Learning from low income countries

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

    In a lecture during my acquaintance's residency, she noticed that her professor and other residents were puzzled by the x ray film of a boy's limbs. They could not identify what could possibly have been wrong with him. The doctor, who had seen much rickets in India, identified it correctly and to the amazement of her colleagues.

    Poor countries, sadly, still provide reasons to train Western doctors in diseases that may not afflict the West right now but, with mass scale migrations, could easily become a problem in the future.

    Shefaly Yogendra, doctoral candidate

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

    Competing interests: None declared.

    References

    Richards T, Tumwine J. Poor countries make the best teachers: discuss. BMJ 2004;329: 113-4. (13 November.)

    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).

    http://www.100md.com/html/DirDu/2007/02/17/36/64/76.htm