Vivek Podder is a physician in Bangladesh.

Personalized scientific communication: the patient experience

Physician
January 1, 2026

For decades, medicine has spoken the language of hazard ratios, Kaplan-Meier curves, and median survival differences. We have become fluent in the grammar of precision oncology, genomic signatures, driver mutations, targeted therapeutics, and real-time disease monitoring. But there is one language we have not yet mastered: the language of the patient’s lived experience.

Personalized medicine cannot stop at matching the right drug to the right tumor. It must also include personalized …

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Personalized scientific communication: the patient experience

The man in seat 11A survived, but why don’t our patients?

Physician
June 18, 2025

On June 12, 2025, Air India flight crashed minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad in India. Among the 242 people on board, only one survived: a man seated in 11A.

That image has stayed with me—not just because of the miraculous survival, but because of what it reveals about systems. Seat 11A was located near the plane’s wing box, the structurally strongest part of the aircraft, and beside an emergency exit. Experts …

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The man in seat 11A survived, but why don’t our patients?

Belief in God: Medicine’s guiding light through every challenge

Physician
November 24, 2024

In medicine, there’s a rhythm we grow accustomed to—diagnose, treat, move on to the next patient. But for me, beneath that rhythm, there’s always been a quiet hum: belief. Not the kind that seeks to explain every event or outcome, but the kind that reassures you that even when things go wrong, you are exactly where you need to be.

Faith in God didn’t arrive through one grand moment for me. …

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Belief in God: Medicine’s guiding light through every challenge

How life’s biggest lessons shape us: a journey through struggle, loss, and resilience

Physician
November 21, 2024

Life has a way of teaching us through the most unexpected experiences, often in moments that feel daunting. I reflect on this often, especially when I consider my own journey—a journey shaped by illness, loss, inspiration, and a constant hunger for knowledge. One lifetime can feel too short to absorb everything there is to learn, yet the most meaningful lessons often emerge in this brevity.

As a child, I never imagined …

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How life’s biggest lessons shape us: a journey through struggle, loss, and resilience

A fight against all odds: the story of a breast cancer fighter who became my inspiration, strength, and light

Conditions and Diseases
November 9, 2024

I lost an inspiration—my relative (Dr. PBA), a dedicated and talented doctor, who succumbed after a long and courageous battle with metastatic breast cancer and brain metastasis. She was the driving force behind my passion for oncology research, especially in breast cancer. Her journey began with a late and missed diagnosis, leading her across borders in search of evidence-based care, from one health care provider to another, and through relentless …

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A fight against all odds: the story of a breast cancer fighter who became my inspiration, strength, and light

For a better practitioner and better outcomes, we need to start teaching this

Physician
October 12, 2022

Current medical education promotes and encourages the textbook approach to learning, while interactive patient-centered learning rarely happens. Although rote learning plays a critical role in medical education, applying what is learned deepens the understanding and application of rote-learned materials. Undergraduate students can learn with supervision from instructors and patients, so they are prepared to practice medicine with excellence.

These trainees are learning the latest available techniques but lack the experiential wisdom …

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For a better practitioner and better outcomes, we need to start teaching this

Turning obstacles into opportunities with diversified health care perspectives

Physician
September 7, 2022

I have experienced a wide spectrum of the health care ecosystem since childhood giving me a deeper insight into its future need. I suffered for 23 years with a wrong diagnosis and frequent long-distance hospital visits before my heart operation. For 14 years, I shifted through multiple doctors and hospitalizations for my father’s mismanaged diabetic complications, including a foot ulcer with cellulitis. My academic mentor said, “Your father himself is …

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Turning obstacles into opportunities with diversified health care perspectives

Does patient-centered care really meet human-centered care?

Physician
August 18, 2022

This episode was during my elective time in India in the late winter of 2017. It was a patient-centered learning opportunity for students around the world who has an interest in medicine. I was excited about this because of my earliest clinical exposure to patient encounters as a medical student. I was excited to meet the patients, talk to them, and help them despite the uncertainty and emptiness in my …

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Does patient-centered care really meet human-centered care?

A patient becomes a medical student

Medical Education
March 8, 2018

I was a four-year-old kid when I was about to begin my first day of school. I was born and raised 20 kilometers away from the big city in a small rural area with minimal essential amenities — schools, roads, and hospitals. Like all other kids, it was a momentous occasion for me to start my first day of school, and I remember how exciting it was.

As I started to …

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A patient becomes a medical student