Learning from low income countries: Poor countries still provide reasons to train doctors in diseases of poverty

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.478-a

BMJ 2005;330:478 (26 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.478-a

Letter

Learning from low income countries

Poor countries still provide reasons to train doctors in diseases of poverty

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EDITOR—Poor countries make the best teachers: discuss.¹Last year a doctor in the United States who had trained in Indiatold me an anecdote that shows the flipside of Byrne's experienceon elective as a medical student in India, a learning experienceshe described as second to none.²

In a lecture during my acquaintance's residency, she noticedthat her professor and other residents were puzzled by the xray film of a boy's limbs. They could not identify what couldpossibly have been wrong with him. The doctor, who had seenmuch rickets in India, identified it correctly and to the amazementof her colleagues.

Poor countries, sadly, still provide reasons to train Westerndoctors in diseases that may not afflict the West right nowbut, with mass scale migrations, could easily become a problemin the future.

Shefaly Yogendra, doctoral candidate

University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1AG sy231@cam.ac.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

Richards T, Tumwine J. Poor countries make the best teachers: discuss. BMJ 2004;329: 113-4. (13 November.)[Free Full Text]
Byrne L. A valuable lesson from India. Electronic response to: poor countries make the best teachers: discuss. bmj.com 2004. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7475/1113#85733 (accessed 17 Feb 2005).