B M Hegde
B M Hegde
Introduction
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
That has made all the difference.
.....Robert Frost 1920.
Reading some articles published in journals reminds
me of an old saying in my mother tongue, Tulu, which
seems to me the best commentary on our present
efforts to innovate, improve upon, remodel, and
reshape the existing system: Why do people fall into
the well at night having spotted the same during day
time? One talks eloquently on the innovations done in
the USA to train physician-scientists while another
talks about the shortcomings of the MCI regulations
and so on and so forth. All of them presume that the
present system, while being inadequate, needs minor
through radical changes. This presumption assumes to
begin with, that the present system is tolerable but
needs change: they suggest nibbling at bits and pieces
of the same system. One needs to stand outside the
system to audit the system before trying to change it
for better or for worse. This could best be done by
people who have spent the best part of their lives in this
field and not outsiders. But we insiders need a
detached attitude to be objective in our assessment.
Certain vital questions need to be answered before we
go into this job:
1) How did the present system of so called modern
medicine come about in the first place?
2) In the Indian context was this system accepted to be
better than the existing systems prevalent in 1857 or
was this imposed on us by our masters then-the East
India Company.
3) Even in the USA was modern medicine the choice
of the consumers or was it imposed on the nation by
vested interests?
4) Does modern medicine have a solid science base as
Correspondence:
[email protected]
scanner (free application available on the internet). Open the application and point the camera of your (mobile, laptop or
desktop) device to the QR-code printed at end of each article.