Medical Science Liaison (MSL) as a career option after MBBS

What is a Medical Science Liaison(MSL)?

The MSL is a field-based therapeutic specialist employed by pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Usually MSLs are organized under the medical affairs unit which are responsible for scientific exchanges with the clinical community.

The primary purpose of the MSL role is: 

• To act as a liaison to exchange therapeutic information between the Medical community in the therapeutic Area  in which they work (i.e. Cardiology, Diabetology, Oncology etc) and the company.
• Most important function of MSL role remains to establish and maintain peer to peer relationships with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL's) in their therapeutic areas.
• To be scientific or disease state experts for internal colleagues (sales and marketing)  

Gartner projects that Healthcare providers in India will spend Rs 57 billion on IT products in 2013

As per a press release by Gartner Inc., healthcare providers in India will spend 57 billion rupees on IT products and services in 2013, an increase of 7 percent over 2012 revenue of 53 billion rupees. This forecast includes spending by healthcare providers (includes hospitals and hospital systems, as well as ambulatory service and physicians' practices) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

103 female sterilizations in a day and post op care in open field: Why?

by Dr Sandeep Moolchandani, MBBS MHA PAHM

A lot of us might have heard about this utter disregard for human life and an open example of medical negligence. A few days back in a government hospital in West Bengal’s Malda district, sterilization by tubal ligation was performed for 103 women in a day. According the news reports, the hospital has 60 inpatient beds; 30 each for man and women. As per rules the doctors are allowed to carry out not more than 25 procedures per day.

Now obviously they must not have been trying to get their names registered in Guinness book of world records for most number of tubal ligations done in a day. So what made them play this dangerous game with 103 human lives by performing this mass sterilization and letting the patients fully exposed to the post op risks in open?

Cancer death rates: US vs India

Cancer is a rampant public health problem globally. There is an interesting emerging global trend in Cancer incidences  and death rates. While the rates are decreasing in the United States and many other western countries, they are increasing in less developed and economically transitioning countries[1]. Taking in perspective US and India, this trend is apparent from recent National cancer projections.

A recent report by American Cancer Society (ACS) published on January 17th 2013, revealed that overall cancer deaths in US have declined by 20% since their peak in 1991. The report notes that cancer deaths rates have fallen from 1991 (their peak) to 2009 (the most recent figures available), decreasing from 215.1 to 173.1 per 100,000 [2].

However looking at the current trends in India, it has been projected that the total cancer cases are likely to go up from 979,786 cases in the year 2010 to 1,148,757 cases in the year 2020 [3].

Emerging Device Based Approaches to Treat Hypertension

Need for new therapies to treat Hypertension

A very tight control of blood pressure is required to produce reduction in risk of developing complications especially in patients with comorbidities like Diabetes Mellitus which tend to accelerate the development of complications. Difficult to treat hypertension is a commonly observed problem world-wide.

Hypertension is classified as resistant if the blood pressure is ≥140/90 mm Hg and they reported using antihypertensive medications from 3 different drug classes or drugs from ≥4 antihypertensive drug classes regardless of blood pressure. Among US adults on antihypertensive therapy with drugs, 12.8% of the hypertensives had resistant hypertension as per above criteria [1].

Since multiple factors contribute to hypertension, achieving control using a single agent acting via one single path may not always be successful. Though single drug treatment may be effective in some, more than 50% will require more than one drug for appropriate control of their BP [2]. It is very common to see regimens with Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) or drugs being added sequentially.

The challenge of multidrug regimens is getting the patient to adhere to it; since for the patients the condition is largely asymptomatic and the perceived value of being on continuing long term therapy is low. Researchers have been focusing on innovative treatment modalities which can produce long lasting results while keeping it easy on compliance terms and low on side effects.

TB Control on Indian Government's Radar

While, the country's annual health budget is set to increase by a meagre 13% this year, the Planning Commission has decided to raise allocation for the TB control programme to about Rs 710 crore for 2012-13. This amounts a whopping Eighty percent increase in the RNTCP budget.

In 2011-12, the programme had received Rs 400 crore. The Revised National TB control programme (RNTCP) had demanded around Rs 936 crore for 2012-13. But it will get around Rs 710 crore.

According to the 12th Plan document for TB control, for the period 2012-2017 - Anti-TB drugs alone are projected to cost Rs 1,797 crore, of which 62% is for costly second-line MDR TB drugs that such patients are otherwise unable to afford themselves.

Some TB stats

India accounts for about one fifth (21%) of TB's global incidence, or an estimated 2 million cases of which around 0.87 million are infectious cases..

The Annual Risk of TB Infection (ARTI) is

Healthcare IT : What Indian Government is doing and what it should do?

From outcomes perspective, many studies have shown that Health IT has the potential to enable a dramatic transformation in the delivery of health care, making it safer, more effective, and more efficient. Taking lessons from developed nations and looking at the trends, in future healthcare IT is not going to play a side role but it is going to take a central stage in all healthcare business operations. With this background, it seems to be a crucial time to come up with National Health Information Technology policy, guidelines and standards to ensure uniformity in HIT adoption and use across the country.....Read More at HospitalInfraBiz.com

Virtual Dissection Table: Dissection by Taps and Glides of Fingers

Norbert von der Groeben (http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2011/may/dissection-0509.html)

Remember your Anatomy dissection hall, the karma-bhoomi (action-arena) for every medical student in the first year of medical education. Remember that pungent smell of formalin mixed with foul smell of decomposing tissue that goes to the deepest parts of your brains, just to leave you intoxicated for rest of the day. I am sure, that is an unforgettable experience for every medical student. After dissection class of 2 hours, there is not much of human anatomy you can identify or appreciate that too with 20 of your classmates flocking around a single cadaver. We have a new solution which can change the anatomy of the anatomy dissection hall.

I bet many of you will not have heard of the Virtual Dissection Table, a new innovative technology which takes studying anatomy to a whole new level. The Virtual Dissection Table, developed by Anatomage in collaboration with Stanford University's Division of Clinical Anatomy, is a breakthrough in visualizing human anatomy. It is another example of how an ordinary technology can be used for an extraordinary purpose. This virtual dissection table is effectively a computer with powerful graphics using a 3D anatomy software coupled with a life size display. It has potential to revolutionize the study of anatomy and the practice of image guided surgery. Check out these videos.