Elaborating on a workable health sector strategy as a critical element of the larger strategy for inclusive growth, Mr. Ahluwalia said a key task would be to set up PHCs in areas where they did not exist and expand the bed strength in block-level and district hospitals.

He was addressing the 16th convocation of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, after he was conferred the title of Doctor of Science (honoris causa). Health insurance was an underdeveloped sector in India. There were many problems, which needed to be tackled to encourage a healthy growth of the industry.

He suggested that public funds would also have to be diverted for providing subsidies on the premium for basic health insurance.

Acknowledging that private sector medical care, however highly advanced, could never be a substitute for a strong public health care system, Mr. Ahluwalia also made out a case for encouraging strong public-private partnership to expand affordable access to health care.

Strengthening preventive and public health interventions and improving sanitation and clean drinking water were as important as expanding access to and improving the quality of medical services in the country.

[Vipul]

Australian Paraplegic women walks after Stem Cell treatment in India.

[csubash]

Hi Vipul
I mentioned about stem cells in the nukkad thread sometime back. Reitrating once again, apart from regular use of haemopoietic(blood) stem cells, occasional use of mesenchymal stem cells there has been no clinical use documented so far. I don't know what sort of news/journal this report is in. Experimentally however any decent lab(particularly those that have regenarative medicine interest)will have stem cell research. This stem cell therapy is such a misused word in India that every Tom, Dick & Harry is saying that he is using them. Stem cell research is such a difficult area which requires lot of resources(monetary as well as technical). I have heard about stem cells used for treating kidney failure, heart failure, now paraplegia by our(Indian) doctors that it really looks like a con job. Anecdotal reports, single case experiences can be used by religious con men not by proffesionals unless has a sound scientific base. Just a rant.
Regards....Subash

Australian Paraplegic women walks after Stem Cell treatment in India.

[mandrake]

Hi Vipul
I mentioned about stem cells in the nukkad thread sometime back. Reitrating once again, apart from regular use of haemopoietic(blood) stem cells, occasional use of mesenchymal stem cells there has been no clinical use documented so far. I don't know what sort of news/journal this report is in. Experimentally however any decent lab(particularly those that have regenarative medicine interest)will have stem cell research. This stem cell therapy is such a misused word in India that every Tom, Dick & Harry is saying that he is using them. Stem cell research is such a difficult area which requires lot of resources(monetary as well as technical). I have heard about stem cells used for treating kidney failure, heart failure, now paraplegia by our(Indian) doctors that it really looks like a con job. Anecdotal reports, single case experiences can be used by religious con men not by proffesionals unless has a sound scientific base. Just a rant.
Regards....Subash

Australian Paraplegic women walks after Stem Cell treatment in India.

eh? Previously there was a report i mentioned some month back Stem cell research and worlds first time stem cell happened for heart disease on youngest baby, happened in Apollo hospital. It was covered in NDTV, cell from leg was injected used in that case. (i dont remember exactly..)

Stem cell research do happen in India.

[sunilUpa]

Reliance entering in to pharmacy retail chain is a welcome development. It will help curbing sale of counterfeit drugs, which has become a menace in India. As per the market news (or rumor) , Reliance is also entering Pharmaceutical manufacturing in a big way soon. Hectic recruiting is going on.

[csubash]

Hi Joey
Why is that all stem cell research's results in India turn up in DDM rather than scientific journals? Ever thought about it? Most of our experimnets/research in medicine do not have the scientific rigor to stand up in international journals. Don't get me wrong, we still dont have the resources to do any half decent medical research. Thats the reason I feel really proud of our scientists in nuclear, missile & space areas who have the odds against them. The talent is there seeing how our doctors achieve when oppurtinities arise particularly in western world.
Regards...Subash

Australian Paraplegic women walks after Stem Cell treatment in India.

[/quote]

eh? Previously there was a report i mentioned some month back Stem cell research and worlds first time stem cell happened for heart disease on youngest baby, happened in Apollo hospital. It was covered in NDTV, cell from leg was injected used in that case. (i dont remember exactly..)

Stem cell research do happen in India.[/quote]

[mandrake]

Csubhash whats now?

Stem cell hope for injured spine
Malathy Iyer
[29 Apr, 2007 l 2341 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]


MUMBAI: Gas station worker Ravindra Ahire was completely paralysed and had lost sensation in his lower limbs after his bike skidded on Malegaon's dusty streets. He found hope in Mumbai's Sion Hospital a fortnight later.

The 24-year-old became the city's first patient with spinal cord injuries to receive stem cell therapy, touted as a panacea for many ills. While hospitals in Chennai, New Delhi and Bangalore have been using stem cells to treat the spine, what sets the Mumbai story apart is the fact that the surgery was conducted in a public hospital and virtually free of cost (public giants All India Institute for Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and PGI, Chandigarh, have tried out stem cell therapy for the heart).

