Indian-American
doctors seek end to physician shortage in the US
An
influential group of Indian-American doctors has proposed a comprehensive
legislative agenda to end the shortage of physicians in the US, which would
need a staggering 130,000 doctors by 2025. Members of the American Association
of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), representing thousands of
Indian-American doctors, spent Thursday in the Capitol Hill meeting lawmakers
to press their agenda. This includes a provision for green cards for physicians
graduating from accredited US residency programmes in the proposed
comprehensive immigration reform bill.
The
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts that America will need
90,000 physicians by 2020 and a staggering 130,000 by 2025. Among other things
AAPI urged the lawmakers to support two bills in the house and the senate
introduced by Democrat House member Joe Crowley and Democrat Senator Bill
Nelson to address the shortage of physicians. Crowley, co-chair of the
Congressional India Caucus, who has sponsored the ‘Resident Physician Shortage Reduction
Act of 2013,’ assured AAPI members that he would work for their legislative
agenda.
Other
lawmakers who addressed the doctors’ conclave included Republicans Phil Gingrey
and Phil Roe and Democrats Jim McDermott, Frank Pallone, and Zoe Lofgren. AAPI
has also suggested making the J-1 visa waiver programme — that allows
international medical graduates to do their medical training and residency in
the US — permanent; an increase in residency positions and the enrollment in
medical schools and providing a permanent fix to the medicare sustainable
growth rate (SGR) formula.
15.04.2013
Pakistani
girl undergoes liver transplant procedure in India
Madhia
Tariq, 16, had no hope of survival when she slipped into a coma after
collapsing in her Lahore school in January due to acute liver failure. An air
ambulance from Delhi brought the young Pakistani student to India — and back to
life. Madhia underwent a liver
transplant at the capital’s Indraprastha
Apollo hospital where a team of 18 doctors operated upon her. Her brother
Rizwan donated almost half his liver to her Feb 3.
Madhia
had developed acute liver failure due to Hepatitis A. She was off the
ventilator within 24-hours after the surgery and started eating the next day.
Over the following weeks, her condition improved and she is now ready to fly
home to Pakistan. ‘The process of sending an air ambulance to Pakistan,
arranging visas for the entire family and taking a decision on the transplant
took just 48 hours, which were very crucial,’ said Anupam Sibal, senior
paediatric gastro-enterologist, at the Apollo Hospitals.
He
said it was the first time that Apollo Hospitals had sent an air ambulance to
any foreign country to pick up a liver transplant patient. ‘The entire
government machinery in both India and Pakistan was extremely helpful,’ he
said. Neerav Goyal, who operated upon Madhia’s brother Rizwan, 25, said undergoing
a donor surgery is also very major. It is usually the family members who are
the donors.
According
to Madhia, her experience in Delhi has strengthened her desire to become a
doctor. The Pakistani teenager and her mother and brother are grateful to the
Indian doctors for giving her a second life. With this transplant, the
Indraprastha Apollo hospitals has completed 350 liver transplant cases of
Pakistani patients, Sibal said. ‘Pakistani patients form the second largest
chunk of patients from any country after India, who have undergone successful
liver transplants in our hospital,’ he said.
The
hospital has conducted 1,281 liver transplants in children and adults since the
first one in 1998, he added.
15.04.2013
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