Medicine in South India

A three-month sabbatical allowed a superficial overview of Indian medical history and practice. As in Western nations, cost is a major determinant of health care delivery in India; poverty and fiscal shortages, however, deny care to many. The education of Indian physicians is similar to that in Western nations and a high level of clinical competence is seen. However, physician compensation is woefully low by Western standards. India possesses its own indigenous medical systems, purported to be the oldest in the world and predating Hippocrates by several millenia. Most Indians are cared for by native practitioners whose medical techniques are intricately related to the Hindu and Islamic religions. Many of their herbal medicines have been assimilated into contemporary Western practice. Diseases unknown to us except by textbooks are commonly seen and effectively treated. On the other hand, Western diseases such as coronary arteriosclerosis are not uncommon in a land of massive overpopulation and malnutrition. The humbling aspect of this experience is the realization that medical practice dating back several millenia can be made more modern and carried out competently by contemporary physicians. A Western physician working in India finds an unparalleled variety of disease in a totally different medical-religious environment allowing him to reorganize his priorities and to rediscover himself in the world within which he lives.