On April 17, Ravindra's fractured spine was fixed and a dose of stem cells collected from his bone marrow was injected into his ruptured spinal cord, says Dr Alok Sharma, head of Sion Hospital's neurosurgery department who performed the operation. "It's a matter of pride for us that stem cell treatment, available only at a few centres across the world and that too at an exorbitant cost, has been successfully performed at a municipal teaching hospital, that too almost free," says Sharma, who's a senior medical teacher at Sion, one of Mumbai's premier teaching hospitals and research centres and reputed for its trauma-care work.

Propped up in his corner bed during a physiotherapy session, Ravindra is all smiles. "I can feel when people touch my legs and I have got back my bowel sensations which I did not have before the operation. I have some movement in my hips also," he told TOI in Marathi. Occupational and physical therapists working with him feel Ravindra's improvement has been quicker in comparison to other patients with similar injuries. Ravindra's mother Meerabai is just happy that his pain has subsided for the first time since his accident on April 8.

The mood in Sion Hospital's neurosurgery department is predictably upbeat. "This is the culmination of 10 years of our research on spinal cord regeneration," says Dr Sharma.

[Vipul]

Good find Joey

[csubash]

Hi joey
Funnily I have posted a reply for the news article which never showed up!! Once again I have nothing against such research in India. But as mentioned before why these always turn up in DDM rather than scientific journal.Now to go a bit more scientific these mesenchymal stem cells(I assume thats what they meant because bone marrow stem cells are mostly haematopoietic stem cells) have poor surface markers(so called CD markers). Hence isolating them itself is a big research project. Then harvesting them , in-vitro expansion of them(this may be not needed) is cutting edge research. Then infusing them-where? into the spine!! are heroic efforts. Then to prove them that these mesenchymal stem cell has differentiated into neural tissue needs further research. I can go on & on. But to say these have been done in a public hospital is even more difficult to believe. trust me I have worked in one , to get proper antibiotic there is a difficult task. I am of firm belief that these private umbilical cord banks(my other bugbear) are there out to cheat a lot of people like those kidney rackets. Government urgently needs to regulate these UCB banks.
Regards....csubash




[quote="joey"]Csubhash whats now?

[quote]
Stem cell hope for injured spine
Malathy Iyer
[29 Apr, 2007 l 2341 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

[mandrake]

csubash, i have seen many public hospital to be highly good while some are disgusting, it is adcentralised, anyways if you have to prove your point you better write to the editor of newspaper and ask how authenticate it is.

Else I dont think anyone is going to believe you, and all newspapers are lying around...i mean c'mon wtf! australian sun/TOI all lying around? rofl...

I have hundred of doctor sources will ask them personally, lets see.

Read this,

The mood in Sion Hospital's neurosurgery department is predictably upbeat. "This is the culmination of 10 years of our research on spinal cord regeneration," says Dr Sharma.

[csubash]

Hi joey
It's upto you to beleive who. When DDM quotes military matters we take it with a pinch of salt. The same holds good for medical matters. It's upto the researcher to prove his research rather than others to disprove it. Anecdotal case reports don't constitute evidence. If it's a proper research & has the scientific rigor to go with it I would be the first one to appreciate. Ask any of your doctor friends to look out for the stem cell research papers in any of the scientific/medical journals with a good impact factor. If any of the stem cell research from India happens to be there post it. That constitutes evidence rather than TOI, Australian sun, etc. Once again this is not personal.
Regards....Subash

csubash, i have seen many public hospital to be highly good while some are disgusting, it is adcentralised, anyways if you have to prove your point you better write to the editor of newspaper and ask how authenticate it is.

Else I dont think anyone is going to believe you, and all newspapers are lying around...i mean c'mon wtf! australian sun/TOI all lying around? rofl...

I have hundred of doctor sources will ask them personally, lets see.

Read this,

The mood in Sion Hospital's neurosurgery department is predictably upbeat. "This is the culmination of 10 years of our research on spinal cord regeneration," says Dr Sharma.

[Hitesh]

csubhash,

I agree with what you are saying. Peer review is the requisite for any kind of validation of any kind of research. DDM reports and news doesn't quite cut it.

But keep in mind that that the DDM may have a jump start in reporting the news. This kind of development may have not been reported in scientific journals because the doctors may have not necessary time to prepare their papers for publishment, hence, academic scrutiny. Hopefully we will hear something in the near future in such journals.

[negi]

Hey guys do we have any news pertaining to India's efforts in area of Bio-medical instrumentation i.e. do we have Desi companies making CT scanners and MRI machines (or we only have GE and Siemens controlling the market ) ?.

[Vipul]

Hmm, so news reports, reporting use of stem cells in different hospitals is attributed to DDM. I am sure if a patient who has taken such treatment gives a testimonial, it would still not be "believed".

