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In the last two years, there has been a rapid rise in scams in India and a lot of people have lost their hard-earned money after trusting strangers for financial advice. Be it a fraudulent app, being added to a shady WhatsApp group, or receiving phone calls from strangers that sound too good to be true, many cases have come to light. Now, in a new incident, a doctor from Thane, Maharashtra, was misled by three Karnataka-based suspects who promised earnings via a municipal contract to supply medical equipment, costing him ₹3.84 crore. Despite investing over a three-year period, he saw no returns and reported the crime to the Naupada police, who have registered a case but made no arrests. Thane doctor tricked by false municipal contract According to a PTI report, a 39-year-old doctor in Thane, Maharashtra was deceived by three men from Karnataka. These fraudsters offered him lucrative returns through a supposed municipal contract for supplying medical equipment. Convinced by the promise of reliable profits, the doctor began investing heavily in December 2020, making significant contributions until March this year. The doctor’s substantial investment – totalling ₹3.84 crore – was made over multiple transactions from December 2020 and March this year, in anticipation of high returns that never materialised. Suspicion finally arose after the doctor had seen no profits despite his repeated investments. Recognising he may have been defrauded, he reached out to the Naupada police station, who registered a case under charges of cheating. While no arrests have been made so far, authorities have launched an investigation to track down the perpetrators and recover the funds if possible. A police official told PTI, "The man approached police after he did not get profits or any return on investment. We have registered a case of cheating but have not arrested anyone." Ahmedabad gynaecologist duped in <keyword id="21361161" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="stock-market-scam" source="keywords">stock market scam</keyword> In a similar incident, a gynaecologist from Ahmedabad lost ₹1.1 crore to a scam that began with a social media advertisement. Attracted by the potential for substantial stock market returns, the doctor engaged with a group promising expert tips and was subsequently added to a WhatsApp group where members shared investment insights. Through this group, he was introduced to a web link for stock and IPO investments, along with an application that required his banking details and identification documents. A PTI report revealed that the doctor’s initial investment of ₹50,000 yielded a profit of ₹10,000, which he successfully withdrew. This initial success encouraged him to make larger investments, transferring ₹1.1 crore through multiple transactions in pursuit of higher gains. When he later attempted to withdraw his funds, he was unexpectedly asked to pay 20% of his total profits. After refusing this demand, he was removed from the WhatsApp group and realised the extent of the deception. He contacted Cybercrime police in February, and after months of waiting, a formal case was registered against unknown suspects under charges of breach of trust and cheating, alongside provisions of the <keyword id="20003647" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="information-technology-act" source="keywords">Information Technology Act</keyword>.

Thane doctor gets cheated of ₹3.84 crore, was promised high financial returns by 3 men

