The Emperor of Maladies:A Biography of Cancer
It is nice to know about achievements of some of our youngsters, who went to USA studied, worked, progressed and have brought fame to India.
Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of ‘The Emperor of Maladies: A Biography of Cancer’ is one such person.
He has came out with a 6 point formula to help India control and combat the cancer epidemic and these are:
1.Put in place a strong tobacco control programme
2.Initiate sexual health education to prevent sexually transmitted cancers like cervical and oral
3.Encourage vaccination
4.Conduct mammographyand screening of vulnerable women for breast cancer and those above the age of 50
5.Start screening for and vaccination against Hepatitis B that causes liver cancer
6.Create centralized systems modeled on comprehensive cancer centres in the US that allow researchers to share data and engage in high quality clinical work.
Out of these points 3, 4 & 5 are the ones which can be covered if the patient is covered under preventive care or is eligible for OPD treatment.
Few rupees spent on these by insurance companies can result in saving large number/amount of claim, which becomes payable when the insured has to be treated in specially/super specially hospitals for cancer.
We feel that the time has come to issue health insurance policies with OPD coverage.
