Localism: The future of mass communication

Sounds quite interesting an idea and one that is worth to think about seriously

Link

Am attaching the complete text here for my personal use.
The way forward for local television would be to engage citizens in debates on prominent problems of their city and make them part of the solution, Rajiv N. Lulla, CEO, NDTV MetroNation said on Wednesday.

In his keynote address on “Localism: The future of mass communication and what it means to you” hosted by the Chennai chapter of the Public Relations Society of India, Mr. Lulla said the key was in increasing citizen’s involvement in evolving solutions to common problems in everyday life.

Local television had the unique advantage of providing local content that was relevant to residents of a particular city that a national television channel with its limited “shelf-space” could accommodate, Mr. Lulla said.

For instance, a programme that invited viewer contributed videos would be impossible to undertake on a national scale but could be a great way to encourage citizen’s participation on local television, he said.

Accountable metrics


At the same time, local television needed to evolve an accountable metrics for advertisers who sought an alternative way to reach out to regional consumer segments, he added.

Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, said public relations was in essence all about the skill of communication and played a vital role in every organisation. However, the term was not always used in a complimentary manner, she said.

The Chennai chapter of PRSI also kickstarted its activities for the 2009-2010.

Naresh Trehan, brain behind ‘Medicity’: Interview and few thoughts on it

Naresh Trehan, an eminent cardiologist and the brain behind the Medanta Medicity project has answered questioned from a variety of people in the Indian Express this sunday. Following is the short summary on a few items that he has talked about along with my personal views on them.

• On the motivation behind creation of medicity:

Creation of a healthcare facility that is patient driven, than target driven. A health care set-up which maintains a high level of transparency, in its governing practices, billing systems and patient outcomes. Also, on top a health care facility that is world standards but still accesible to the possible widest strata of the society and not just a select few.

1. His mention about publicizing patient outcomes and maintaining atmost transparency on this is a very important thing. Infact, he also mentioned that the outcome studies needed to be presented with a local context. Let me share a personal experience of mine, to better understand this point.

Once an aunt of mine had fractured her leg and there was a blood cot in the knee. We initially took her to a hospital to get the diagnosis, but for a variety of reasons we did not want her to be treated there and decided to move her to a bigger hospital in another city. Trying to hold us in the same hospital, the doctor told us about the risk involved with clots, that they have a tendency to move and can lead to brain stroke or cardiac arrest. We were scared of moving her from that places due to the risk. I then called up our family doctor and enquired about the risk involved in moving her. He said, there is definitely a small% risk involved, but I have not experinced in my medical carrer a patient where the clot due to hurting the leg has moved and led to a cardiac arrest, but you cannot come and blame me tomorrow if such a thing happens in your case because there definitely is a chance, but a chance event that I have not come across in my 15years of medical practice. So putting a statistical data into a context was re-assuring for us to evaluate the risk vs benefit that we gain by taking that risk.

Also on the target driven health care, unfortunately due to the heavy corporatization of the health care facilities in our country, doctors are functioning based on set target of having to accomplish a certain number of surgeries and whole lot per month to show corporate results. I hope this motivation as outlined in this inititaive will set a role model for other hospitals.

• On the issue of affordable health care:

On a related note, he states that many of the medicinal practices that are followed in the country(on diagnosis, treatment approaches) are blindfoldedly followed based on the data available in the west. This is also an area where he states that MediCity would standout of the rest. I do not know whether use of indigineorus technology, and integrating other indian medicine practices also fir into his goal on affordable health care.

He says lot of health care cost burden can be brought down through dealing with it in the prevention phase. And the use of mobile health disbursal system to adress the rural health care needs.

I think his suggestion that satellite mobile medical mission with the help of qualified doctors instead of rural posting makes a lot of sense.

As regards the accountablity of the doctors his opinion was that doctors should be included in the professional regulatory body.

"Crazy" Venkatesh: one more post

‘If Venkatesh knows you are here, he might sit up even now,’ we told Kamal. However crazy and wishful the thought, only if it had come true!” Balaji sighs.

Link to a tribute column in The Hindu

RESTORING MENTAL HEALTH IN INDIA

‘Possession’ is still very common, especially in rural areas. Even in Tamil Nadu, there are some temples such as Hanumanthapuram where I have observed a group of young women who used to remain in a so-called trance state for about 30 minutes around noon almost everyday. Even if considered a cry for help or attention, this practice gets social sanction and not perceived as a deviant behaviour.

