Role of Mentors in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Training

A career in academic medicine may take years to develop, as the skills it requires are often not taught at an early stage. Having a committed mentor is always a privilege and valuable to the students in medicine. Given the wide variety of mentoring relationships, they are broadly classified as formal and informal according to the way in which the relationship is formed. Mentoring relationships usually evolve in stages to ensure competencies are met before the mentees progress to the next part of their mentoring process. “Mentoring up” is a concept that empowers mentees to be active participants in their mentoring relationships. Also, the mentoring needs vary depending on the stage of professional development. Mentors have 7 roles to perform in this relationship. Despite the advantages, the mentoring process faces the challenges like unrealistic expectations from the mentees, lack of training and time constraint among the clinician educators, and so on. The challenges can be overcome by building structured mentorship programs, by organizing the faculty development programs, use of virtual platforms to facilitate the meeting and providing the academic recognition/financial incentives to the mentors providing the exemplary service

AN EVALUATION OF FIXED DOSE COMBINATIONS (FDCs) USED FOR TREATMENT OF DIABETES IN INDIAN MARKET

Objective: To analyse the rationality of various FDCs used in the treatment Diabetes Mellitus and to find out the irrational FDCs existing in Indian market. Material and Methods: Study Design: Analytical study. Data on FDC's available in the Indian market was collected from Current Index of Medical Specialities (CIMS) and Monthly Index of Medical Specialities (MIMS) and their rationality was analysed using a pretested tool based on FDCs listed in WHO essential list of medicines and National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), others based on their pharmacodynamic activity, Pharmacokinetic parameters and significant drug interactions occurring due to API (Active pharmaceutical ingredients) contained within the product Result: A total of 18 combinations were analysed, among those 11 combinations were irrational. Conclusion: Predominantly irrational FDCs are being circulated in the Indian market hence through analyses by prescribers is needed before prescribing to patients in order to avoid ADR. This calls for a close scrutiny of marketed FDC's and educating prescribers to use them with great care and caution also indicates a serious review of regulatory framework for drug manufacturing and marketing. KEYWORDS: Fixed Dose Combinations; Antidiabetics; Irrational

Analysis of the pattern of ADR’s reported to an ADR monitoring center in South India: a prospective study

Background: All medicines with an ability to produce a desired therapeutic effect will also have the potential to cause unwanted adverse effects. It has been established that ~ 2.9%-5.6% of all hospital admissions are caused by Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) & as many as 35% of the hospitalized patients experience an ADR during their hospital stay. An incidence of fatal ADRs is 0.23%-0.41%. In some countries, ADRs rank among the top 10 leading causes of mortality. In order to increase awareness, observe the pattern of ADRs and communicate scientific data to prevent ADRs, this study was undertaken.Methods: It was a prospective observational study conducted at a tertiary hospital in Kochi. All the spontaneously reported ADRs were assessed and analyzed for type, severity and causality.Results: A total of 120 ADRs were reported during the study period. Most of the ADRs were seen in females in the age group of 61-70 years. Skin and appendage disorders were the most common manifestation of different type of ADRs (49.2%). Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents (30.8%), followed by anti-infectives for systemic use (29.2%) were mostly implicated in the causation of ADRs. Majority of the ADRs were of mild to moderate in severity (89.2%).Conclusions: Although small, but significant number of patients had severe ADRs. Hence, we require a robust system for monitoring the medication use process. So that we can prevent and reduce the morbidity and mortality due to therapeutic agents