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The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which started from a single city in China has been designated as a public health emergency of international concern. Despite being the most affected nation for close to 2 months, the situation has reversed in China and at present, the nation accounts for only 1% of global caseload and 1% of global deaths. All these estimates are very much suggestive that China has been successful in containing the outbreak in their settings. However, it will not be wise to expect that the outbreak is totally under control as long as the pandemic is going on. The most important lesson from the containment efforts in China was that a single approach will not be right in all the settings. In conclusion, China has been successful in containing the COVID-19 infection and the experience from China should be utilized by other nations who are fighting against the infection. On the contrary, China should not be relaxed and prepare themselves for a fresh wave of infection and also address the special needs during the recovery phase of the disease.

Research is the backbone of medicine, and the advancement in the field of research plays a crucial role in improving the quality of care offered to the general population. In general, the process of development of research skills by medical students can be either accomplished by integrating research within the curriculum or by means of encouragement of specific activities or course distributed throughout the course depending on a clearly defined plan. Like any other competency, it is a must that there has to be a framework for the assessment of research skills to ascertain the competency of medical students. In conclusion, it is the need of the hour that medical students should be given an adequate number of learning opportunities to develop research skills during their undergraduation period. However, for this to happen, research-related competencies should be included within the curriculum and a specific comprehensive framework targeting research-related attributes should be developed.

The ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accounted for massive socioeconomic disruptions on the global scale and the number of cases and attributed deaths continue to rise. As the outbreak continues to expand in various nations, it indeed creates an opportunity for the policy makers to have a re-look on the national response to the outbreak. The proposed intra-action review can be scheduled whenever the policy makers feel that there is a need to update the existing emergency response strategies. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the health stakeholders and welfare agencies realize the gaps which are prevailing in the preparedness and emergency response. The conduction of periodic reviews at national or subnational level is the most appropriate approach to give an insight to the policy makers about the best interventions and those interventions which need to be re-visited for ensuring effective containment of the infection.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to rise in terms of its geographical distribution, the number of people infected and the number of people losing their lives due to the resulting complications. Contact tracing is an effective strategy to identify, assess and manage people with a positive history of exposure to a confirmed case, so that we succeed in interrupting the transmission chain and further transmission of infection. It is essential to follow-up the contacts for a period of 2 weeks from the last date of exposure, but the successful implementation of this strategy will depend upon the support of the general population, planning of the entire process after considering the local contexts, trained and adequate number of workforce, logistics, and a supportive mechanism to collect, compile and analyze the data in real-time. In conclusion, the component of contact tracing is a crucial link in interrupting the chain of transmission of the COVID-19. It is the responsibility of the public health authorities and members of the community to work in close collaboration to identify the contacts at the earliest and quarantine them with an aim to prevent onward transmission.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has stretched the health system beyond their capacity & capability. The initial evidence has suggested that the infection is transmitted from one person to another through close contacts and droplets and thus the role of infection prevention strategies is extremely important. It has been advocated that frequent and proper maintenance of hand hygiene can prove to be the most effective strategy to prevent infection acquisition. However, in order to maintain hand hygiene, it is ideal to have access to safe water, sanitation and hygienic (WASH) facilities, as this will significantly reduce the risk of the transmission of infection between humans. Thus, all steps should be taken to ensure that improved WASH facilities and waste management provisions are available at home, education institutions, workplaces, community and health care establishment. In conclusion, the provision of standard WASH facilities in all the settings is critical to strengthen hand hygiene practices and thereby plays a significant role in reducing the risk of acquisition of infection and thus the caseload of COVID-19.

The process of teaching learning in medical education is a complex task considering the fact that teachers have to not only impart knowledge but also train the medical students in clinical skills, decision-making, clinical reasoning, etc. A wide range of teaching-learning methods have been employed to deliver theory, practical, and clinical skills. Grand rounds play an important role in keeping the health professionals abreast about the recent developments. In fact, sharing time with the attending doctor can be regarded as one of the best ways to achieve on-the-job training and learning. The emergence of coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic has changed all the dynamics, and there is a definite scope for virtual grand rounds, which will not only continue learning but even ensure the safety of all the attendees. To conclude, grand rounds can be acknowledged as one of the essential modes of teaching-learning in the overall process of delivery of medical education. Thus, all efforts should be taken to rejuvenate the same in those settings where they are not under practice so that students can improve their knowledge and skills.

