82-year-old veteran physician Dr. Indira Murali says that people are often baffled when they hear that she has taught community medicine to students at AIIMS in New Delhi and medical colleges in Kerala. “They are aware of specialisations in surgery, paediatrics, and ENT. But, what is community medicine? they ask. And that is precisely why I wanted to write this book,” she says.
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Through her debut book, Community Medicine, which is to be launched on July 7 at IMA House, Kaloor, the veteran physician tries to explain what the specialisation is and why it assumes importance. The book will be released by oncologist Dr. V.P. Gangadharan.
After completing her MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from AIIMS in 1971 and PG Diploma in Health Administration from Nuffield Institute of Health, UK, in 1980, Dr. Indira Murali went on to pursue medical research and teaching for more than five decades.
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There are many who cannot afford or access proper medical care, she says in her book. “And that is when community medicine comes into picture, where the focus is on entire society,” she says, and adds that the COVID pandemic was one such instance where there was a shift in focus from individuals to society.
Community medicine stresses on the importance of primary health centres (PHCs) as the first point of contact for the general public.
If the network of PHCs and community health centres are strong enough, quality medical care becomes accessible and affordable to a large section of people. Community medicine is a wholistic approach, where doctors, beyond having the knowledge of medical sciences, have a duty to possess necessary skills to communicate with society and manage the day-to-day affairs of PHCs, she argues in her book.
“It is only with these valuable skills, which are not stressed enough, that a medical practitioner becomes a ‘five-star doctor’,” she says.
With simple language and minimal usage of technical jargons, the book is as comprehensible to a layman as it is to a medical practitioner, she adds.