Hyderabad: As many as 5.2 million medical errors and adverse drug reactions have been noted in India according to a study by Harvard School of Public Health.
These medical errors are preventable, argues the study which stated that teaching hospitals did better in 1990’s and early 2000 but there has been a slip in the last decade which has seen an increasing number of errors.
Dr Vijay Mohan, professor at Osmania Medical College explained, “The increasing errors are due to less bedside practice. We need more and more practice and less study. Presently, a large pool of MBBS doctors are spending a lot of time studying for the post-graduate and other exams rather than practising medicine. This is the reason the scope of errors has increased.”
With the increasing patient load in both government and private hospitals it is becoming very important to keep pace with the demands of clinically examining patients and also ensuring that the diagnosis is correct.
According to senior doctors and also professors of medical colleges, whenever a young practising doctor is in dilemma they are sharing diagnosis reports on what’s app with seniors to clarify their doubts.
While there is nothing wrong and technology must be used at its best, there is proving to be a need to have clinical decision backed with proper diagnosis so that there is a uniform opinion and not different versions.
To ensure that medical errors are reduced and cost of healthcare brought down, there is a need being felt that there must be one standard protocol set through artificial intelligence which will help better diagnosis and also reduce medical errors.
Dr Srinivas G., senior general physician explained, “Digital technology can help to give prescriptions, refer for tests and other aspects but doctor requires to spend time and personally examine the patient, listen to the heartbeat and also speak to them about their medical history to understand what has gone wrong. Often there are people who come with symptoms due to underlying mental health conditions. In these cases, it is not the physical health which is a problem but the mental health. Hence, digital technology has it’s place in secondary diseases which have complications but for basic diseases it requires proper doctor evaluation.”
While evidence based medicine and setting of standard protocol for treatments are being pushed where all doctors speak in one voice so that the patients are not confused.
This is being welcomed but there is a need felt for more of bedside medical practice to understand patients better.