Doctors in India are grappling to diagnose and treat unexplained and persistent symptoms of <keyword id="9814327" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="long-covid" source="Orion">long Covid</keyword> patients due to limited guidelines, whereas researchers have flagged inadequate studies on the condition. With the <keyword id="19896311" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="world-health-organization" source="keywords">World Health Organization</keyword> declaring an end to <keyword id="19896627" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid" source="keywords">Covid</keyword> as a global <keyword id="416511" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="health-emergency" source="Orion">health emergency</keyword> in May last year, focused efforts are underway around the world to estimate the burden of long Covid among the population. The condition refers to the set of lingering symptoms affecting varied body parts and persisting well beyond the acute Covid infection period, including cough, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and difficulty in focusing. The viral disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While studies have suggested that about a third of those moderately or severely infected are likely to suffer from long Covid, region-wise though, incidence could vary. A study by researchers, including those from <keyword id="19988007" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="harvard-medical-school" source="keywords">Harvard Medical School</keyword>, US, estimated that 31 % of the once-infected people in North America, 44% in Europe, and 51% in Asia, have long Covid, which is "challenging the healthcare system, but there are limited guidelines for its treatment". It was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in September. In India, however, studies on long Covid are few and far between. One such study by Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, conducted from May 2022 to March 2023 on 553 patients who had recovered from Covid, found that about 45% had lingering symptoms, persistent fatigue and dry cough being the most common. "There is limited exploratory research on the long Covid syndrome with scarce data on long-term outcomes," the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Cureus in May this year. Understanding the long-term effects of the virus is important for developing management strategies, optimising healthcare delivery, and providing support to recovered Covid patients in the community, they said. Dr Rajesh Sagar, Professor of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, said, "Looking at the current state of long Covid studies in India, it is too premature to say that we understand the condition well enough to know how to diagnose or treat it." Animesh Samanta, assistant professor at School of Natural Sciences in <keyword id="19897094" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shiv-nadar-university" source="keywords">Shiv Nadar University</keyword>, Greater Noida, said, "While studies in India highlight the growing recognition of neurological complications in long Covid patients, more focused research on neuroinflammation is needed." Doctors, too, have reported a rise in patients complaining of symptoms that they did not have pre-Covid. "People who never had <keyword id="6465125" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asthma" source="Orion">asthma</keyword> in the past, post-Covid, with every viral infection, they get a long cough, shortness of breath and wheezing, which require the use of <keyword id="31257" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="inhalers" source="Orion">inhalers</keyword> or nebuliser," senior consultant Dr Neetu Jain, who runs a post-Covid care clinic at Pushpawati Singhania Hospital and Research Institute, New Delhi, said. Dr Arun Garg, chairman, Neurology and Neurosciences, Medanta-The Medicity, Gurugram, said he was noticing a spike in stroke cases among young patients not suffering from known risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. "Similarly, we are seeing more cases of encephalopathy (swelling of the brain) without reason and having a confused state of mind following one or two days of fever. Their MRI scans show no changes. These patients have increased significantly after Covid," he said. In the absence of medical guidelines to diagnose long Covid, doctors are having to resort to broad, non-specific tests and questionnaires to gauge a patient's 'quality of life'. Studies have shown that the fatigue experienced in long Covid is similar to that in cancer patients, with a quality of life similar to patients of Parkinson's disease. "We really do not have any test to diagnose long Covid, even though it is definitely a clinical diagnosis. We diagnose long Covid for people who had at least moderate to severe infection, following which they could never regain the quality of life pre-Covid. Checking for inflammatory markers like C-reactive proteins (CRP) can support the diagnosis," Dr Jain said. "Other than routine blood tests that measure inflammation, we do antibody tests to look for direct markers. In many of these patients, we are finding rare antibodies which are very new to us and were not there pre-Covid," Dr Garg said. Inflammation persisting despite recovery from acute Covid infection is thought to lie at the heart of long Covid. However, tests to measure this specific immune response are lacking, even as researchers have been working in this direction worldwide. One such effort comes from Shiv Nadar University, where a team led by Samanta has developed a fluorescent probe capable of detecting inflammation in brain cells that can arise due to Covid infection. The probe measures nitric oxide levels in brain cells, especially in human microglia cells, where increased NO levels are linked to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Microglia are immune cells in the brain that fight disease and help maintain brain health. Lysosomes within microglia, which help clear foreign disease-causing agents like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, produce nitric oxide as part of an immune response to infection. The probe detects nitric oxide produced in lysosomes in response to infection and thereby allows for a measurement of inflammation levels. This examination method can provide "qualitative information on infection status", said Samanta, corresponding author on the study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry in American Chemical Society. He explained that patients with pre-existing conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis (an autoimmune disorder) could exhibit prolonged neuroinflammation and loss of brain cells following Covid infection. While the probe has shown efficacy in cell cultures, animal studies would need to be done, before testing it in humans, Samanta said. Looking at the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, the study by Harvard Medical School had found that 587 clinical studies were conducted on long Covid, of which about 53% (312) were testing potential treatments. Most of these were found to be conducted in the US (58), followed by India (55) and Spain (20). The trials looked at interventions including physical exercise, psychotherapy, and pharmacological ones such as paxlovid and fluvoxamine. However, "to date, only 11 of these 312 studies have published their results that were not confirmative," the researchers wrote. The team called for studies to look into sleep disorders which were rarely included in the registered clinical studies. Further, interventions targeting the biological processes responsible for long Covid are needed but currently lacking, they said.

Doctors struggle to treat long Covid patients in India; researchers point to inadequate studies

