“The quantity and quality
of medical research being undertaken in India is embarrassingly little”, said
Dr MK Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, while
addressing a group of Indian gastroenterologists in a meeting in Delhi on 1st
Aug. He painfully pointed out how
research was a low priority amongst most medical schools, and how very few
doctors were taking up research as a career option.
Many might well wonder why
research is important at all in medical science. Is it not well-established
medical practice that a patient seeks from his doctor or hospital?
The National Institute of
Health in USA has shown time and time again how research improves teaching, and
teaching lifts the standards of care. It might be hard to accept at face value,
but an example or two may make it clear.
The treatment of breast
cancer, for instance has undergone major upheavals over the last few decades.
It started more than a century ago with the concept that the tumor should be
removed with as wide a margin of normal tissue as possible. Cancer surgeons
therefore became more and more aggressive in performing extensive radical
surgeries resulting in severe mutilations and death.
It required innovative
thinking and a research mind to attempt less aggressive resections, but
coupling it with other forms of therapy such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Over the last 2 decades, breast cancer survivals have therefore paradoxically
improved several folds with less aggressive surgery. That is all thanks to
medical research.
Prof BS Ramakrishna, head
of the Department of Gastroenterology at Christian Medical College, Vellore,
echoed the same sentiments and drove home the point with a simple example.
While we all know, that the introduction of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) is
a single piece of research that has helped pull back millions, especially
children, from the jaws of death due to dehydration.
What scientists noticed however,
was that although ORS prevented dehydration and death, it did not really reduce
diarrhea! Medical research undertaken at Vellore showed that while much
attention had been given to the small bowel in reabsorbing fluids and sodium,
the decreased capacity of the large intestine in this condition had gone
largely unnoticed.
Nursing back the large
intestine with its special fodder, short chain fatty acids, therefore emerged
as a better alternative, along with ORS, not only in tackling dehydration, but
cutting diarrhea as well.
Established medical
practiced has been compared to a pond of water. It may be clean to start with,
but often gets stagnant and stale. Research is a flowing stream that does not
let stagnation set in. It is essential therefore if present forms of medical
care and treatment have to improve.
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 2nd September, 2012.
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