India

The Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) is a US-based non-profit organisation committed to improving health professions education to improve global health. FAIMER traditionally offers a two year fellowship programme; 2 residential and 3 distance learning sessions and an education innovation project in the fellow’s home institution. The focus is on education methods, leadership/management, scholarship and the development of an international community of health professions educators. During the past 5 years, FAIMER has expanded the programme and established regional institutes in India[3], Brazil[1] and Southern Africa (SAFRI)[1]. We implemented the programme in Africa in 2008, introducing 5 innovations to the generic programme. SAFRI was created as an independent voluntary association to reflect the multinational intent of the programme. Aim of project To understand the impact of the innovations in the structure and implementation of the programme on its quality and the experience of the participants in it. Conclusions Faculty development programmes can significantly enhance their impact: Be sensitive to the local political climate Demonstrate wide ownership Focus on developing a community of practice Work within the professional time constraints of Fellows and faculty Maximise learning opportunities by linking to other scholarly activities  

Maternal preconception and gender selection has long been a controversial topic. Are you more likely to conceive a boy if you eat red meat, and a girl if you make love under a full moon? Oldwives tales and fantasies exploring sexual position, diet, and dominance circulate the Internet however how can we logically distinguish between fact and fiction? The topic has widespread cultural implications. Sex-related abortions are on the increase in China and India where local customs and religious virtues appear to strongly correlate with the systematic elimination of girls. In an effort to challenge the dogma of chance fertilization two main research streams have explored variations in maternal condition and gender conception. The ‘Maternal Dominance’ hypothesis has suggested trait dominance, underpinned by serum testosterone, correlates with increased male conception rates. The second, ‘Maternal condition’ hypothesis relates to pre-conceptual maternal diet, investigating variations in both quantity and quality of diet and effects on sex ratios. However such assumptions have been difficult to replicate and more recent evidence has suggested changes in maternal condition may have a stronger influence Maternal adaptations in behavior appear to closely correlate with biased gender ratios and can have wider connotations on sex-linked disease inheritance. However unless we can identify molecular mechanisms influencing the intrauterine environment and follicular development, hypothesis will remain mere assumptions.  

I have directed and produced this 20 minute documentary. It is used as a Global Health Education Tool for the Imperial College London Global BSc and Short course. This is a self shot documentary about the ongoing Bhopal Chemical Disaster in India. Looking at the past/present/future of the best industrial disaster in history. Focusing on the Sambhavna Clinic, a primary healthcare that provides free medical care for victims. Filmed in 2010 edited in 2012. This is a case study of a serious global health issue and highlights the ethics of business in the third world and consequences this can have for health. I'm a 23-year-old medical student with a passion for film and photography. I'm interested in the interplay of medicine, sociology, psychology, research and ethics. Film form is a great means to educate, or simply make people think.  

Liver Trauma Souradeep Dutta INDIA  

Archie Panjabi: My work in the field tells me what a historic moment this is. If we relax our guard, though, polio could rebound with a vengeance  

India needs to make cancer care more affordable, increase its healthcare workforce, and deal with socio-cultural barriers to cancer control, to improve the diagnosis of cancer and access to care, a commission has said.  

The Indian medical education system, one of the largest in the world, produces many physicians who e  

What of India’s forgotten survivors and the debilitating post-polio syndrome that can return decades later? Neena Bhandari reports  

A report on three clinical trials of screening for cervical cancer in India has provoked controversy, as it showed that 254 women in the unscreened groups had died of the disease. The report, published on 17 April in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, sparked accusations that the trials were not ethical.1  

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched three new studies to examine a lethal epidemic of kidney failure that has killed agricultural workers along Central America’s Pacific coast and in regions of Sri Lanka, India, and Egypt.  

BBC Monitoring's Vikas Pandey meets India's "polio aunties" to see how they are keeping the country free from the disease.  

Researchers assessed the effectiveness of prazosin combined with scorpion antivenom in assisting recovery from scorpion sting. An open label randomised controlled trial study design was used. The control treatment was prazosin alone. The setting was a hospital and research centre in Mahad, a region of India. Participants were patients with grade 2 scorpion envenomation, older than 6 months, and with no cardiorespiratory or central nervous system abnormalities. In total, 70 patients were recruited and allocated to treatment (35 to prazosin and scorpion antivenom, and 35 to prazosin alone) by block randomisation.1  

A huge 10 year study assigns cause of death by verbal autopsy, giving information essential for informing health policy, writes Meera Kay  

India has announced a soda tax in efforts to reduce consumption, with the aim of curbing the rise in diseases such as obesity and diabetes, writes Soumyadeep Bhaumik  

With the introduction of a new drug, can the new government keep its promise to rid India of kala azar? Talha Burki reports