Didactic lectures have been acknowledged as one of the most important aspects of teaching-learning in the field of medical education. In general, a traditional didactic lecture tends to facilitate passive learning, wherein the students just receive the information provided by the teacher, in the absence of any sort of active engagement. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and a total of four studies similar to the current study objectives were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. The audience response system has been looked upon as a tool to improve the overall effectiveness of the didactic lectures in classroom settings. In this method, the teacher can engage the large group of medical students by including questions during the session and thereby improve the amount of interaction. In conclusion, the audience response system is an effective approach to improve the overall learning in and facilitates the transition from passive to active learning in the medical college set up. Moreover, the system encourages collaboration between teacher and student and active engagement of students, which makes it extremely useful.

Medical education has been recognized as a challenging professional course as a lot is expected from the medical students during their training period. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and National Medical Council Website, and a total of 15 studies similar to the current study objectives were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. In order to ensure that students actively participate in their learning and eventually progress from one professional year to the next one, the regulatory body has formulated eligibility criteria for the students to appear in summative assessments. Although attendance policy tends to have a significant influence on reducing the unnecessary absenteeism in the class, it cannot be conclusively said that the best learning occurs while students are physically attending the class. A student can be asked to mandatory attend those sessions wherein the content cannot be perfected by reading material. To conclude, the clause of meeting attendance norms for being eligible for the summative assessment is a must in many ways to ensure that students remain involved in their learning process. However, there is a definite scope to modify the attendance norms depending on the type of sessions and whether the proposed knowledge or skills can be acquired within the four walls of a class or by the students on their own.

Disabled individuals are more often than not subjected to a wide range of barriers, including physical which significantly affects their access and utilization of quality-assured preventive and healthcare services. Acknowledging the problems encountered by the disabled individuals, it is of utmost importance to train the medical students to respond to the special needs of these people and to ensure the provision of optimal healthcare. With the introduction of new competency-based medical education for undergraduation, a set of disability competencies have been defined for medical students for the very first time in the foundation course document. A wide range of teaching–learning methods and assessment methods can be employed to assess the learning. In conclusion, considering the problems faced by the disabled individuals, the need of the hour is to address the disability competencies expected of a medical graduate; to accomplish the same, curriculum planning has to be done and the medical students have to be trained in a phase-wise manner.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accounted for a significant disruption in each and every sector, including medical education. However, to avoid interruption in learning, all the medical colleges have adopted one or the other form of online teaching-learning and assessment to benefit the students. After a wait of more than 8 months, it was decided by the Indian government authorities that all the medical colleges should re-open from December 2020 onward. The regulatory body has proposed a framework and instructed the medical colleges to delay the summative assessments by 2-3 months, so that students are not deprived of learning opportunities, especially pertaining to the practical and clinical interactions. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a major disruption in the effective delivery of medical education in the entire nation. Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to utilize the available time and focus more on teaching practical and clinical skills to benefit the students to the optimal extent.

In the field of medical education, surveys remain one of the most common methods for the planned and conducted educational research. However, the validity of the obtained results depends on the adequate representation of the study population and the number of participants who have responded to the survey. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and a total of seven articles were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. Owing to the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, a sudden rise in the incidence of online educational surveys has been observed. There is an immense need to improve the response rates to the online surveys and thereby get representative results. In conclusion, online surveys are exceedingly being used in the field of medical education research by different stakeholders. It is the responsibility of the researcher to ensure that they follow simple steps to reduce both unit nonresponse and item nonresponse and thereby ensure more representation to the study findings.

The ongoing Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has already been given a Pandemic status and also continues to be a public health emergency of international concern. The epidemiological analysis and the trends of mortality clearly suggests that even though, the disease is quite common in all age-groups, the disease has manifested in severe forms among elderly and those people who are having pre-existing medical illnesses. It is the need of the hour to ensure that both these high-risk groups are offered additional attention, without subjecting them to isolation or stigmatization, which decreases their overall probability of access to health care services. Further, it is extremely important to strengthen the risk communication mechanism and take appropriate steps for the relay of timely and trustworthy measures to the entire community, with special attention to the two high-risk groups. In conclusion, as the COVID-19 continues to increase in magnitude and geographical distribution, it is our responsibility to take appropriate steps to improve the wellbeing of community, with an additional support to the high-risk population groups.

