BENGALURU: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) can take the place of the erstwhile Indian Medical Service (IMS), said cardiologist Dr Vivek Jawali who is also a member of the newly constituted Medical Council of India (MCI). He was speaking at the 26th Foundation Day lecture at university on Tuesday.
The IMS was formed after the 1857 mutiny by the British queen and had both Indian and British medical personnel. It made a lot of original contributions towards the treatment of cholera, malaria, etc, and had great expertise in Indian health care infrastructure. However, it was disbanded in 1947. “Had it been functioning today, imagine what it could have been teaching the world, including America and England,” said Dr Jawali.
Furthermore, he said the RGUHS can evolve to be a fountain of research with lobbying capacity right up to Delhi. He emphasised the need for the institute to focus on research, quality, quantity and fundraising.“We cannot translate researches by working in silos, and without translation there is no research,” he said, pointing out how basic science research is also in silos such as the IISc, JNU and others, and also the big hospitals.
Criticising the plan to move the RGUHS campus outside Bengaluru, he said, “Our budgets should be spent on technologies rather than civil works. Translating research will bring funds you can never imagine,” he added. He was also in favour of having a wall of fame for researchers within the medical community to stimulate publications.He urged the institute to adopt a system that analyses and creates a scoring mechanism that can actually measure the quality of services.