This reflective narrative traces a heart transplant in Kolkata, India, between a 21-year-old Hindu donor and a 27-year-old Muslim recipient, a surgery that was as much a spiritual milestone as a clinical success. Drawing on Indian philosophical and spiritual tradit...
India’s healthcare ambitions have led to a historic rise in the number of medical colleges and MBBS seats, expanding from 387 colleges in 2013–14 to over 808 in 2025–26, according to the Press Information Bureau [1]. While this expansion aims to correct the doctor-...
Should privacy be a tradeable right? This is an issue for urgent consideration, given how much personal data collated from different sources can reveal about our personal lives. The rise of digital technologies and of the digital economy on the one hand, and of dat...
Anuj Kapilashrami, Neil Quinn, Abhijit Das, Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities: Interrogating Community Development and Participatory Praxis. Bristol University Press; May 2025. 240 pages, INR 3231, ISBN: 978-1447361404
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM). In Israel, systems already deployed at Magen David Adom and hospitals such as Sheba Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital, and Barzilai Medical Center demonstrate AI’s potential...
The Andhra Pradesh Health Minister recently announced [1] that Ayurveda postgraduates trained in surgical studies would be allowed by the state government to practise 58 surgical procedures independently. But what exactly does the term “independently” refer to, and...
Tobacco use has remained high among Indigenous communities in India over time, compared to other social groups. In this commentary, I use the lens of “commercial determinants of health” to understand commercial drivers of tobacco-related health harms among Indigeno...
There is an emerging and deeply concerning shift in the culture of undergraduate medical education in India, with many MBBS students increasingly prioritising their preparation for postgraduate (PG) entrance examinations, such as the National Eligibility cum Entran...
This commentary analyses playwright Thoppil Bhasi's efforts to challenge the social stigma surrounding leprosy, focusing on the Nooranad leprosy sanatorium in Kerala during the second half of the 20th century. Bhasi's influential play “Aswamedham” (1962), is recogn...
This essay traces my journey through my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the effects on my body, identity, and daily life. While medical treatment shaped the clinical arc of illness, what sustained me was the care and support of family, friends, peers, an...