Book Review in The Hindu

Crazy Venkatesh

க்ரேஸி குழுவின் முக்கிய நடிகராக இருந்த வெங்கடேஷ் நேற்று காலமானார். தி.நகர் நானா தெருவில் அவர் வீட்டுக்குக் காலையில் போனபோது க்ரேஸி, பாலாஜி, அப்பா ரமேஷ் இன்னும் நிறைய நண்பர்கள். மௌலியோடு அவசர அறிமுகம் செய்து கொண்டபடி வீட்டுக்குள் நுழைந்தேன் மோகனோடு.

வெங்கட் ஆறு அடி உயர நெடியமால். அவரை இனி எப்போதும் எழுந்திருக்க முடியாத படுத்த கோலத்தில் பார்க்க மனதுக்கு கஷ்டமாக இருந்தது. க்ரேஸி குழுவினர் எல்லோரிடமும் அலாதியான டைமிங் சென்ஸ் உண்டு. வெங்கட்டிடம் இது கொஞ்சம் அதிகம். வங்கியில் விருப்ப ஓய்வு வாங்கி ஒரு ரவுண்ட் சினிமாவில் கலக்க திட்டமிட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்தவரோடு விதி விளையாடிய பலன் - இரண்டு ஆண்டாகப் படுத்த படுக்கை. மைக்கேல் மதன காமராஜனைத் தொடர்ந்து அவரைத் தொடர்ந்திருக்க வேண்டிய வெற்றி ஏனோ விலகிப் போய்விட்டது.

கமல் சார் காலையில் தொலைபேசியபோது வெங்கட் பற்றிச் சொன்னேன். அவர் நேற்றைக்கு சேதி தெரிந்ததுமே போய் வந்ததாகச் சொன்னார். சக கலைஞரை மதிப்பதில் அவருக்கு இருக்கும் அக்கறை தனியானது.

Link from Era.Murukan's web page

Influenza A (H1N1) Revised Guidelines as on 14.8.2009

In order to prevent and contain outbreak of Influenza-A H1N1 virus for screening, testing and isolation following guidelines are to be followed:

At first all individuals seeking consultations for flu like symptoms should be screened at healthcare facilities both Government and private or examined by a doctor and these will be categorized as under:

Category- A

• Patients with mild fever plus cough / sore throat with or without body ache, headache, diarrhoea and vomiting will be categorised as Category-A. They do not require Oseltamivir and should be treated for the symptoms mentioned above. The patients should be monitored for their progress and reassessed at 24 to 48 hours by the doctor.

• No testing of the patient for H1N1 is required.

• Patients should confine themselves at home and avoid mixing up with public and high risk members in the family.


Category-B

(i) In addition to all the signs and symptoms mentioned under Category-A, if the patient has high grade fever and severe sore throat, may require home isolation and Oseltamivir;
(ii) In addition to all the signs and symptoms mentioned under Category-A, individuals having one or more of the following high risk conditions shall be treated with Oseltamivir:

• Children less than 5 years old;
• Pregnant women;
• Persons aged 65 years or older;
• Patients with lung diseases, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, blood disorders, diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer and HIV/AIDS;
• Patients on long term cortisone therapy.

• No tests for H1N1 is required for Category-B (i) and (ii).

• All patients of Category-B (i) and (ii) should confine themselves at home and avoid mixing with public and high risk members in the family.




Category-C

In addition to the above signs and symptoms of Category-A and B, if the patient has one or more of the following:

• Breathlessness, chest pain, drowsiness, fall in blood pressure, sputum mixed with blood, bluish discolouration of nails;

• Irritability among small children, refusal to accept feed;

• Worsening of underlying chronic conditions.

All these patients mentioned above in Category-C require testing, immediate hospitalization and treatment.

Beta: The Hindu

இது என்ன Beta(as in Englisha) இல்லை Beta(as in Hindia)..
http://beta.thehindu.com/
புளிய பாத்து பூனை சூடு போட்டுண்ட கதை கேள்விப்பட்டிருக்கோம்
இங்க பூனை நெருப்பிலையே குதிச்ச effect வரது..
இதெலாம் வேற நெறைய பேர் 50 வருஷமா படிக்கறவங்க letters to editorku எழுதுவாங்க..