Be happy with the “ H ” Index of Hippocrates

“Publish or perish “ This sound bite is regularly uttered by all academic leads in any university or medical school. I don’t know, why this bothers me. Looking back, my mentors in Coimbatore medical college (or even the more prestigious MMC, Chennai) never had any good publications which I could recall. Is scientific publication that important in a doctor’s life? After pondering for quite some time, got a hazy answer to that query in one of my sleepless early morning academic dreams. Hippocrates was one of the applicants for the post of professor of medicine at Harvard medical school.His application was rejected for a dismally low H index. The reluctant father of medicine tried to impress the authorities, by telling them that his experience was vast and used to teach medicine 2000 years ago, well before their country USA was discovered. The father of medicine almost begged to reconsider their decision.The miffed Harvard academic office ridiculed the old man and insisted nothing will work, except a minimum H index of  50 or atleast 10 papers as first author in a peer reviewed high Impact  factor journal. A dejected Hippocrates returned to Kos islands and asked his new generation fellows, what is this H index and Impact  factor stuff ? His students were worried about their guru’s ignorance. They some how convinced the greatest ever medical teacher to urgently subscribe for a platinum membership of a premium medical authourship services...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Cardiology quotes cardiology-ethics Uncategorized bmj future of medicine H index hippocrates ethics Hippocratic oath i Index Impact factor jama network kos island lance medical ethics medical research issues nejm peer revie Source Type: blogs