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Category: Editorials
July 01, 2012
A 21-year-old senior medical student is standing at the bedside of a patient in a general ward. The intern has been told that it is important to pick up the patient’s hand, and look into his face, before asking any questions. He has seen his teacher do this. He moves his hand stiffly, watches it ...
July 01, 2012
You would think the mandate of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is to ensure that medicines on the Indian market are safe, effective, and necessary for public health. But the government thinks differently. According to a statement by the ministry to the Department Related S...
April 01, 2012
On December 9, 2011, in a shocking and gruesome incident, perhaps the worst of its kind in India, a massive fire broke out at the AMRI Hospitals, a large private speciality institution in Kolkata and consumed 93 lives. Hapless patients in wards and intensive care were suffocated and charred to de...
April 01, 2012
With the recent highlighting of ethical issues in several clinical trials, and the increase in awareness among parliamentarians, there has been some concern about the conduct of trials in India. The areas of concern include ensuring that consent is truly informed, and monitoring participant safet...
April 01, 2012
We see today a shift in the terrain of trade agreements from the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the binding trade rules that it imposes on member countries, to bilateral and regional trade agreements. From 1990 to 2007, the number of such agreements notified to the General Agreement on Tarif...
January 01, 2012
With this issue of January 2012, the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) is entering its 20th year of uninterrupted publication. In the last 19 years, the journal has never had to combine two issues, and has been published regularly in the first month of each quarter. This has been a remar...
January 01, 2012
A case study entitled "Observational study of cervical cancer", on research undertaken in a south Asian country, published in a compilation of case studies by Cash and others , is the subject of a collection of commentaries in this issue of IJME. The range of responses reflects the commentators’ ...
January 01, 2012
The need for better methods of selection for postgraduate (PG) medical seats in different specialties has never been more keenly felt than in the current scenario. Multiple entrance exams, management quota and paid seats, the urgency to get into a PG seat at any cost and the mushrooming of PG ent...
October 01, 2011
The guidelines issued in 2006 by the Indian Council for Medical Research in India, for the formation and conduct of clinical trials in India, are still the benchmark by which the conduct of such trials is evaluated. Unfortunately, these guidelines have not yet got the force of law, since the bill...
October 01, 2011
Empirical research indicates that much of the evidence required for the practice of evidence-based medicine cannot be trusted. The research agenda has been hijacked by those with vested interests within industry and academia, determining what research is funded and how it is done and reported. Un...