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NT Bureau
Chennai, Aug 23:
 

Manipal University former Vice-Chancellor B M Hegde being presented with endowment medallion by VHS Hospital secretary Dr N S Murali at a special lecture in Chennai yesterday. Also seen are VHS Diabetology Department head Dr C V Krishnaswami and Neurology Department chairman Professor Krishnamoorthy Srinivas.

        It was a clarion call for the betterment of healthcare delivery in India. If the hospitals and medical practitioners follow the American system of diagnosing patients, then the country was heading towards a health crisis with most of the population unable to access medical care, warned Professor B M Hegde, former Vice-Chancellor, Manipal University and chairman, Expert Committee of State Health Society, Bihar.

        Modern medicine has to change from being a statistical science to meta medicine for developing a holistic attitude and treatment systems taking into consideration the powerful role of mind in curing patients, Hegde explained. He was delivering an endowment lecture on the topic of Medical Science: Past, Present and Future organised by the VHS Hospital at its premises yesterday. Lamenting the healthcare system in India which has become a slave of western thought and blindly aping the US medical system which was prohibitive and did not care for majority of its citizens, Hegde stressed on the need to rediscover and follow the ancient prescriptions of Ayurveda for a disease-free life.

        Citing a recent study in the US, he said one of the largest killers was the needless intervention of doctors through over-diagnosis in an attempt to cure patients with drugs and surgery in American hospitals. 'Doctors should have the interests of patients at heart and first listen to what they have to say before arriving at the possible course of diagnosis,' he said.

        To illustrate the skewed focus of modern medicine which had moved away from addressing the plight of common man, Hegde said as against 40 million people afflicted with HIV syndrome, 530 million in the world suffered from nutritional deficiency and 40 million people were living with less than one dollar per day. 'Whereas olden-day research was patient-freindly and observational in nature, cross-sectional research with random trials is the focus now,' he said. Dwelling on the Ayurvedic science, he said even a violent thought or emotion would cause destructive ripples in the mind creating in the long run deep-seated frustration leading to depression, which may end up with cancer. Mind having different connotations of manas, buddhi, chitta and purusha in Indian medicine should be made tranquil as a first step for a healthy, trouble-free life, he averred. 'But nothing is static in this dynamic world. Even our heart is a healthy chaos and its functions are yet to be understood fully by mankind,' he concluded.

        Earlier, Dr C V Krishnaswami, head of Diabetology Department at the VHS, said appreciated the role of Hedge in taking up the cause of public health and welfare at a time when medical science had drifted towards sponsored research which had messed up clinical practice with unethical interventions.

        In his opening remarks, Dr N S Murali, secretary, VHS, said the hospital would be celebrating the 50 years of its existence shortly. 'Apart from being a recognised institute of excellence, VHS has good academic record,' he said. Efforts were on to upgrade the diagnostic tools at VHS, even as its Cardiology department had got a modern treadmill and eco-cardiogram recently. He paid tributes to founder Dr K S Sanjivi for being a pioneer in offering quality healthcare to poor and have-nots.

        During his comments, Professor Krishnamoorthy Srinivas, chairman, K Gopalakrishna Department of Neurology at VHS, said there were factors like good health, luck, hard work, equanimity of mind and sense of humour for life to be peaceful and disease-free. An endowment medallion was presented to Hegde by Dr Murali on behalf of the VHS.