Why Medicine and India needs to open its third eye — the 3RD-I?
Why Medicine and India needs to open its third eye — the 3RD-I?
Dr Vaibhav Bagaria
We are at crossroads. The time for medicine and the world today — is exciting and yet tumultuous, young and not so young, promising but enigmatic like the beautiful universe that holds us. We are eight billion hyper-connected people in a trillion-sensor economy paradoxically and painfully devoid of the blessings that we deeply aspire — definitive knowledge and unconditional enjoyment of our authentic selves. What ails us and how can medicine as a sacred discipline and India as a nation lead the way to two fundamental dreams of human civilization — the dream of eternal health and happiness?
The third eye (also known as the inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric concept referring to a speculative invisible eye, which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. The third eye is often associated with clairvoyance, Precognition, the capacity to understand auras and chakras and realizing out of body experiences. People who are claimed to have the capacity to utilize their third eyes are sometimes known as seers. It is believed that an individual can open its third eye with intense meditation, focus and determination. But what about nations and various disciplines? How do they open their third eye?
The answer to the question lies in the question itself — by opening it self to its eponymous acronym the 3RD-I; Research Development and Innovation! To attain this the fundamental shift needs to be in attitude. I come from an healthcare background dealing with people from all walks of life and I can vouch for a fact that while most of us succumb to finitude, tiny minority of us who dreams and looks beyond the finitude with the infinite enthusiasm can find ways to open their 3RD-I in the most unlikely places and situations.
There are numerous historical stories to address why, how, why and where of research, development & innovation. How many of you here know the story of how X rays were invented or Penicillin discovered? We don’t have to go that far in history to understand the anatomy of success. If we just look around we find an emerging era where Uber, Space X, Tesla, Airbnb, Google and Apple are pushing the boundaries transcending and out maneuvering mammoths like Govt owned public transportation, NASA, Pentagon and IBM. All these stories also had few common traits: the power of imagination, perseverance and habit of seeking truth. The common thread in all these — they catered to a necessity, they started where they could and when they could — they just started!!!
However if necessity is mother of invention rather innovation, India with one of the highest burden of disease, the highest number of road deaths, poor infant and maternal mortality record is crying for innovation in healthcare. Certainly with world’s largest pool of youth, we can harness the power of imagination, toil and persevere and inculcate a habit of seeking truth. The world is more equal than it ever was in any time of the history. There are huge opportunities in big data, amalgamation of existing and emerging technologies, computational leapfrogging, robotics and artificial intelligence. The chairman of India’s largest private company known for oil and Gas and brick and mortar style business was not far off when he thundered that the data and technology is the new oil and that the company was all set to harness its potential. Similarly in health, the wealth of data and intelligence derived from it is waiting to be exploited. It will help give us a deep insight not only of disease but also health and unleash a new frontier in curing what was so far thought as incurable. Newer materials in healthcare and amalgamation of technology such as 3D printing are ushering in an era of personalized medicine. This technology when combined with new found knowledge about how medical signaling cell act is adding a new dimension to what is popularly known as tissue engineering. These are just few examples and we can go and on, In short, opportunity is lurking around in every corner and something good is just waiting to be unveiled.
A word of caution here though, it is a common human tendency and more profoundly so in our nation and our discipline to find quick fixes. ‘No’, India and Medicine do not need Jugaad, we need systemic investments of time energy and enthusiasm and a culture that promotes people, communities, nations and discipline to open their 3RD-I. If necessity is the mother of invention than as a nation with highest burden of disease, largest number of death, dismal maternal and infant mortality should be relentlessly inventing, innovating and finding solutions. Each of us can do their own bit by focusing singularly on improving the way we address and approach different problems.
India as a nation and healthcare as a specialty is grossly under represented in number of noble prizewinners and there is no better time to change that than now. Join the revolution and my plea today is that the time is ‘now’ for each of us to open our 3RD -I. We have only one life to know whether we were right or wrong! Research, Develop and Innovate for health and happiness…. Stay Blessed!!!
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
