Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Why don't Indian doctors keep upto date ?

Doctors need to remain uptodate with the medical literature. Their professional knowledgebase is their biggest asset, and as medical science advances, they need to keep up with these advances.

The sad truth is that most doctors know the most medical science when they sit for their postgraduate examinations. Once they start practise, their knowledge becomes outdated quickly because they just do not have the time to keep up. Their medical textbooks get outdated very quickly – and very few subscribe to medical journals, because these are so expensive !

Most depend upon colleagues and consultants for specialist advise when they encounter a patient with a rare or complex problem.Some attend medical conferences for CMEs ( continuing medical education), to overcome this lacuna. For the vast majority ( especially in smaller towns) , the only source of medical knowledge is the "friendly medical representative" . Sadly, all these are very unreliable means of remaining well-informed – as a result of which they often become outdated very soon.

While it's possible to practise medicine based on 10 year old medical text books, the quality of this practise leaves a lot to be desired. This is why many doctors are insecure; and they often end up losing their patients to well-equipped specialists in corporate hospitals.

Not only is this bad for a doctor’s self-esteem, this can prove to be embarrassing when patients with internet printouts know more about their disease than the doctor does !

Also, this failure of the doctor to update himself with the latest medical knowledge can result is lawsuits for medical negligence – the doctor’s biggest nightmare.

It's not that Indian doctors are lazy or don't want to keep up with recent advances - it's just that it's very hard for them to do so ! Not only are medical books and journals exorbitantly expensive, most of them simply do not have access to a well-equipped medical library.

While some doctors do try to use the internet to keep updated, the sad truth is there is very little high quality medical information available on the net !

The good news is that now for less than Rs 30 per day, Indian doctors can subscribe to the world's largest online medical library, at www.mdconsult.com ! MDConsult allows doctors to remain uptodate by providing online instant access to the FULL-TEXT of over 40 respected medical books and 50 prestigious medical journals which are constantly updated. This means they will never need to buy another medical book in their life !

MDConsult provides convenience and peace of mind – at the doctor’s desktop - for only Rs 9995 per year !

They can also try out a risk-free 30 day demo – free of charge !

To subscribe, please contact: HELP - Health Education Library for People
Excelsior Business Center,
National Insurance Building,
Ground Floor, Near Excelsior Cinema,
206, Dr.D.N Road, Mumbai 400 001
Tel. No.: 65952393/ 65952394/22061101
[email protected]
www.healthlibrary.com

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