The training period in the delivery of medical education has to be utilized for the comprehensive development of the student. Acknowledging the presence of multiple problems in the life of a medical student is inevitable to plan and implement a student support system within each of the medical institutions. In fact, specific standards have been laid down by the national and international regulatory bodies to minimize stress, resolve problems, and holistically address all the issues which can together influence the academic performance of a student. The need of the hour is to adopt a student-centered approach that enables the students to understand their thoughts and feelings better and this can be streamlined with the help of a mentor or teacher in a confidential and nonjudgmental manner. In conclusion, the life of a medical student is full of ups and downs, and thus, there is an indispensable need to develop a student support system, which ensures the comprehensive development of them. Moreover, the success of such a system will be determined by the institutional culture, wherein all the stakeholders work together for the betterment of the students.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has taken the world by storm and has made each and every government to introspect about their preparedness and the response action plan. Amidst all the unknown epidemiological attributes of the novel virus, the health care professionals have been at the forefront dealing with infectious cases to save their lives by compromising their own safety. In order to ensure that health professionals actively participate in the process of health care, it is their right to have access to all standard preventive & protective measures. To conclude, in the ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus disease, the efforts of the health care professionals will be the real factor in improving the survival chances of thousands of the affected patients. However, considering the fact that they are working in high-risk settings, it is the responsibility of the health administrators to safeguard the health and wellbeing of health professionals.

The clinical reasoning competency has been identified as one of the core competencies, which is expected to be attained by an undergraduate medical student. It is difficult to assess the clinical reasoning skills in a standardized manner using the available existing tests. To address these gaps and to ensure standardization of the assessments, a script concordance test (SCT) has been designed and implemented in the field of medical education to assess different domains. The test is designed in such a way that it indicates the manner in which a doctor in authentic settings organizes their knowledge and attempts to solve the problem using clinical reasoning skills. In conclusion, the SCT in the field of medical education can be employed to assess clinical reasoning skills and the ability of the student to interpret the given findings under the clouds of uncertainty. Moreover, owing to the relative ease to create, administer, and score and because of better psychometric indices, each of the medical colleges should explore its possibility and implement it within their settings as a tool for teaching and assessment.

In general, the public health concerns of obesity and hunger appears different, but in reality, the root cause of these problems is overlapping to a great extent. The findings of studies have indicated that childhood obesity and food insecurity can coexist, while in some children and youths, food insecurity has been linked with more risk of development of obesity. Considering the fact that a large section of human population is vulnerable to the threat of food insecurity, it is the need of the hour to take specific interventions to bridge the existing challenges. As the problem has deep roots within the existing system, the first and foremost thing will be to rope in all the concerned stakeholders and plan for a holistic approach. As maintenance of nutrition and ensuring adequate supply of food commodities is an integral aspect of elements of primary health care, the national government should design policies to warrant equitable distribution of food commodities. To conclude, the twin problem of hunger and obesity has demonstrated a significant rise in the different parts of the world. It is of utmost importance to acknowledge the problem as a public health priority and respond to the same in a concerted and organized manner.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted all the areas of health care, including interruptions in the delivery of essential health care services in varied settings. In the oral settings, the virus transmission can happen either through direct transmission via inhalation of droplets produced during coughing or sneezing, or direct transmission via mucous membranes, or indirect transmission through contaminated surfaces or fomites. It is quite obvious that most of the aerosol-generating procedures are being done in the oral settings and thus the potential risk of transmission of infection cannot be ruled out. There is a specific need to strengthen infection prevention and control measures in the oral health care settings. In conclusion, the oral health care services need to be rigourosly strengthened in the current pandemic as there is a potential risk for the spread of the COVID-19 infection. The need of the hour is to continue the delivery of emergency services and at the same time delay the routine procedures to ensure safety of the patients as well as the health care personnel.

The field of medical education is quite complex and there are lots of unsaid expectations of a medical student to eventually transform into a competent medical professional. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and a total of 13 articles were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. Apart from the various teaching–learning methods adopted by the teachers in the delivery of information, it is a must that in order to accomplish deep learning, we have to encourage medical students to reflect upon all the learning and clinical interactions. As a matter of fact, most of the regulatory and professional bodies have strongly advocated for the inclusion of reflection in different phases of both undergraduation and postgraduation medical education. In conclusion, the strategy of reflection should be looked upon as a method for advancement in knowledge, shaping the learning in the future, and to improve the competence level to deal with complex and emotionally or ethically challenging situations. It is the need of the hour that all the medical institutions should develop a detailed plan to encourage students to reflect upon and improve their learning.

