Integrating diversity into the medical curriculum

In the field of medical education, diversity refers to the presence and representation of persons from a diversified range of personal backgrounds, experiences, and characteristics across the student community, faculty members, and employees in the institution. The scope of diversity in medical education is immense and it plays a vital role in creating an effective learning environment. Once students are exposed to a group of diverse students and patients during their undergraduate training, there is a significant improvement in cultural competence, which becomes crucial in our mission to deliver patient-centered care. Considering the merits of diversity in the medical curriculum for medical students, there is an indispensable need to take specific measures to ensure that diversity is integrated in the curriculum, as it will also ensure the delivery of equitable and culturally competent medical care. As important is to ensure the integration of diversity into medical curriculum, equal importance has to be given to the measurement of various initiatives that have been taken to promote diversity in medical education. In conclusion, diversity in medical education is the need of the hour to create a fruitful learning environment for medical students. This calls for the need to take measures for the integration of diversity into the medical curriculum and subsequently identify strategies and indicators to measure and monitor the progress of diversity initiatives in medical institutions

Patterns of Anemia in Geriatric Age Group

Background: Anemia is a common concern in geriatric age group (more than 60 years of age)and can have significantly more severe complications than anemia in younger adults. WHO criteria determine anemia when the hemoglobin level is < 13 g/dl in male and < 12 g/dl in female. Aim: To study the proportion and morphological patterns of anemia in geriatric patients. Material and Methods: A hospital based study of patients of geriatric age group who have attended geriatric clinic and clinical OPD from November 2010 to April 2012 were studied.Detailed laboratory studies of diagnostic tests were done. Results: Out of 654 cases, 448 were found to be anemic amounting to 68.5 percentages. Proportion of anemia in males was 67.6%and in females it was 69.8 %. All the patterns of anemia based on peripheral smear were evident. Normocytic anemia was the commonest pattern constituting 79.4%. Conclusion: Con-firming the proportion and patterns of anemia is critical to direct the investigation for profiling the etiology since it is well known that the treatment of anemia goes a long way in improving the overall outcome and quality of life

Informed consent in clinical research

Worldwide, the goal of clinical research is to develop knowledge that improves human health or augments understanding of human biology. In biomedical research, two pillars have been identified - informed consent and independent review by an Ethics Committee. Informed consent is a consent given by a competent individual, who is willing to participate in a specific study after being informed about the study, and having made the decision without being subjected to force, undue influence or intimidation. The informed consent form consists of multiple elements, which should be incorporated in the form, and the completeness of the same should be assessed by the Ethics Committee. In conclusion, the practice of obtaining informed consent plays a crucial role in clinical research to safeguard the interests of the study subjects

Fight against Ebola disease: strengthening laboratory framework in low resource settings

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