an intro to CMC... my work

I'm posted at the Christian Medical College, which is an enormous tertiary hospital with over 2,000 beds in the heart of downtown Vellore. It is a veritable oasis of academia and first world medicine amidst the choked and dust-filled streets.

As I'm officially here as part of the "research curriculum program," I have set up a couple research projects which I hope to be able to conclude while I'm here. The first is with the Emergency Dept - I will be performing a retrospective analysis of all of the snake bite cases over the last ten years. Most of you know I have a pretty significant snake phobia, which I'm hoping won't prove to be too much of an obstacle... And by the time I'm done my knowledge of venomous reptiles will rival, dare I say surpass, Justin Stempeck's. I'm also interested in looking into the difficulties surrounding trauma resuscitation and management in the developing world, but I'm not sure I'll be able to put that together as an official study.

I'm also doing a research project with the ICU comparing the case mix and outcomes here to that of the US and Australia. The implications of the study will hopefully address whether the varying outcomes that have been reported (worse outcomes in India) are due in part to differences in case mix, or if it is largely due to intrinsic lack of resources...

Not sure if I've lost some of you with these tedious descriptions. I find research to be pretty unsatisfying at times, so I've arranged to do clinical work in the Emergency Department in the mornings. This is my first week and after two days of seeing everything from motor vehicle accidents to untreated end stage cancer, to organophosphate poisoning (one of the most common methods of suicide) to snake bites, I'm completely hooked and have found myself going back for afternoon rounds as well. The director, Dr. Suresh David, is incredibly brilliant and a dedicated teacher who expects a lot from his junior doctors. There's also an American doctor who constantly seeks us out to show us physical/radiologic findings and quiz us on world politicoeconomics (yes, I made that word up) which I am particularly bad at. The Emergency department itself is the largest in India, seeing about 100 to 120 patients a day. The numbers themselves aren't that impressive, but the patients seen are SICK, as the common complaints are funneled elsewhere and over 70% of the patients are admitted.

There are quite a few other international med students here from Australia and around Europe, and they make a fun crowd to hang out/travel with. The top photo is a view of Vellore from the hospital roof, where my new favorite coffee/tea/biscuit bar is located. Sadly, the coffee servings are no larger, but the setting is striking and it makes a nice place for recharging.