Volume 2 Issue 12 December, 2012
Beyond Seniority, accepting difference of opinion
For a brief period I worked in VHS, Madras (Chennai) before joining CMC Vellore for my Senior Housemanship. I worked in the newly started Renal Dialysis Unit and in the Ophthalmology Unit. The Chief in the latter was the very well known Dr. S. S. Badrinath, who is presently running the very popular Shankar Nethralaya at Chennai. One day, there was a referral from the Medical Unit for an opinion on the Fundus for a patient with hypertension. Dr. Badrinath asked me to see the patient and write my opinion in the chart. I mentioned that the patient had Grade II – hypertensive retinopathy. Later when he saw the patient he thought the fundus was normal. I quickly took the case file and tried to scratch out what I had written. He stopped me in my tracks and said “your opinion is as valid as mine. Although we may differ at this point in time and just because I am senior to you it does not mean that your opinion is invalid”. I was amazed at this completely different approach to medical practice, because I had grown with the idea, during my undergraduate days that “whatever the senior says must be right”. And his humility and complete honesty in a clinical situation by an expert in the field impressed me a lot, especially, when both of us knew that he was probably right and I just only an upstart. This made a deep impression in me and of course we continued to cherish our friendship.
He is the chairperson of Organizing committee of upcoming, Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatry Society (ANCIPS) 2013