[csubash]

Hi Vipul
I am not sure what you mean by testimonial by the patient. This is like an ill man saying that a sadhu cured my illness. You probably would have seen plenty of testimonials from patients saying about the curative potential of naturopathy treatment. Unfortunately they don't constitute evidence.However I do agree with Hitesh in that DDM trying to give it as a "breaking news".
In this report they have mentioned about the stem cell infusion on 17th April & news report on 29th April. Nowhere in the whole world a research gets reported in 10-12 days. Even the commonest stem cell transplant i.e bone marrow transplant needs atleast 14 to 21 days for engraftment forget about the days for the graft to survive.
The reason for my grief being this is going to be manipulated by plenty of people for making money. They probably will say "I am going to do a stem cell transplant on top of the surgery you are going to have , so pay another 5 Lakh more".
Once again anecdotal reports never constitute evidence based medicine. If you are going to embark this treatment for the rest of the population you need a proper case series with the statistical significance showing the difference. Agree there are plenty of observational series but they too are a "series" rather than single case report.
Regards....Subash

Hmm, so news reports, reporting use of stem cells in different hospitals is attributed to DDM. I am sure if a patient who has taken such treatment gives a testimonial, it would still not be "believed".

[pradeepe]

This mediclaim will cover 1,000 surgeries

Looking at the comments - shows a fair amount of frustration with ICICI.
The health insurance industry needs to mature in India. AFAIK, most insurance packages are offered by large service providers themselves. Works OK if you are willing to sacrifice flexibility/options.

Does a middle-man(say an insurance co) work towards offering the consumer a better package or does it just increase the cost. What works in the west might not be the best for India.

[Vipul]

First simultaneous liver and kidney transplant in the world performed in India.

New Delhi: A 15-year-old Indian-American boy underwent a simultaneous liver and kidney transplant at a city hospital here, which the attending doctors claimed on Tuesday was the first such in the world.

California-based Ganesh Nehru was suffering from a disease known as primary hyperoxaluria, in which the liver lacks an enzyme resulting in the accumulation of calcium in the kidneys, bones, heart and pancreas. Patients suffering froqm the disease usually die by their mid-30s.

He underwent the rare surgery at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on April 17.

A team of 50 doctors and support staff at the hospital took a kidney from Ganesh’s mother, Hemalata, and half a liver from his maternal uncle Mohan in a simultaneous operation and transplanted it on to the boy.

The surgery took almost 18 hours and cost the family Rs 19 lakh.

“We conducted the procedures simultaneously in three operation theatres. In one, the patient was kept while the live donors were in the other two,â€

[mandrake]

Here is another link of the story,

[quote]
Double transplant gives boy new life
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Ganesh at the hospital on Tuesday. Picture by Prem Singh
New Delhi, May 8: Fifteen-year-old Ganesh Nehru, battling for life a month ago with a defective liver and failed kidneys, is now looking forward to returning to school in San Jose, California, after a medical feat by Delhi doctors.

Doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital today claimed they had performed the world’s first double transplant from living donors, giving Ganesh a palm-sized chunk of liver from his uncle and a whole kidney taken from his mother.

The transplant team that extracted the kidney and liver from the donors and transplanted them into the boy in an 18-hour operation on April 17 today said the boy is ready to be discharged.

“I feel great... and would like to get back to school as soon as I can,â€

[csubash]

[quote="joey"]Here is another link of the story,

[quote]
Double transplant gives boy new life
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Double transplants whether from cadaveric or live donors are a difficult job all over the world. hats off to the team. For Rs.19 Lakhs(under $50,000) apart from India nowhere else can be done. India is the only place which can offer expertise & cost advantage for such complex procedures. I sincerely hope the government provides tertiary medical facilities in atleast few centres spread over the country, not forgetting the universal primary care....subash

[bala]

Folks, I don't want to disrupt normal discussion here. But a recent incident and the following article compels me to write this short note.

Incident: Last week, I underwent surgery for heart attack. The symptoms were innocuous: nausea, sweating, extreme discomfort. The actual chest pain came later in the hospital! I was operated by catheter surgery – two stents were placed at the clog sites. I am now recovering from the operation.

Article: Then my friend got this in his email.

Check this out....
heart attack and drinking warm water

Please read this and forward it to as many people as people.

Heart Attacks and drinking warm water....

This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your
meal, but about heart attacks. This makes sense.. the
Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals...not cold water...maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!!!

Nothing to lose, everything to gain...

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to
you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold
water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow
down the digestion. Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break
down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will
line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

A serious note about heart attacks: You should know that not every heart
attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.

You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart
attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of
people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware.

The more we know, the better chance we could survive...

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10
people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this...It
could save your life!!

**Please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you
care about**

[sunilUpa]

^^^Bala that's total BS. Food stays in the stomach for 2-3 hrs and it rapidly attains body temperature, temperature of food has very little to do with digestion process.

Get well soon.

[chaitanya]

Hi, I am a student at a University in California. I am currently working on a report covering the government and economy of India and at the present I am having difficulty finding information on India's current social security system and health care system. I only need basic information about policies and statistics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

[abhischekcc]

Hi, I am a student at a University in California. I am currently working on a report covering the government and economy of India and at the present I am having difficulty finding information on India's current social security system and health care system. I only need basic information about policies and statistics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

No wonder you have not found any info on India's social security and health care system. They don't exist.