Greece Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

A Right Gesture Saves Life

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 15 May 2018 08:47:43 +0000

The writer is an accomplished Plant Scientist with +15 years of R&D experience with specialization in cereal & pulse crop biochemistry and genomics. An ex-Research officer at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and served in different capacities for eight years. She has been awarded twice for the category ‘Young Scientist (Indian Society of Plant Physiology & KK Nanda Foundation for Advancement of Plant Sciences). She also serves as an Honorary Advisor to various reputed firms and reviewer of multiple Journals of International repute.

Greeting gestures, a language of paying honour, respect, love, adoration, graciousness, empathy towards each other. It is a global custom and has multiple variations. Each country has its own customized version and ritual. The most popular version i.e. hand-shake probably has its roots in Great Britain. Men in the United States will usually shake hands when greeting each other, but it’s not usual for them to kiss when greeting. Americans in addition to handshaking also do a fist bump, wave and hug.

For English people, the handshake is the formal way of greeting when meeting someone new. In informal situations, both men and women use a quick kiss on the cheek, and for women who know each other well. Handshake works universally as a professional way to greet. It is a little firm in Germany, more extended (3-step handshake) in Botswana and for Malays, it extends to touching each other’s fingertip followed by their hearts. Filipinos take a hand of their elders and press it to their foreheads called as ‘Mano’.

The second most common way to greet is kiss (or cheek kiss). A kiss represents intimacy and accepted as a cultural norm in European countries and Latin America. The right-left-right alternate cheek kiss thrice is common in Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Iran and Egypt while twice in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Italy, Hungary and Rome. One kiss is required in Mexico and Belgium. In Galapagos, women restrict kiss on the right cheek only. French people kiss twice or even five times depending upon the region. Two kisses and back slap is famous in Greece. Kiss goes always with a hug if you are in Argentina.

One of the common practices is ‘pecking’ or brushing each other’s cheek with a sound of a kiss. In Greenland, they often press their nose and upper lip against the cheek or forehead and take a deep breath (Kunik), similar to a mother embracing her child. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and various gulf countrymen show their welcome respect by ‘touching their noses’ as greeting gesture. In New Zealand, it takes another variation in form of ‘forehead touching’.

In South Asian countries, people do ‘Añjali Mudra’ in which they show their humility by placing palm together like a prayer and tilting their head forward in respect to other people which is referred as ‘Wai’ in Thailand, ‘Sampeah’ in Cambodia and ‘Namasté’ in India. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Burma and Indonesia follow similar gestures.

Namasté reflects not only recognition of another’s physical presence, but also of their spiritual presence. Namasté is a greeting of another’s spirit or reverence. Namah means “bow”, “adoration” and the means “you”. In other words,” I bow to you.” Flexing hands in Namasté pose releases the tension that activities like typing creates in the tendons in the wrists. It also calms the mind, helping to reduce stress and anxiety.

Anybody can say a polite gesture of love and respect. Indians take blessing from elders by complete bowing while touching feet of elders referred as ‘pranam mudra’. Bowing with no physical contact is standard greeting practice of Japanese and Chinese. Tibetan monks stick their tongue out to greet people. They also press the hands together and place them in front of their chest to show that they “come in peace”. In South Asian, various Muslims often greet through ‘adaab’ gesture. It involves bending forward the upper torso, raising the right hand towards the face with palm inwards such that it is in front of the eyes and the fingertips are almost touching the forehead. The other countries of the world have also evolved their special ways to greet people as per their culture.

One of the major health and environmental challenge we face today is rapid emergence of novel pathogens. The spread of these pathogens, especially of nosocomial origin (hospital based), is often linked to cross-contamination by healthcare workers and ways of greeting gestures while meeting each other. An idea of handshake-free zones in hospitals have encouraged awareness. But also questioned how a doctor will take the physical examination without touching a patient. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that microbes like Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, and Shigella dysenteriae type 1 can sustain on hand surface upto one hour while Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia survive up to 30 minutes. Rotavirus might survive for 20 min while the viability of human parainfluenza virus is nearly 60 min.

Studies indicate that a contaminated hand can transfer its viable contamination to seven different subjects or surfaces. One of two common items is a clean paper towel and soap dispenser with average transfer rate ranges between 0.01% to 0.64% and 12.4% to 13.1% respectively. We touch our face nearly 2-5 times a minute i.e., 2000 to 3000 times a day. In fact, whatever contamination we have on our hands is also getting transferred to our face. We may wonder whether our hand soap is capable of killing all the potentially pathogenic microbes. Are we washing our hands correctly and does it really help? We often use hand wash, sanitizers without giving attention to their content and standards. Do they qualify for antimicrobial purpose? Moreover, our greeting gestures further contribute to the spread of the germs.

For healthcare workers, the protected physical contact is a non-avoidable choice. Healthcare workers and doctors should change their gloves while switching from one patient to another. Avoiding greetings which involve physical contacts especially during outbreaks can provide a preventive approach to managing outbreaks. Hospitals need to improve compliance with hand hygiene. Handshake free zone can be one alternative in hospitals. But they aren’t designed to replace hand washing but to complement it. Creating handshake free zone will also bring attention to the hands as vectors for disease. It will also improve compliance with hand hygiene and an easy and inexpensive way to reduce infections.

