By Nathan Douthit In February, 1999, the World Health Organization partnered with more than 20 non-governmental organizations involved in eye care to launch VISION2020: The Right to Sight. The goal of this initiative is to eliminate the main preventable and treatable causes of blindness by the year 2020. The threefold strategy involves disease control, human […]
Latest articles
Making a Difference with Individual Patients-Health Equity, Power, and Dignity
By Nathan Douthit At another session of CUGH’s Annual Meeting, Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of the Lancet, debated Cheryl Heaton, director of New York University’s Global Institute of Public Health, on the subject: Equity is the defining objective of global health in the 21st century. Heaton argued in favour of the motion, saying […]
Making a Difference Through Advocacy
By Nathan Douthit At the annual meeting for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health this year, the theme was Health Disparities: A Time for Action. The keynote address was delivered by Stephen Lewis, former UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS, Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, humanitarian and broadcaster. He spoke about, “The drama of disparities,” […]
Can too little be as bad as too much?
By Madhava Sai Sivapuram “Any substance which is taken too much or too little is poisonous to our body whether it is a drug or a diet”. These were the exact words told by my pharmacology professor when I was studying pharmacology. I thought yes, if there is excessive use of drugs, it is going to […]
Making a Difference in Conflict Zones
By Nathan Douthit Large-scale destruction of health services is a feature of modern warfare which today tends to be intrastate (civil war) rather than interstate. Whereas at the time of the World War I 90% of the injured were combatants, by the end of the last century 90% of casualties were civilian. The demand on in-country health […]
Making a difference in the developing world
By Marcus Chong In 2016, while conducting medical research in a rural village of Northern Samar, the Philippines, Professor Allen Ross and his global health research team met a patient with severe electrical burns. He was a construction worker who had suffered an electrical burn at work from an overhanging high voltage electrical wire carrying […]
Making a Difference
By Nathan Douthit Global Health Case Reports (GHCR) at BMJ Case Reports can help practitioners of global health in all settings, cultures and situations. These practitioners are doctors, nurses, social workers, students, dentists and others who care about those missed by more traditional healthcare models. They seek to treat the patient but also to change […]
Self-medication and access to care in Global Health
By Nathan Douthit I am a local village doctor. I came to the eye hospital escorted by two people in view of my severe eye condition and blindness. Fortunately, I was immediately relieved of my symptoms and my vision was restored after treatment. I am now completely aware of the ill effects of using home […]
15,000 Cases Reports Published
By Nathan Douthit BMJ Case reports published its 15,000th case earlier this year. This milestone represents innumerable hours of patient interaction, research, writing, and editing. These cases have given a forum for health professionals and students to discuss difficult and interesting cases of high educational value and to use their patient experiences as a means […]
A large force of health system- the medical students: have they been utilized adequately?
BMJ Elective: A new experience leading a newer perspective….The Patient-centered learning. By Vivek Podder Currently, undergraduate medical education is largely limited to the lectures or textbooks based teaching-learning approach rather than a patient-centered learning in various parts of the world. Lack of formal training for students in medical school as well as lack of future […]