The supercession of the discredited Medical Council of India and setting up of a National Medical Commission (NMC) kindled hope of vigorous reforms in regulation of the medical profession and practice. Has this been borne out by the NMC Act? The editorial in this issue analyses the approach to ethics in this law.
This issue covers some less obvious but tough challenges confronting researchers. Ethical dilemmas faced in research among survivors of suicide are outlined in one study; another identifies drug research violations acted on by the US FDA; while a third provides pointers on how to identify predatory journals inviting submissions from the unwary. An author comments on the flip side of the Good Clinical Practice standard and its impact on small manufacturers.
Reforms in official policies tend not to reach vulnerable groups most in need of relief. This is noted in two papers, one on how the government’s Menstrual Hygiene Management Scheme leaves out women living with disabilities; the other focuses on how a section of the psychiatric profession still proffers “treatment” by medicalising same sex intimacy, long after the Supreme Court judgment of 2018 declared it “completely natural”.
Two poets ponder over the miscommunication flourishing during the pandemic, and the way the virus has become part of our humdrum lives, while a comment describes how three Indian novels present children and adults responding differently to dementia in their elders. An array of insightful reviews completes this issue
We mourn the early loss of Dr Paul Farmer, who spent much of his life serving the most deprived.
Cover credit: Houseboat in Kerala, courtesy of Dr Anilkumar Patel
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Thank You, Reviewers!
We are grateful to our committed reviewers for their contribution in evaluating and improving submissions. Besides our core group of editors, we thank members of the editorial board and others who reviewed manuscripts during the year 2021-22.