Dr.Naman Agrawal, MD Emergency Medicine, completed his undergraduate from Institute of Medical Sciences-Banaras Hindu University and his postgraduate from AIIMS, New Delhi. He is currently pursuing his Senior Residentship at the Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences – New Delhi.
He was chosen as a part of Indian delegation of students and young scientists, for the 60th Annual Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students at Lindau, Germany, in 2010. At IGCLA 2016, he delivered a key-note lecture on ‘Golden hour- in Emergency Medicine’ and also conducted the Emergency Medicine Quiz.
MTTN managed to get a few minutes with Dr. Naman while he was here in Manipal, attending IGCLA. Excerpts:
MTTN: Having secured 10 out of the 14 gold medals in your MBBS degree, what got you interested to take up Emergency Medicine (EM) as your specialty?
Dr.N: A few medicos confront an event that urges them to go for a particular specialization. Similarly, I encountered one such incident during the initial days of my 2nd year undergraduate when, a lady brought her unconscious husband to the emergency ward. The doctors gave in their best to resuscitate him, but it went in vain. This triggered multiple questions within myself as to why the immediate measures didn’t help save the patient’s life and how else he could’ve been managed.
MTTN: Emergency medicine was officially recognized as a separate specialty by the Medical Council of India in July, 2009 only. How did you courageously opt for this novel upcoming field and what do you think is its future?
Dr.N: When radiology was listed as an individual specialty, it was the same case. Needless to say, it is now among the most demanded streams. Similarly, EM will soon widen its strata as it is one of the vital departments required, in a country like ours.
MTTN: How do you manage to handle stress and act immediately when the cases are brought to the Emergency Department?
Dr.N: Initially, you’ll feel like you’re surrounded by a lot of chaos. With time, you get acclimatized to the chaos; act and think simultaneously.
MTTN: EM, unlike other specialties, includes some basic skills that the public must have some knowledge of. How do you think we can educate them, regarding the same?
Dr.N: The emergency training must happen in a hierarchy, wherein the professionals, students and then the public are educated about it. In the USA, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a professional organization that aims at improving the quality of emergency care. Our country is also striving to start a similar organization in a few years, maybe.
-Interview by Poojitha.S, Parul Mehrotra and Armaan Ahuja for MTTN.
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