Matiram Pun: Mountain medicine - pilgrims, research, and peace
5 Dec, 08 | by BMJ Group
With the world’s media reporting about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the first congress of the Asia-Pacific Society of Mountain Medicine (APSMM) took place in Delhi on 28-30 November. The society was founded a year ago, and the congress was attended by scientists from the region. The theme of the congress was “Life and Living in High Mountains.”
The society, scientific interaction, and research in mountain medicine and high altitude physiology have long been needed in the region. On 12 September 2003, the Mountain Medicine Society of Nepal (MMSN) was established. It was inspired and led by a mountain medicine and travel medicine expert, Dr Buddha Basnyat, and aims to especially to encourage and involve young doctors, clinicians, and medical students in research from Nepal. The society has worked in close association with the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal (HRA) [http://www.himalayanrescue.org/] to organize health camps, find volunteer doctors for HRA high altitude medical aid posts, carry out rescue operations, and conduct research in the Nepal Himalayas from the very beginning.
MMSN is a national mountain medicine society and affiliated to the International Society of Mountain Medicine (ISMM); however, it has worked extensively in the entire region to bring scientists together and organize regional programmes, mountain medicine workshops, and seminars. Scientists from India, Pakistan, and Nepal participated in two of its seminars in 2004 and 2007. Organizations such as the BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation (BPKF) and HRA have helped organize these seminars.
The Himalayan stretches of Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan have long been a destination for trekkers, expeditions, pilgrimages, and medical and physiological researchers - for example, Caudwell Xtreme Everest. People have lived there for centuries. A different population group away from the mainstream consists of pilgrims [Basnyat B. Pilgrimage Medicine. BMJ 2002;324:745 and Basnyat B. The Pilgrim at Altitude. High Alt Med Biol. 2006 Fall;7(3):183-4. There are numerous sacred lakes in the Nepal Himalayas, where pilgrims gather in large numbers each year. Dr Basnyat spoke on this topic at the congress in Delhi.
Newer societies such as APSMM should encourage young scientists to participate in the congress, seminars, and workshops and seek to involve them in research and publications. While people such as the BMJ’s editor, Fiona Godlee, are contemplating who should do research and how it should be fostered in the developing world (read also Walgate R. Developing countries should have a greater say in local research agendas. BMJ 2008;337:a2713), such societies can have a vital role in collaboration with other international societies—such as ISMM and the International Hypoxia Symposia, the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS), and Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme (UIAA).
I believe that such conferences and seminars benefit peace and stability in the region. While India and Pakistan both are nuclear powers and China’s economy is booming, we have seen repeated turbulence in the region. Academic and research organizations such as MMSN and APSMM will be bringing scientists and intellectuals together - regardless of their country, religion, and ethnicity - which will help stabilize the region. Therefore, societies with the same agenda, their workshops and seminars, and participation from all countries are extremely important.
Competing interests: Matiram Pun is currently working as the secretary of the Mountain Medicine Society of Nepal (MMSN) and was closely involved with the first congress of APSMM, to ensure Nepalese doctors’ participation.
The author has made an extremely pertinent observation. The South-East Asia has always witnessed tensions due to its complex geo-political structure. Yet, the problems and issues that confront the populace of countries in this region are essentially the same - socio-economic disparity and limited resources that are not commensurate with growing needs of the community. That some of the countries have been able to make remarkable progress in spite of such constraints is a testimony to the enterprising nature of the population. Science and medicine can serve a unifying force in this region and may show a way to the political leadership so that similar measures may be emulated in other fields. The region can attain its rightful place in the world order only through consolidated efforts on the lines of the European Union.
Ajit Goenka,
Resident-in-training,
Dept of Radiology, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Dr Ajit Goenka
December 7th, 2008 at 11:21 am
In my opinion, a central topic of all Mountain Medicine Societies would regard structural and functional aspects of microcirculatory bed in every tissue. Interestingly,nowadays physicians can bedside evaluate important parameter values of microvessels, as Microcirculatory Functional Reserve, fractal diamension of microcirculatory bed fluctuations, a.s.o., Constitution-dependent, Inherited Real Risks of most serious and common disorders are based on. See, for instance,Stagnaro Sergio. Newborn-pathological Endoarteriolar Blocking Devices in Diabetic and Dislipidaemic Constitution and Diabetes Primary Prevention. The Lancet. March 06 2007. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607603316/comments?totalcomments=1;Stagnaro Sergio. Bed-Side Prostate Cancer Detecting, even in early stages (“Real Risk” of Cancer): BMC Family Practice, 6:24 doi:10.1186/1471-2296-6-24 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/6/24/comments#202466;Stagnaro Sergio. Clinical tool reliable in bedside early recognizing pancreas tumour, both benign and malignant. World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2005, 3:62 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-3-62
Sergio Stagnaro MD
December 7th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I attended the conference in Nepal organised by Mountain Medicine Society of Nepal (MMSN) last year that Dr. Mati talks about. It was good to see participants from Nepal, India and Pakistan sharing a common forum and speaking on a common agenda. To organize a conference of regional scale in a poor country like Nepal is very difficult. Kudos to MMSN for successfully doing that. I hope that it was easier with APSMM in India and that they were able to ensure widespread participation from Nepal and other Asian countries in their conference. Hope such conferences are continued in future as well.
Siddhartha Yadav
December 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am