Morning MEDtalks with Dr K K Aggarwal 21st July 2018

Steps you can take to protect yourself from MCI

Understanding Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) offers simple tips to protect your brain health. Getting better sleep, lowering your stress levels, and adopting a Mediterranean-style diet have all been shown to help. As the guide explains, it’s also beneficial to keep learning new things and challenge your brain with activities like puzzles, playing a musical instrument, and learning a new language.

Kailash Satyarthi on children and health

“Each child is special and important,” said Mr Kailash Satyarthi. “It is thus Our collective responsibility to ensure that we give them a safe and secure environment to survive in and ensure that they do not die of diseases to which treatment is available. No child should be denied treatment or left to die due to a lack of it. I highly commend the HCFI for its exemplary work in this area and for providing treatment free of cost in this day and age. I am also happy to know about their work in terms of educating doctors and nurses and training them in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse. With the help of organizations such as these, there is hope for a brighter future for India and its children. It was heartening to spend time with children who are living full and happy lives after heart surgeries. I wish them all the best,” he added.

PERSON CAN BE JAILED FOR 7 YEARS FOR THREATENING A LAWYER BUT FOR THREATENING DOCTOR, THE PUNISHMENT IS ONLY 3 YEARS

Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has given its approval to the Advocate Protection Act on 16.07.2018 under which a person accused of exerting undue pressure on a lawyer or obstructing their work would attract seven years of jail with provisions of fine up to Rs. 10,000/-. The government is preparing to bring an ordinance to implement this Act soon.

This will make Madhya Pradesh the first state in the country to promote a law to protect advocates from any kind of violence perpetrated against them.

On the other hand, around 15 States and Union Territories in India have their respective State/UT legislations on the issue of physical violence / assault of doctors. For e.g. Delhi Medicare Service Personnel and Medicare Service Institutions Act 2008, M.P. Chikitsak Tatha Chikitsa Sev Se Sambaddha Vyaktiyon Ki Suraksha Adhiniyam 2008, Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act 2011, etc. In all these legislations, punishment is Imprisonment which may extend to 3 years or with fine up to Rs. 10,000/- or both and Compensation of twice the purchase price of property damaged and loss caused to be recovered as arrears of land revenue on default. However, the said legislations framed by the 15 States / UTs are not effective and also there is no awareness about the same either amongst the doctors or the concerned police authorities.

Thus, if a person threatens a doctor or obstructs his work, then he will be punished for 3 years but in case of lawyers, the person will be punished for 7 years.

The medical fraternity should demand the government to look into this issue and increase the punishment in case of any kind of violence against the doctors or any medical staff.

Breakthrough drugs: Are they really breakthrough

Federal regulators in US started giving certain drugs “breakthrough” status in 2012. The goal was to speed up the approval of drugs for serious diseases when there was preliminary evidence the new drugs were better than existing treatment options.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association digs deeply into the studies behind the flood of “breakthrough” therapies. These drugs are being accelerated through development, and as this study shows, they are being tested on the basis of far less rigorous studies.

Typically, researchers conducting clinical trials take steps, such as randomly assigning patients to groups that receive the drug or a placebo, but no randomized trial was used for 40 percent of the approved drugs, the Yale School of Medicine study found. To avoid unconscious bias, patients and researchers are “blinded” so they do not know who is getting the drug and who is not. Nearly half of the trials in this case did not include a placebo. In half, patients or their physicians were aware of who was getting the drug and who was not.

A Journal of Clinical Oncology study done this year evaluated cancer drugs that had received breakthrough therapy designation and found that although they were approved faster, there was no evidence the medicines were safer, more effective or more novel than drugs approved without the designation.

A study two years ago posed a hypothetical scenario to physicians, asking whether they would prescribe an FDA-designated breakthrough therapy or a drug with early promising results that had not yet been shown to improve survival. It was a trick question, because breakthrough therapy means there is “preliminary clinical evidence” a drug might be better than existing therapies, according to the technical definition. Physicians overwhelmingly chose the one called a breakthrough. (Washington Post)

Another Never Event

In Chembur, Mumbai a new born baby was left with a 2 cm needle in his hip joint after a regular vaccination. According to media reports the child was born on June 7 and on June 10 was vaccinated. On June 29 the child’s parents brought the kid to hospital with osteomyelitis. The fever was still recurrent and the baby was referred to Bai Jerbai Wadia hospital, where CT scan showed presence of a 2 cm needle in baby’s hip joint.  The needle was removed through a surgery.

Non-Dairy Milks

Milk is "the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.

The vegan alternatives are non-dairy milks, including soy, almond, rice and coconut milk. They are juices from nuts, seeds, grains and legumes that may be fortified with vitamins and minerals to deliver the equivalent nutrient profile and sometimes taste and consistency of cows milk.

Participate in survey on Inflammatory bowel disease:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedaDx2iXiwU1vBpYdU6ebfCap-7PYAPSqXRJTeg8ULvNOcLg/viewform

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

Vice President CMAAO

President HCFI