Caring for marginalised people

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7242.1144

BMJ 2000;320:1144 ( 22 April )

Letters

Caring for marginalised people

Appropriate external intervention is needed

All doctors should be taught and tested

Leadership and strategy are needed to support those who provide care

Appropriate external intervention is needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Medicine usually fails marginalised people, as Smith observed.¹ But it is not just medicine that fails them. Everytechnology invented so far has failed them and will continue todo so. Information and communication technologies have exacerbatedthe divide between rich and poor nations and have also furthermarginalised those who are already marginalised within nations.²Reverend Jesse Jackson has drawn attention to how these technologieshave led to a deepening of the racial divide in the United States.³

In analysing papers published by medical researchers in India I found that much of the research carried out there has notbeen done in the areas in which it is most needed, such as respiratorydiseases, diarrhoeal diseases, and ophthalmological disorders.A comparatively large amount of research is being carried outin the areas of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, although theseare not significant causes of morbidity and mortality . . . [Full text of this article]