It is rude to not to shake a hand if a person extends its hand towards you in the name of trust and honour. We can’t be rude to others but why not to adopt ‘Anjali Mudra’, Wai, Namasté, Wave, Bowing or Adaab to greet. This respectable way of greeting with no physical contact should be adopted in the healthcare settings. In India, by adopting our age-old greeting method especially in a healthcare setting can shield us from many invisible microbial infections. We just need to adopt, practice and re-practice these gestures to decrease the spread of infections.

Want to write for InnoHEALTH? send us your article at magazine@innovatiocuris.com

The post A Right Gesture Saves Life appeared first on InnoHEALTH magazine.

Medical tourism needs systematic structure

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 07:21:05 +0000

The Medical Tourism Industry, poised to be a whooping USD 8-9 Billion Industry in India by the year 2020, is highly unorganized & unstructured. According to various reports of Industrial bodies, Indian Medical Travel Industry or Healthcare services is growing at a compounded rate of 20-25 per cent.

The Medical and Wellness Industry in India, being a highly unorganized and unstructured industry, is currently driven by limited market players and requires a systematic structural presentation, according to an in-depth study titled “Medical Tourism Opportunities and Challenges”.

The study, conducted in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR), found if structural development of the sector is ensured, it will facilitate creation of a level playing field for the medical & ancillary service providers which in turn will put the country as one of the most premier Medical Travel destination in the world.

Jitin Kapoor, Joint Secretary at International India Medical Tourism Congress (IIMTC), who spearheaded the study along with a team of researchers, told “Inno Health” in an exclusive interview that the Medical Tourism Industry is undoubtedly one of the most promising sector for the country’s economy, and shall be one of the major source of revenue generation, as well as job creation in near future.

The study finds positioning India in the world market as a bigger and valued prospect for medical travelers from around the world. Mr Kapoor, also a chartered accountant, recommended that there is a dire need to improve the local travel and accommodation facilities for the medical tourists. The available ancillary services need to be adequately marketed and showcased for the medical travelers as a lot of difficulty is faced by them due to lack of awareness.

According to him, the payment security for service providers as well as medical travelers needs to be developed through a dedicated digital payment platform.

A common organizing platform, integrating all the medical service providers, along with the related service providers is highly desirable. They are required to be brought on single digital platform which will assist in providing transparent and conducive environment leading to a positive feedback and in turn help the industry to flourish.

[vc_single_image image=”3618″ img_size=”500×300″ alignment=”center” onclick=”link_image”]

[vc_empty_space]

Medical Tourism, also known as Health & Wellness tourism, in recent years, has been coined as a term to represent the movement of people from one place to another for their medical treatment care, and wellness needs. People from across the world travel to other countries for their surgical, medical, dental requirements, etc.

And at the same time make some time for family vacations, tours & travels to experience the local attractions of the destinations. Such movement has in itself evolved as one of the most rapidly growing industry integrating travel & tourism sector with healthcare and wellness sector; both being the most revenue generating sectors for an economy.

India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Greece, Peru, to name a few are some of the major Medical Travel destinations. This phenomenon has been actively prevalent in the healthcare sector across the globe for last one and half decade and is growing tremendously.

With high cost of treatment in the West, to the long waiting time for treatment in the EU Countries, the people from developed and industrialized nations are looking for destinations that have a ready availability for treatments with the facilities that are at par with their own country. The countries like Africa, Oman, Afghanistan, etc. are also looking for better healthcare infrastructure as compared to their own.

India can serve as an enormous potential destination for all the international medical travelers owing to its healthcare facilities that match the best in the world, along with a vast number of West trained medical practitioners. Another major factor is the cost effectiveness the Indian Healthcare sector provides viz-a-viz the International healthcare costs. People travelling for medical processes can get the treatment readily available and that too with a 5-Star Hospitality (in a fraction of the cost they incur in their own countries). Travelers also have an option to explore the country with amazing picturesque destinations, backed with rich heritage culture.

This exceptional combination has already made the Medical Tourism Industry worth 2.5 Billion USD in India, growing at a compounded rate of 20-25 per cent, as per various reports of Industrial Bodies.

Want to write for InnoHEALTH? send us your article at magazine@innovatiocuris.com

Read all the issues of InnoHEALTH magazine:
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 1 (July to September 2016) – https://goo.gl/iWAwN2
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 2 (October to December 2016) – https://goo.gl/4GGMJz
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 1 (January to March 2017) – https://goo.gl/DEyKnw
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 2 (April to June 2017) – https://goo.gl/Nv3eev
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 3 (July to September 2017) – https://goo.gl/MCVjd6
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 4 (October to December 2017) – http://amzn.to/2B2UMLw
InnoHEALTH Volume 3 Issue 1 (January to March 2018) – https://goo.gl/fksdQx

Connect with InnovatioCuris on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innovatiocuris
Twitter: https://twitter.com/innovatiocuris
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7043791
Stay updated about IC, visit: www.innovatiocuris.com

The post Medical tourism needs systematic structure appeared first on InnoHEALTH magazine.