At the time of writing, there have been 4 258 666 cases of coronavirus globally since the first case was reported on the 31st December 2019 (1). This has had far reaching impacts in all aspects of life, resulting in lockdown of a third of the world’s population (2) at its peak and significant alteration […]
Category: Uncategorized
Physician Shield Thyself
We are foundation doctors who have been advised to ‘shield’ and are clinically defined as ‘extremely vulnerable’ (1). We are one of many groups within the wider population of doctors whose personal and working lives have been impacted by COVID-19. Our position has shifted from practicing doctors to ‘extremely vulnerable’ members of society. Public Health […]
FiY1s Need the Support of Their Teams to Add Value
In light of increasing pressure on the healthcare system due to COVID-19, the UK Foundation Programme Office has recently announced that final year medical students, most of whom received an early graduation and early provisional registration, would now be given the opportunity to start their training early and to take up the post of a […]
Stigma at the time of an outbreak
The origin of the word stigma stems from the late 16th century. The word comes via Latin (stigmat) from Greek (stizein) translating to a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.1 Quoting history’s most popular space franchise’s legendary character, Yoda – ‘Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate […]
Lessons from Lockdown
Lessons from LockdownI have to self-isolate “shielding” because I am on high dose steroids to control temporal, hopefully it will also be temporary, arteritis. After a life of frenetic activity, it was a shock to realise that an imposed physical slowdown also allowed a mental slowdown, allowing for an “on the thought” time for reflection […]
The Doctor will not Touch You – clinical medicine at a juncture(Abhijit Das)
We are currently going through a cataclysmic event in modern history. The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has struck with an unprecedented global scale and ferocity: within a span of 6 months, the virus has infected more than 6 million people and continues to spread unabated around the world. This extraordinary pandemic has brought in one definitive paradigm […]
Being a Director of Medical Education in the time of COVID (Dr Catherine Mathews)
In March 2020 things changed, seismically, both at home and at work. As my 11 year old twins prepared for their first day of home school, I prepared to set off to a new kind of workplace. “What will you be doing at work today Mummy?’ ‘Well – it’s mostly about my ‘Director of […]
Torn between two countries: On being an International Medical Fellow during a global pandemic (by Dr Revathy Krishnamurthy MD and Dr Archya Dasgupta MD))
The global healthcare system is currently facing an unprecedented challenge in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling medical workers into the frontlines. The personal lives and professional careers of medical students, residents, fellows, and staff have been altered in many ways and to different degrees, each gearing to assume elevated roles and responsibilities. The International […]
Stopping the tide of Covid 19 by lockdown: India (Dr. Manas Pratim Roy New Delhi)
Since December, 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid 19), originated from Wuhan, China, has rapidly spread across the globe, as evident by declaration of this latest threat by World Health Organization as pandemic in March, 2020. With exponential surge in morbidity and mortality, the world is witnessing the rampage by Covid 19. As on 19th April, […]
What makes Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) challenging compared to other Coronavirus pandemics? (by Sai Krishna Gudi))
Within no time, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged as an outbreak, then as an epidemic, and finally now as a pandemic. However, Coronavirus (CoV) is not the first-ever occurrence as it was initially discovered in the 1960s, and since then, several types of CoV were identified amongst which Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoV (SARS-CoV) and Middle […]