Archive for category: News

New Delhi: Doctors’ demand for holding the upcoming National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) examination in a single shift has now reached the Supreme Court.

The United Doctors’ Front (UDF) has filed a petition with the Supreme Court. In the plea, UDF, a registered medical association representing thousands of doctors and medical aspirants, has urged the Apex Court to issue directions to conduct the upcoming NEET PG 2025 exam in a single shift across the country.

The petition, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, challenges the arbitrary and non-transparent decision of the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct NEET PG in two shifts with different question papers, using a disputed normalisation process for result calculation. UDF contends that this violates the aspirants’ fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, specifically the right to equality and the right to a fair, merit-based opportunity, the association mentioned in a release.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Lakshya Mittal, the National President of UDF, said, “Our petition is in response to overwhelming concerns raised by NEET PG aspirants across India. Conducting exams in two shifts with different levels of difficulty and applying a normalisation formula without transparency directly impacts the fairness and credibility of the entire process.”

Stressing that NEET PG 2025 should be conducted in a single shift, recently Dr. Mittal had highlighted the demand for “One Nation, One Shift” to ensure fairness, transparency and trust in the examination process.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a recent public survey conducted on the social media platform by UDF revealed that more than 2,513 NEET-PG aspirants anticipated, and a remarkable 96% of respondents demanded that the examination be conducted in a single shift to ensure fairness, transparency, and uniform evaluation. Raising this demand, UDF recently urged the Union Health Minister, Shri J.P. Nadda to reconsider the decision to conduct the PG medical entrance test in two shifts.

Ahmedabad: In a significant development, the Gujarat health department has appointed four senior doctors to key administrative positions in the state’s medical colleges and hospitals on a temporary basis.  

In Ahmedabad, Dr Meenakshi Parikh, who currently serves as the director of postgraduate (PG) studies at BJ Medical College, has been given the additional responsibility of dean. Alongside her, Dr Dharmesh Patel, a forensic medicine professor and the additional dean, will now take over as the PG director.

Also read- AP appoints 6 new Principals, 5 Superintendents at Govt Medical College Hospitals

In Vadodara, Dr R G Iyer, the dean of SSG Hospital, has been assigned the additional charge of the hospital’s medical superintendent. Similar interim arrangements are in place for the Paraplegia Institute and the Civil Hospital.

In a separate development, Dr Haribhai R Kataria, dean of the faculty of science at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of Shri Guru Gobind University in Godhra. 

His five-year term will begin from the date he joins, as outlined in the Gujarat Public Universities Act, 2023. He replaces former vice-chancellor Pratapsinh Chauhan, who was granted a one-year extension before stepping down.

The current administrative setup shows a growing trend of handling key positions through temporary or additional charges rather than making permanent appointments. TOI report suggests that this approach is being followed in medical colleges and hospitals across cities like Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, and others.

Meanwhile, doctors and healthcare experts have raised concerns about temporary appointments in important roles, saying these could affect how key decisions are made in medical colleges. 

Medical Dialogues recently reported that the Delhi government has appointed and transferred 26 senior medical officials, including medical superintendents, principals and medical directors from their current postings to major government hospitals across the capital. The major healthcare institutions included Lok Nayak Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, and GB Pant Hospital.

Also read- 26 senior doctors transferred, major overhaul at Delhi Hospitals

‘No-touch’ vein harvesting significantly reduces the risk of graft failure up to three years after coronary artery bypass surgery compared with conventionally harvested vein grafts, finds a study from China published by The BMJ today.

The no-touch technique also translates into meaningful clinical benefits for patients, such as lower rates of heart attacks and need for repeat revascularisation (a procedure to restore blood flow to blocked veins), say the researchers.

A coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is a surgical procedure used to improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart in patients with coronary heart disease. It involves grafting a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body (usually the saphenous vein in the lower leg) to the coronary artery.

The conventional vein harvesting technique, which strips the vein of surrounding tissue before grafting, is linked to high graft occlusion rates (where the vein becomes blocked or narrowed, impeding blood flow).

The no-touch technique, however, harvests the vein with a cushion of surrounding tissue and showed significantly lower occlusion rates at 3 and 12 months after surgery in the PATENCY trial. But the long-term effects of this technique are still uncertain.

To address this evidence gap, researchers carried out a three-year follow-up of the PATENCY trial to assess longer term outcomes of the no-touch vein harvesting technique compared with the conventional approach.

Their findings are based on 2,655 patients (average age 61; 22% women) undergoing CABG at seven cardiac surgery centres in China who were randomly assigned to receive no-touch vein harvesting (1,337) or the conventional technique (1,318).

At three years, the no-touch group showed a significantly lower vein graft occlusion rate than the conventional group (5.7% v 9%).

Several other outcomes – including rates of non-fatal heart attack, repeat revascularisation, recurrent angina, and readmission to hospital for cardiac reasons – were also significantly reduced in the no-touch group (1.2% v 2.7%, 1.1% v 2.2%, 6.2% v 8.4%, and 7.1% v 10.2% respectively), reinforcing the potential clinical benefits of the no-touch technique.

There were no significant differences in cause death or major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events.

The researchers acknowledge several limitations and say it is possible that these findings reflect random variation rather than a true biological effect. The study also focused on relatively young people in China, so findings may not apply to other nationalities and age groups.

However, they point out that results were consistent after further analyses and suggest they have important implications for clinical practice and guideline development.

They conclude: “This study provides robust evidence supporting the use of the no-touch technique to reduce the risk of vein graft occlusion, a critical factor in the long term success of CABG surgery. The decreased rates of vein graft occlusion observed in the no-touch group translate into meaningful clinical benefits, as demonstrated by the lower incidences of non-fatal myocardial infarction and repeat revascularisation.”

This study “provides important evidence on the durability and clinical outcomes associated with the no-touch technique,” writes Hui Jiang, professor of cardiac surgery at Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, in a linked editorial.

Despite some study limitations and the need for ongoing follow-up and detailed assessment of individual clinical events, he says “these findings might help shape future surgical strategies and inform updates to clinical guidelines.”

Reference:

Tian M, Wang X, Feng W, Wang H, Liu S, Liu Z et al. No-touch versus conventional vein in coronary artery bypass grafting: three year follow-up of multicentre randomised PATENCY trial BMJ 2025; 389 :e082883 doi:10.1136/bmj-2024-082883.