Year: 2021
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Is Science The Only Way of Knowing?
This is continuation of a debate from YouTube. The statement that “Science is the only way of knowing” is correct. But it is also arrogant. The definition of knowledge that we are working with is “justified belief of independent rational observers”. What I argue in the video is that independent rational observers can come to…
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History Taking Through Heart
I was trying out the Daily Rounds app on Android and came across a case description “Unilateral limb swelling in a 51 year old lady. No comorbidities. KFT normal. How to proceed to diagnosis?” This reminded me about how clueless I was about history taking during medical school. I think if I’ve learnt anything well…
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Why Researchers Who Care About Equity Should Use Zotero (and Not Mendeley)
If you are a researcher, chances are that you write papers. And if you write papers there is a good reason for you to use a reference manager (also called citation manager?). If you use a reference manager and you care about equity, there is a good reason why you should use Zotero. Why use…
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How To Stay Sane Online in 7 Simple Steps
The sheer vastness of information online can disorient some people. Fake news and hate makes it even harder for them. These techniques are what I personally use to keep my mind “blissful” despite what is going around me. And yet I get to enjoy all the goodness of internet too. #1: Be ruthless in cutting…
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What Patients Don’t Know About Medical Schools
There are people who assume that doctors who get into medical school through reservation end up as bad doctors. They have no clue how medical school works. I won’t go into the reasons why reservation (or affirmative action) exists. That is one of the easiest ways for governments to “do something” towards inequity in the…
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Want to Predict COVID? Ask the medical officers or lab managers
From the beginning of this pandemic I’ve had very accurate predictions of COVID surge, lull, and fall from two kinds of people – PHC medical officers and lab managers. The PHC medical officers see anywhere upwards of 200 sick people per day and they get to see how many people are coming in with COVID…
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Three Stories On Connecting Health Data
Story 1 There was a small research institute with 20 people. Someone among the staff did an online survey to ask everyone their demographic details (name, age, gender, email address) and their diet. After four months, another person ran another survey. By then there were 23 people in this institute. This surveyor asked everyone their…
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Organizations, Like People, Have Values
I stole the title from Peter Drucker’s Harvard Business Review article titled “Managing Oneself” [pdf]. It has been 4 years since I graduated medical school and in that many years, having worked with (and escaped having to work with) organizations of different kinds, I have come to the same conclusion. Organizations have values. These values…
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Whose Responsibility is Health?
How do you trigger a never-ending debate on Twitter about health? You have two options. Either talk about a bridge course from Ayurveda into modern medicine. Or talk about compulsory rural service. Why, though? The superficial reason is that Twitter is a stupid medium where there is not enough space to make a nuanced argument.…
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Don’t Cook Your Meals
Thanks to The Great Indian Kitchen a lot of discussions are happening on cooking. I wanted to note down a few of my thoughts in relation to cooking, etc. I find cooking boring There might be people who find cooking interesting. I am not one of those persons. I find food boring too. Anything healthy…