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A doctor shortage is projected to hit 86,000 by 2036. Rural communities already feel the impact.</li><li>Educational initiatives and congressional bills aim to combat issues like limited appointment slots.</li></ul>Every three to four months, Mellisa Case drives three and a half hours from her small town of Prineville, Oregon, to Portland to see her orthopedist for help with arthritis, a condition she believes she could have avoided at this stage in her life.In 2021, Case had surgery for a meniscus tear at an orthopedic center in Bend, an hour away from her home. However, she couldn't schedule appointments for follow-up care, which doctors consider necessary for proper recovery. For several months after her meniscus surgery, Case kept calling the center for an appointment with no success while her knee deteriorated.Now Case takes time off from work and spends up to $125 round trip on gas while traveling to Portland for arthritis care. Case said that symptoms like stiffness, swelling, and discomfort — which resulted from a lack of postsurgical medical support — could interfere with her sleep, gait, and ability to enjoy her hobbies like hiking and gardening."Until you've experienced not being able to see a doctor, you don't really realize how frustrating it is," Case, who is 53, told Business Insider. Eventually, she will need surgery for a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nc-woman-plans-finally-getting-knee-surgery-after-winning-lottery-2023-1">full knee replacement</a>.Case said that she remains concerned that the overall lack of medical care in her community, as she's observed doctors retiring or leaving her area.Some of her family members and friends also struggle to find physicians close to home, Case said, so they have to drive long distances or wait for appointments.A March report from the Association of American Medical Colleges projected that the US would face a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-hospital-wait-times-are-bad-physician-shortage-low-pay-2024-4">physician shortage</a> of up to 86,000 specialists and primary-care doctors by 2036.Michael Dill, the organization's director of workforce studies, said this estimate was conservative."The country needs hundreds of thousands of doctors to provide an equal amount of care to everyone, including minorities, those without medical insurance, and people living in rural areas," he told BI.An aging population, physician retirement, and the administrative challenges of running a practice contribute to the shortage and disproportionally affect vulnerable populations such as older people, those lacking transportation options, and people with disabilities, public-health advocates told BI.Two solutions could be increasing medical-training programs in rural communities and passing legislation to retain and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-high-paying-jobs-hiring-doctors-construction-accounting-2024-4">bolster the physician workforce</a>.<h2 id="0a289233-786f-4ff1-969a-24da2c3ab5eb">An aging population and provider burnout are contributing to a worsening doctor shortage</h2>The effects of a doctor shortage are already here, Dr. Bruce Scott, the president of the American Medical Association, said.Scott practices in Louisville, Kentucky, and said that in addition to patients in rural areas driving hours to appointments, they're waiting months to see a doctor.Various factors, including an aging population, play a part in the situation, Dill said.In 2020, 55.8 million Americans, or 16.8% of the population, were 65 or older, and by 2030, all baby boomers will have reached age 65, according to a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/2020-census-united-states-older-population-grew.html ">US Census report.</a> As people age, they require more physician services, such as cardiologic or neurological care, and at the same time, doctors are aging and retiring, adding to the shortage, Dill said.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-hospital-beds-empty-nurses-doctors-staff-covid-vaccine-2021-10">Physician burnout</a> further exacerbates the problem, Scott said. In one survey that was part of AMA Organizational Biopsy report, of over 12,400 doctors, 48% of respondents said they were burned out. In another survey from the same report, one in three respondents said they planned to retire or reduce hours within two years.One AMA survey found some doctors were leaving their practices because they were being paid less to handle more <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-health-records-causing-doctor-burnout-2018-12">administrative burdens</a>, such as spending 12 hours a week filling out prior-authorization requests. "Medicare is paying us nearly 30% less in 2024 than it did in 2001, when adjusted for inflation," Scott said, citing further data compiled by the AMA.<h2 id="1d068686-c4d6-4ee0-81d9-f17918ad516a">Strategies to alleviate the shortage</h2>To help alleviate the physician shortage in rural areas, medical students need to receive training there, said Molly Fox, the vice president of institutional advancement at Kansas Health Science University."We engage students with the rural community because we know that people tend to practice where they feel connected," Fox said.At KHSU's Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, for example, third- and fourth-year students can complete clinical rotations at St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City, four hours from Wichita, where the university is.Chase Hearn, a third-year student, said he'd seen doctors at the hospital who have worked 26-hour shifts to meet patient needs."I've also heard patients say they can't take a day off work to travel 200 miles to see their OB-GYN," Hearn said. He added that his training had strengthened his resolve to practice in a rural community but that he anticipated challenges, like burnout and working with patients who lack consistent access to care.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-el-paso-trying-solve-us-physician-shortage-2023-7">Rural residency programs</a> are also needed to address the shortage, Dill said. Only 2% of residency training occurs in rural areas, the US Government Accountability Office says.A residency program through Oregon Health &amp; Sciences University aims to alleviate the doctor shortage in three central-Oregon counties, including Crook County, where Case lives. The program is training physicians in primary care, family birthing, emergency medicine, behavioral health, and hospital medicine.According to the Rural Medical Training Collaborative, 133 rural residencies in family medicine and 69 rural-track programs are recruiting for 2025 enrollment, along with 30 internal-medicine residencies and 16 psychiatry residencies.Several pieces of legislation have also been introduced to Congress to address the doctor shortage. Scott said bills to adjust Medicare payments for doctors — no matter where they practice — to the annual rate of inflation and rules to reduce the need for prior authorization could help ease administrative burdens.Some legislation, if passed, would specifically influence rural areas.For example, HR 7855, the Association of American Medical Colleges-endorsed Rural Residency Planning and Development Act of 2024, would codify the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, which funds the startup costs of residency training in rural areas, Dill said. From 2019 to 2024, the program has enabled the launch of 46 accredited rural residency programs across 38 states and Puerto Rico.Hollie Davis Frick, an immigration lawyer for Wintersteen Patel Law Group, said congressional action could easily incentivize doctors born abroad and who receive advanced medical training in the US to remain here and practice in rural areas."Many doctors who come here for residencies and fellowships return abroad because of our ineffective immigration policies," Davis Frick said.If passed, S 665, the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act, would allow state health departments to sponsor additional visa waivers for foreign-born doctors who agree to practice in underserved areas within those states.While Case remains skeptical that doctor-training initiatives and legislation will directly affect her community anytime soon, she considers herself fortunate, she said."I have the ability to drive, afford travel expenses, and pay for out-of-network doctors," Case said. "Not everybody does."

