Humanity & Science at crossroads

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 in Featured Young Leaders, March 2015 Edition

Humanity & Science at crossroads
Dr. Vikram Raut M.D.

As said by Prof. ShinyaYamanaka’s [ 2012 Nobel Laureate] Medical science consisted of medicine, which concerned with humanity, and science deals with discoveries. But the science is of no use if it cannot serve humanity at right time, at right place and importantly at right price. These words refused to leave me ears and kept me focused on my goal of making quality healthcare affordable, accessible and available.

During my tenure in medical college I had seen many end stage liver disease cases waiting helplessly due to either shortage of facilities or shortage of donor. This healthcare scenario led to an urge to do my bit for ailing liver disease patients. I did fellowship at Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto Japan, which is the pioneering and largest living-donor transplantation centre.

I learnt the skills of living-donor liver transplants which is majorly helpful in India wherein Cadaveric transplants are rare due to social stigma. To overcome the scarcity of organ donors, I studied transplantation across blood groups (Usually transplants are done only if the donor and the recipient share the same blood group).

I could contribute with a newer protocol for liver transplantation across the blood-groups without need of splenectomy, which is published in leading journal of transplantation and followed by most of centres.Further, I trained for a year in Liver Transplantation at Hospital Beujon, University of Paris-VII, France and later at the Asan Medical Centre in Seoul, South Korea. Meanwhile I got an opportunity to work as a committee member with International Liver Transplant Society and giving my inputs on standardising various treatment protocols, maintaining database of liver transplantation across the globe.

I was on a path wherein there was no scarcity of opportunity and glamour associated with the same.But that is not what I had started off for. It was important for me to come back and strengthen my base in India and focus on implementation of my knowledge. I can say I have taken the initial steps towards my dream, but it’s a long way to go.

I aim to take this fight much ahead as I strongly believe ‘Healthcare is not privilege; it’s a necessity, a right. Access to healthcare is right of every individual , The right… as a society we are failing to provide. Not only in developing countries that the millions are far away from basic healthcare but even in developed countries Obamacare in USA, NHS in UK are struggling?

Healthcare is usually juggled between governments who are not able to ensure quality and the private providers who are not able to assure affordably. According to the WHO, Millions are pushed to poverty due to healthcare expenses. We need to address the current healthcare challenges with socialist brain and capitalist heart. So that we can ensure accessibility for common man to quality healthcare.