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Category: Editorials
April 01, 2013
In 2005, the government amended Schedule Y of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and Rules, 1945, to liberalise the conduct of global drug trials in India. Proponents of this policy had asserted that we needed less, and not more, regulation, in order to expand the business of drug trials. Many...
April 01, 2013
There has been increased interest over the past couple of decades in the public's trust in doctors and in the health system. The fundamental basis of a healthcare relationship is trust, which is the patient's voluntary acceptance of his vulnerability in the expectation that the healthcare p...
January 01, 2013
The brutal sexual assault and subsequent death, due to severe injuries, of a young health professional in Delhi have triggered off outrage and unprecedented mass protests across the country. Angry protesters have demanded the death penalty for those who committed this heinous rape and murder; the...
October 01, 2012
The World Medical Association (WMA), the organisation that issues the Declaration of Helsinki (DoH), is planning another revision of this influential ethics guidance document. The last revision in 2008 strengthened the guidelines in some respects and weakened them in others. I described some of t...
October 01, 2012
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) called for a nationwide strike on June 25, 2012 to protest against the formation of the National Council for Human Resources in Health and the promulgation of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 The strike call raises two issues...
July 01, 2012
The noble intention of helping fellow human beings can have consequences that are both risky and life-threatening. Increasingly, humanitarian health workers and the healthcare system in conflict zones are themselves becoming targets of assault. On January 5, 2012, Dr Khalil Rashid Dale, an Intern...
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...