Mapping of professionals in EM & RUD

[Guest guest]

Dear Netrumians

 

Thank you for the enthusiastic response from many of you. I have a few concerns which I would like to share with you so that my intentions for doing this exercise are clear to all. I hope Vijay will permit me the luxury of a long post.

 

1. The objective of this mapping is to have a list of professionals who are interested in RUM. At the moment we rely on opinion, word of mouth, friendships etc., to know who is interested. This way (with the mapping exercise), I believe, everyone has a good chance of letting us know of their work that they have done in this area.

2. Sending the form does not guarantee that you will be invited for meetings, workshops etc., or that you are in anyway connected to the WHO.

3. This may lead you to ask - so why should I fill up this form and send it? Good question. At some point of time, we may want to commission a report or a review on a particular topic. If we know those who are interested, and who have some publications in the topic, we can encourage younger people to to take up this task. This will help create a new pool of experts with fresh ideas and outlook.

 

What is lacking now?

 

1. Please take the time to fill up the form completely. I have receieved forms without an address, designation stated without the department to which affiliated. I need to know not just the city you work in but also the state (my geography is apalling). Many of the forms are being sent with only three or four rows filled. This will not help me or you.

 

2. Assume I do not know any abbreviations - and so, when writing about courses attended please expand the name of organization and the title of the course and give full details.

 

3. Include your publications, newspaper articles, in-house magazines anything which will prove that you have been actively involved. Most forms are being sent without any publications.

 

4. Please check the file extension and send only as a word document. At least 25% of the forms I have received cannot be opened due to problems with the file extension.

 

5. If you are a student - please say so. There is no shame in stating that you are a student and a beginner. We all had to start somewhere.

 

My advice (for whatever it is worth)

 

The issue of irrational use is far greater, leads to more morbidity and mortality and costs more to individuals (patients) and governments than HIV-AIDS, Malaria, TB etc., for which we have excellent international and national programmes in place with large amount of funding. It is unfortunate we cannot get the Geres or Angelina Jolies or the Aishwaryas or the Aamir Khans to be ambassadors for RUM (there will be no opportunity for a photo shoot with sick looking, malnourished children). We have no photographs to show which will shock people and force people to reach for their purses or impress the need for continued research. None of the funding agencies in India even have it as a thrust area. People feel honoured and proud to say they work in molecular pharmacology and feel hesitant and embarassed to say they do drug utilzation studies. Doctoral committees do not encourage work in RUM, believing this is 'table research'.

 

But, despite all this, we need to look for inspiration from within to promote this concept and research in whichever way we can.

 

I request teachers, students to continue work in this area and publish as much as possible. This is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

 

Thanks for your patienceDr.Gitanjali Batmanabane