In the field of medicine, it is extremely important to establish a correct and timely diagnosis to ensure delivery of appropriate quality assured care, maintain patient safety, and minimize hospital-induced errors. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and a total of 6 articles were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives and analyzed. There are no doubts that the process of making a precise clinical diagnosis is a complex one and is error prone. Amid these facts, it is a real challenge for the medical teachers to teach and train the medical students with an aim to accomplish the core competency of reaching a correct clinical diagnosis in authentic settings. One of the approaches adopted by the teachers is to provide learning opportunities to the students so that they can develop critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. In conclusion, medical teachers have to adopt a systematic approach for teaching students the skill of establishing a clinical diagnosis in authentic settings. It is essential that the training should start from the early years and should be implemented in such a way that students get a number of learning opportunities in real settings to be more useful.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impact the lives of almost everyone across the globe. The present review has been carried out to explore and understand the relationship between COVID-19 infection and diabetes mellitus from the public health perspective. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine, and a total of 25 research articles were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. Keywords used in the search include COVID-19 and Diabetes mellitus in the title alone only. Considering the risk of poor prognosis of infection among diabetics, it has been envisaged that such people should strictly adhere to the preventive measures. Self-care plays a crucial role in the management of diabetes, and the significance of the same has immensely increased during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As the people with diabetes constitute a high-risk group, it is the need of the hour to increase awareness among these people about COVID-19 infection. To conclude, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and the people living with diabetes are at significant risk to land up into complications, if they acquire the infection.This call for the need to intensify the preventive strategies and strengthen the health care delivery system for ensuring better management of diabetes among COVID-19 cases.

The Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to remain a public health emergency of international concern. In the Western Pacific region, the estimates pertaining to the caseload and death rates have shown a big improvement, as the region accounts for 1.8% and 1.3% of the global caseload and deaths worldwide. The available estimates clearly suggest that now the epicenter of the disease has shifted to the European and the American region. However, it will be a wrong assumption to presume that the epidemic is over in the Western Pacific region, and thus it will be a premature decision to be complacent about the outbreak readiness and emergency response action plan. In conclusion, the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Western Pacific region is not a time to relax, as any lacunae on our part will result in a resurgence of the disease. The right approach will be to continue the fight against the disease with the support of individuals, families, societies and the health sector and thus prepare ourselves for a large-scale community transmission.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the healthcare system. Patients with cancer have been severely affected by the pandemic and have not been able to utilize the required healthcare services in a timely manner. This review is aimed at assessing the clinical and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with cancer and cancer survivors. A comprehensive literature search was performed for this review in the PubMed database and Google Scholar database using the keywords, “COVID-19,” “cancer,” and “impact” in the title. Of a total of 30 relevant studies, 27 articles were included in the review. In addition, the World Health Organization website was extensively searched for relevant information. For patients with cancer who are affected by COVID-19, it has been advocated that post recovery from COVID-19, the therapeutic management of cancer should resume at the earliest to minimize cancer-related mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions in the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and management of cancer. Therefore, minimizing the effect of the COVID-19 infection and improving the healthcare services offered to the patients with cancer by strengthening the healthcare system is the need of the hour.

The ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced the public health authorities to implement stringent measures, with an aim to reduce the mobility of the general population and thus interrupt the chain of transmission. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and World Health Organization website, and a total of six articles were selected based upon the suitability with the current review objectives. Keywords used in the search include COVID-19, Lockdown, and Exit. To contain the rapid spread of the disease, some of the affected nations have imposed complete lockdown within their settings. However, it is important to consider that the strategy of lockdown cannot be there for prolonged periods of time as it interrupts the social life and negatively affects the economy of the nation immensely. Thus, it is quite essential to lift these restrictions, but of course, the decision should be not taken in haste as it will again result in the resurgence of the cases and will overwhelm the health system. In conclusion, the decision to impose a lockdown has been an effective strategy to reduce the risk of transmission. However, it is also important to plan for revoking the same, and this will obviously require strengthening of the health system and the complete support from the community.

