#HCSM
Aaron Swartz’s Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
Largely credited to Aaron Swartz, this has also found an in depth criticism in Peter Suber’s now archived, Earlham.edu blog on Open Access. I am reproducing it, in memory of the deceased Swartz, as a reminder of the duty that befalls us all. Guerilla Open Access Manifesto Information is power. But like all power, there […]
#MedEd
Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide: The Dark Knight Falls
From Aaron’s last blog post: Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder the series ends with his staged suicide. A year younger to me, and yet, he’s achieved ore than I could imagine achieving in my whole life, and at the untimely age of 26 years, he has gone […]
History of Medicine
Comic Book Meets Medicine: Little Orphan Annie
One of the classic histopathological signs that we read of in Pathology quite often is the Orphan Annie Eye nucleus seen in Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. This odd name has an interesting history behind it. One that dates back to two popcult references – one at the fag end of the 1800s and one […]
House M.D.
House MD 8×02: Transplant
As big a fan of the House MD show I am, let me start off with the disclaimer that I consider this to be one of the worst ever episodes of House MD to come on air. EVER! And that is not just because of the sucky medical mystery, but also because of the very […]
Life Beyond Medicine
Guest Post #1: India – One of the Fastest Growing Economies
This is a guest post written by Ms. Deepali Kaul. I have made slight grammatical and syntactical edits and otherwise, left it untouched. This article and its opinions and contents are not due to me, but to Ms. Kaul. Any links are not endorsements and are meant for informational purposes only. If you want to […]
Medcetera
Another Start-up Bites the Dust: Elsevier Buys Mendeley
When TechCrunch reported that there were talks going on between Elsevier and Mendeley this January, I did not want to believe it. Being an ardent user and advocate of the platform, I wanted it to stay out of the clutches of Big Pub. But it is now official, Mendeley has been acqui-hired by Elsevier for […]
MediQuiz
Mediquiz: Rhapsody–Preliminary Round
This was the FIRST ever Mediquiz I conducted and fittingly, it was conducted with none other than Parijat Sen, the master quizzer himself. Along with Parijat (who will soon be leaving for an Internal Medicine residency in the US of A) and Shibojit Talukdar (who is doing his Surgery residency at the prestigious Post Graduate […]
Public Health
New York Soda Rule: Raising the Debate on Paternalism in Public Health
Paternalistic attitude in unilateral implementation of public health policies, especially with respect to banning of (harmful) substances, has been one of the issues that I have been debating not only with my colleagues, but also with my own self, for a while now. Aside from the obvious stake in the matter as a student of […]
Research Blogging
Penile Cancer: Another Reason to Stop Banging Animals: (Insert Zoophilia Joke)
First up, I cannot believe the numbers! This is awe-inspiring. I read the abstract three times in order to convince myself that I was not seeing things. More than the results of the study itself what intrigues me no ends is how the researchers got the participants to open up about screwing with Billy. Billy […]
More Articles
Talking to the Streets for Health: Street Theater as a Public Health Tool
Prior to coming to Delhi, I did not have much exposure to the power of the theater as a mode of dissemination of public health messages. It does sound strange when I put it that way because Kolkata, where I hail from, is a city with a vibrant theater culture. However, I just never got […]
Communicating Correctly: A Community Based Communication Exercise
The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans […]
Protocol Writing Workshop 2012 and Falling in Love… with UCMS!
As residents, one of the most important things that we have to do is complete a dissertation, or thesis in course of our training. This is one of the credits we need to have obtained in order to be eligible to sit for the final MD exams. The basic aim of doing a thesis is […]
Despatch from Narela: Another Rural Posting Experience
It has been quite a long hiatus since I last wrote here, and a plethora of changes have affected my life since then. I hope to write about them sometime, and start writing here on a more regular basis, as before. Tonight’s post comes from a sleepy place called Narela, situated at the Delhi-Haryana border, […]
Peter Binfield Leaves PLOSONE to Found A Novel OA Journal
Peter Binfield joined PLoS ONE in March 2008, when the journal was merely a new fangled concept looked on with a lot of suspicion. Certain editors were worried that it would become the dumping ground for rejected papers because of its policy to publish all methodologically and scientifically sound papers without any concern about its […]
International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)
Hat tip to David for putting me up to this. International Day Against Homophobia is celebrated every year on May 17, and promotes the concepts of tolerance and acceptance, which is basically all that “the gays” are asking from society. I have been a long time, vociferous supporter of the gay rights movement in my […]
On Being A Gadfly
Although this is the age of Evidence Based Medicine, in large parts of our country, the “E” in EBM does not stand for Evidence, and more often than not, means “Eminence”. Medicine, for a long time, was resistant to the influx of new ideas. While reading the Gawande article on the History of Surgery in […]
Indo-Pak Medical Students Romance the Border: A JPMS Initiative
From the press release of the Journal of Pakistan Medical Students, an endeavor worth the accolades: A Peace Initiative: A Group of Young Researchers And Doctors of India and Pakistan bridges the Divide KARACHI: The idea of publishing a medical research journal had been sparkling in the minds of many young researchers from India […]
AIIMS May 2012: Part–I: Nostalgia
First up, a sincere apology to my email subscribers for messing up your email with multiple temporary post mails from Windows Live. Sorry for spamming you, the program went bonkers trying to get a hold of my new blog theme (Nuntius). I hope you do not unsubscribe! What were the emotions that you felt while […]
David vs Goliath: And Dadagiri Forever!
In today’s Pune warriors vs Mumbai match, it was a battle of unequal powers. The Pune team was almost on the verge of pulling out of the tourney and were brought in at the last moment through diplomatic dialogue. Their boycott of the players auctions meant they had to settle for a sucky lot of […]
