Refined Skills of Physicians in Independently Owned Hospitals in India Reduce Healthcare Costs for Patients

Authors

Presenter(s)

Anam Hussain

Files

Description

In America, we are currently striving to provide adequate healthcare to all, regardless of income level. We had the opportunity to travel to India to observe how patients of different income levels are treated in the different facilities available. For two months we shadowed physician, Dr. Mahmood Osmani, who owns a hospital with in-patient facility in Hyderabad, India, serving middle and lower income families. There we observed how treatments are provided for patients who pay minimum fees: by relying on more direct knowledge of the physician and less use of technology. The physician would palpate the abdomen at a particular location and immediately correctly diagnose acute appendicitis, or diagnose a heart condition by auscultating the heart and doing simple investigations such as an EKG and chest X-rays. His education and skills had so finely developed that scans and technological protocols did not need to be utilized to help diagnose and treat the patients. Though these technological advances are indeed available in the large corporate hospitals, these are mostly used for those who can afford the cost of these services, as all medical costs in India are out of pocket pay. Nevertheless, because of the particular training of doctors, many families who cannot afford high cost modalities are receiving effective treatments because of the skills of the physician in privately owned hospitals. In this project, we will highlight several cases we observed while shadowing Dr. Osmani, and show how physical touch and expertise helped treat the many patients with various illnesses.

Publication Date

4-9-2014

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Kathleen Scheltens

Primary Advisor's Department

Premedical Programs

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Business | Education | Engineering | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Recommended Citation

"Refined Skills of Physicians in Independently Owned Hospitals in India Reduce Healthcare Costs for Patients" (2014). Stander Symposium Projects. 503.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stander_posters/503