The number of cases reported in the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to rise across the world. The primary reason due to which the disease is able to produce so much disastrous impact is its novel nature, as the virus was detected for the first time and even now there are many epidemiological, clinical and virological characteristics which are not known about the disease. All the available facts clearly suggest the need that we have to strengthen the research and development sector immensely, otherwise the disease will continue to claim lives of thousands of more people and will eventually break the health system of each and every nation and negatively impact the economy of the nations as well. In conclusion, research and development is a primary focus of interest for all the stakeholders involved in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The need of the hour is to expedite the entire process and utilize the research findings in ensuring better prevention and effective treatment of the cases of the disease.

In the conventional medical curriculum in India, the duration of medical graduation is 4.5 years, excluding internship. The limitation of time-based advancement can be understood in two ways, either a student is sent to next professional year without attainment of the desired course outcomes or that students spend unnecessary time in a specific professional even after gaining the required outcomes. Acknowledging these limitations and also after realizing the multiple benefits attributed to Competency Based Medical Education (CBME), the same has been implemented in the Indian set-up for undergraduate courses from 2019 batch onwards. In general, CBME advocates against time-based training, especially because not every student can learn at an identical pace. However, adoption of the same strategy (time-variable) in imparting medical education has its own challenges. In India, even though, in principle, we have adopted all principles of CBME, except the time-variability of the course. However, now the same question arises, if all students learn at varying pace, how can we ensure that within a specified time duration, all the students will attain the desired outcomes? Even though, the task at hand is difficult, it can be accomplished, if we all work together in a planned and coordinated manner. In the mission to produce a competent medical graduate within a defined time interval, there is an immense need for better planning, support from administration, active participation of faculty members, involvement of the students, and better collaboration between departments.

The emergence of coronavirus disease-2019 has accounted for major disruptions of all sectors, including medical education. As there was no clarity about the re-opening of medical institutions, we shifted from the conventional model to an online form of teaching-learning and assessment. The online assessments can be carried out in different ways and have been associated with a wide range of benefits for the teachers and the students. The online assessments tend to have multiple concerns as well, which are predominantly linked to the involved financial costs, internet issues, assessment of all the domains of learning, etc. Most of the above challenges in online assessments can be handled effectively by sustained administrative support, initial financial investment to establish the system, and the appointment of a qualified technical team to operate the system in the institution. In conclusion, online assessments among medical students have to be carried out to assess the progression of learning. The need of the hour is to overcome the prevailing challenges and strengthen the overall process of teaching-learning by addressing them better through administrative and technical support.

The ongoing Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection tends to affect all age-groups, while the development of the serious complications, including mortality has been reported among elderly people and those with pre-existing chronic illnesses. The available evidence suggests that any age group person living with any of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can get infected by COVID-19. Keeping the prognosis of the patients with pre-existing NCDs, it is important that the practice of smoking should be discouraged by them. In conclusion, the people living with non-communicable diseases tends to develop serious pulmonary complications secondary to the acquisition of COVID-19 infection. Thus, it is the responsibility of these people to strictly adhere to the prevention measures, while the health professionals should understand their vulnerability and provide additional care while managing them to save their lives.

Context: Visual impairment is one of the major health-care problems in the world. People pursuing higher education with long hours of studies and excessive near work are more prone to develop refractive error causing visual impairment. Dental students come into this category. In this study, we are trying to evaluate the level of awareness and practices of dental undergraduates toward refractive errors. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the level of awareness and various practices toward refractive error correction methods among dental undergraduate students of a tertiary care center in Navi Mumbai. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was done by recruiting dental undergraduate students as the subjects, after obtaining ethical approval from the institute and informed consent from the students. Subjects and Methods: A random sample of 198 undergraduate dental students were surveyed by a questionnaire. A similar study was conducted in the Goan population, and the questionnaire was taken from that study. Statistical Analysis: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS v 21.0, International Business Machines (IBM)) was used for the statistical analysis. Results: Of 198, a total of 165 students, 58 males (35.15%) and 107 females (64.84%), had got their eyes examined. It was found that 135 students (68.2%) knew the difference between ophthalmologist and optometrist. Females have more usage of spectacles. The use of glasses was maximum among the students with family income >180,000/annum. Around 82 (41.4%) students using spectacles noticed that the use of glasses causes limiting effects on their activities. Hundred and four students were aware of the refractive surgeries. There was a statistically significant difference seen about the awareness between students having annual income 180,000/annum (P < 0.05), and 111 students knew about the side effects of refractive surgery. Conclusion: There is a lack of knowledge about refractive errors among dental students. It is important to create awareness among them and thereby in the society.

