Hyderabad: From age-old pioneers in medicine such as Kadambini Ganguly, the first woman practitioner in the country, and Dr Upendranath Brahmachari, who saved millions of lives in colonial India with the treatment of Kala-Azar (Black Fever), we have slowly embraced remarkable pathways in new medicine and surgical procedures, said Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, the founder and chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) Hospitals.
Delivering a B.C. Roy Memorial Lecture on the National Doctors’ Day, organised by the Academy of Science, Technology and Communication at Bhaskar Auditorium on Monday, Dr Reddy focused on empathy and communication to establish the link between society and a successful doctor.
“While a doctor’s role in society is taken as mere diagnosis and treatment, the concept of the doctor-patient relationship has changed uniquely. From a ‘family doctor’, to a super-specialist, we have come a long way but we have also dropped the essential element of ‘care’ in patient care. With this, over time, the trust between a doctor and a patient has decreased. The crucial aspect of ‘trust me, I am a doctor’ is gone now,” Dr Reddy said.
Further sharing anecdotes from his decades of experience, he also shed some light on important issues such as doctors feeling overburdened as well as unappreciated while the patients think they are overpaid and corrupt.
He also said that how doctors are portrayed in the media is crucial to re-establish trust with patients. While answering a question on lifestyle diseases, he said that a lot of diseases are caused by processed foods, which in some cases, can be more dangerous than alcohol. He added that understanding gut health and the micro-biome of the gut can help in preventing many diseases as well.
Dr Reddy felicitated fellow doctors who have made commendable achievements in their field. This was followed by a panel discussion where doctors from various fields shared their thoughts on important issues such as vaccination for adults, antimicrobial resistance, inactivity leading to increased risk of heart attacks and mu