Medical schools and legislation aim to address a worsening doctor shortage that's already hitting rural communities 

The <keyword id="22366986" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="doctor-population-ratio" source="keywords">doctor-population ratio</keyword> in the country is 1:836, which is better than the <keyword id="20522854" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="WHO-standard" source="keywords">WHO standard</keyword> of 1:1000, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel told the Lok Sabha on Friday. According to the information provided by the <keyword id="20039511" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Medical-Commission" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="National Medical Commission" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="National Medical Commission">National Medical Commission</keyword> (NMC), there are 13,86,136 <keyword id="20522855" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="allopathic-doctors" source="keywords">allopathic doctors</keyword> registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as on July, 2024, Patel said in a written reply. "Assuming 80% availability of registered allopathic doctors and around 5.65 lakh <keyword id="20522856" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AYUSH-doctors" source="keywords">AYUSH doctors</keyword>, the doctor-population ratio in the country is around 1:836 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000," Patel stated. She also said that there are 731 medical colleges in the country with an annual intake of 1,12,112 <keyword id="20585495" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="MBBS-seats" source="keywords">MBBS seats</keyword> as of now. Further, there are 72,627 <keyword id="22645227" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PG-seats" source="keywords">PG seats</keyword> as of date, she said. Measures taken by the government to augment medical education facilities and to improve medical standards include <keyword id="22366985" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Centrally-Sponsored-Scheme" source="keywords">Centrally Sponsored Scheme</keyword> (CSS) for establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals, under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved and 109 are already functional. Under the CSS, medical colleges have been upgraded to increase the number of MBBS (UG) and PG seats. Support has been provided for an increase of 4,977 MBBS seats in 83 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 5,972.20 crore, 4,058 PG seats in phase-I in 72 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 1,498.43 crore and 4,000 PG seats in phase-II in 65 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 4,478.25 crore. Besides, under "upgradation of government medical colleges by construction of super specialty blocks" component of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), 75 projects have been approved, of which 66 projects are complete. Under the Central Sector Scheme for setting up of new AIIMS, 22 AIIMS have been approved and undergraduate courses have started in 19 of these. Also, DNB qualification has been recognised for appointment as teaching faculty, to take care of shortage of faculty and there has been enhancement of age limit for appointment, extension or re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges up to 70 years. <h2>Claims of Indians being unfit "extrapolated" </h2>Furthermore, Union Health Minister J P Nadda told the Lok Sabha today that WHO's recent report stating that half of India's adult population is physically unfit relied on data collected only from three states and one UT, and the results were extrapolated through a modelling technique indicating inbuilt methodological issues. Responding to a question, Nadda said the WHO defines 'sufficient physical activity' as 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activities per week (brisk walk, lifting light load etc.) or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week (running, digging, construction work, outdoor games etc.). The activity level so quantified is based on a self-reported response to questions about physical activity lasting at least for 10 minutes. The National NCD Monitoring Survey of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 2020 has assessed, inter alia, physical activity amongst Indian adults and found that 58.7% had conformed to the WHO recommendations, Nadda told the Lok Sabha.

You Searched For "Medical doctor" and got 4 results

Thane doctor gets cheated of ₹3.84 crore, was promised high financial returns by 3 men

Divyanshi Sharma

Doctors struggle to treat long Covid patients in India; researchers point to inadequate studies

Business Insider India

Medical schools and legislation aim to address a worsening doctor shortage that's already hitting rural communities

Heather Lindsey

Doctor-population ratio in India better than WHO standard, says Govt

Ira Alok Puranik

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