The branch of medicine and provision of clinical care is quite complex and challenging owing to the involvement of a number of stakeholders and parameters. The available global estimates suggest that the incidence of adverse events is one the rise and it has been identified as one among the 10 most frequent reasons for death and disability worldwide. Considering that significant developments have been made in modern medicine, it is quite unacceptable. The ideal and cost-effective approach that is expected to make it as a long-term behavior among the future generation of doctors, is by exposing the undergraduate medical students to patient safety curriculum during their training period. At present, the need of the hour is to design a comprehensive patient safety curriculum and as it is a novel topic, we can adopt Kern's six-step approach for the same. In conclusion, patient safety is an integral aspect of clinical medicine and being a health care professional, it is our primary responsibility to not only deliver quality assured care but also take care of patient safety. Thus, it is high time that steps are taken at the medical college level to design a formal patient safety curriculum and then implement the same in collaboration with the Curriculum Committee and the Medical Education Unit.

Malaria is a life-threatening infectious disease presenting an enormous burden on the health care delivery system, in terms of cases and the attributed deaths. The epidemiological analysis of the trends of the disease and the mortality rates since 2015, it has been reported that we have not succeeded in reducing them. However, the encouraging fact is that since 2010, 8 nations have succeeded in eliminating the disease. Obviously, we are aiming for the global eradication of the disease in the long run, as it won't only play a role in saving human lives, but also in strengthening of the national economy. On a bright note, we have succeeded in developing new tools for diagnosis, medications, passive immunization and even the first malarial vaccine. In conclusion, the time has come to rise to the challenge of malaria eradication and it will essentially require sustained political commitment, financial support and adoption of new tools & a strategic approach.

Hepatitis C has been acknowledged as one of the global public health concerns owing to its universal distribution, high incidence, impaired quality of life, and associated life threatening complications, including death. The need to have an urgent public health response is further emphasized by the fact they tend to cast a major financial burden on the community. Considering the huge burden of the chronic infections, it is high time that the access to affordable testing and treatment is given due importance. However, as with any other program, the success of the program requires sustained financial support and simultaneous investments have to be done for innovations, including the development of vaccines. Further, efforts have to be taken to increase the awareness about the disease and mobilization of resources. In conclusion, in order to prevent and control the disease and to meet the proposed targets, the need of the hour is to foster linkage with all the stakeholders and scale up the screening, diagnosis, care and treatment services.

The ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has finally been declared as a pandemic not only because of the caseload and the geographical distribution, but also because of the expectation that the prevailing trends suggest that the number of cases, attributed deaths and also the number of affected nations is expected to increase further. Amidst all these alarming developments, it becomes an important priority for the health professionals and stakeholders to ensure that school children and educational facilities are protected adequately. There is a need to ensure that measures are taken in school settings to prevent the entry and spread of the causative virus through those individuals who might have been exposed to it. In conclusion, the current trends suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic is there to stay and affect a greater number of individuals and nations. Amidst all these health concerns, it becomes our responsibility to not only safeguard the health status of school-going students, but also ensure that their learning is not affected and thus a balanced and an evidence-based approach is the need of the hour. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil University is the property of Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The concept of patient safety came into existence owing to the complexity attributed to the health systems and the rising incidence of patient harms in health care facilities. It won't be wrong to say that patient harm in healthcare is intolerable, especially the ones resulting because of the error in the diagnosis, prescription or the use of medicines. The need of the hour is to establish a culture that fosters linkage with patients, boosts reporting and learning from mistakes and establishes a safe environment wherein health professionals are empowered and well-trained to minimize their errors. In conclusion, patient safety during health care delivery is an essential prerequisite to accomplish health system strengthening and move forward towards the attainment of universal health coverage. The time has come when patient safety has to be regarded as one of the global health priorities and focused actions are taken to achieve improved health outcomes.

Once a medical postgraduate student is conferred with their degree, it is certified that they are specialists in their subject, but the same degree does not account for their expertise in being a medical teacher. Mentoring has been acknowledged as an effective approach and has the potential to benefit all the involved stakeholders, namely mentee, mentor and the institution. The basic purpose of mentoring is to extend support, guidance and advice to the faculty members to refine their teaching skills and grow professionally. In conclusion, mentoring program for faculty members aids them to be more confident and enhance their teaching skills and professional growth. From the institution's perspective, it is extremely useful as we are creating a pool of teachers who will be playing a defining role in shaping the career of budding doctors.