Vinay Kumaran

Sometimes when I contemplate a visit to the US, I am reminded of the many things we do better in India. Some of these might be surprises. Couriers. Indian couriers are much more economical and quicker than the monoliths in the US. Competition, lower labour costs etc contribute I assume. Advertisements. Most American ads are bland and boring. They tout things like awards or special offers. Indian advertisements are often funny or thought provoking and make a point about current affairs. The difference is so great they simply cannot be compared. This is an advertisement for Verizon. It is not only boring, it is misleading. The actual cost of an unlimited plan is $75 plus taxes. https://www.verizonwireless.com/plans/verizon-plan/ The advertisement is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zptG2nVmM. Now compare this with this advertisement for Fevikwik. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4WZF74dAg4. Online grocery shopping. There are so many options from Big Basket to Grofers...

How long has it been since you actually listened to music? I know you probably have music playing when you're driving and you're probably also talking to someone and answering your phone and wondering which would be the best route home. The music is something playing in the background to which you are not paying much attention. How different from going to a concert hall and listening to a live performance. The difference, of course, is in focus. At the hall, you're not doing anything else. All your attention is on the performance and you are able to really appreciate it. It's like the difference between going to a theatre to watch a movie and watching it on TV at home. You get up to answer the doorbell, make a few phone calls, have dinner. At the end of the movie you wonder why people were raving about it when it was released. You can get the concert hall effect at home. Set aside enough time to give the music a fair listening. Don't do anything else. No TV, no m...

The patient was one of those lucky ones who were incidentally diagnosed with liver cancer when an ultrasound was done for unrelated symptoms. I told him, "you have a small tumour in the liver. It does not seem to have spread anywhere. Your liver function is normal. If we take it out, there is a good chance that you will be cured of the disease." "Will there be pain?". he asked me. "There will be some but we medicate you for it and do other things like nerve blocks. The pain will be tolerable. I have not had a patient tell me that if he had known how painful it would be, he would not have had the surgery." "I don't like pain", he said, "can't you cure it with medicines?" I confessed that there was no way to 'cure it' with medicines. "I have been told about a very famous homoeopathic doctor. He has cured many patients with cancer. I'll go to him." I said "I can't force you to have surgery but at l...

When we think about artificial intelligence we think in terms of something that can think like a human but better. Science fiction movies like the Terminator series have raised concerns about what such an AI would want. Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, among others, have raised concerns about humanity becoming irrelevant once it is surpassed in intelligence and innovation by its own creations. It has been suggested that the first artificial intelligence smarter than a human being will be the last thing invented by humans. I have no doubt, there will eventually be computers which can think like humans, learn and innovate but let's look at things which are likely to happen in a shorter span of time. Self Driving Cars: this is something which is already nearly ready for introduction into society. The major problem with self driving cars is having to account for erratic, rule-breaking human drivers on the roads. Once more and more cars become self-driving, the safety factor can be enh...

'Saving Private Ryan' is an iconic movie starring Tom Hanks which won five Oscars, the movie is about a mission to save a soldier at the front. His brothers have been killed in the war and the generals decide that he must be removed from the front. It's a uniquely American idea which makes little sense to anyone else. Dozens of soldiers die in the course of this mission to save one soldier but apparently it is still a good idea. On my last trip to theUS, I decided to fly to Newark on the non-stop flight from Mumbai and take a bus from there instead of the usual hopping flights required to get to Pittsburgh. The flight landed on time. I got out of the airport in an hour. I got a taxi to the Greyhound Station. It was less than 4 miles from the airport. So far, so good. The Greyhound station was closed. It opens at 7.00 AM. For some reason the first bus to Pittsburgh leaves at 6.50 AM. There is no way to buy a ticket for that bus. The next bus to Pittsburgh is at 7.55 A...

A recent debate on using transplant center outcomes to decide accreditation with insurance and reimbursement reminded me of this article I had written on Quora some time ago. Copied and pasted. Upvote 20 Downvote Comments 2 Why Bill Clinton is alive and Steve Jobs is not Vinay Kumaran , Liver Transplant Surgeon Posted Dec 28, 2015  ·  Vinay Kumaran's Posts Transparency, the intention to treat and analysing data. or Why Bill Clinton is alive and Steve Jobs is not . How do you select a surgeon or a Hospital? How, assuming you are sufficiently rich and powerful that you want the "best in the world", do you find the best (or hire the best finder to find the best)? If you need a liver transplant, you can go to a website called  SRTR -- Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients . At this website, you can look up the mortality, one-year survival, five-year survival, waiting list mortality and other such statis...

This answer on Quora was collapsed within 18 hours but it still became one of the most popular ones on the topic. Not only is the answer collapsed but the author is also banned from Quora but this is a perfect illustration of why he was banned. Tissues (paper products) Toilets Culture of India +2 Will Indian toilets ever switch to toilet papers? Westerners believe that tissues are hygienic, and Indians think otherwise. Will it eventually change? Vinay Kumaran , Liver Transplant Surgeon Answered Mar 7 Doctors have a unique opportunity to test the efficacy of the two methods. Having worked in India as well as the US and having performed rectal examinations of patients from both places, I can tell you that there is no contest. All American arseholes (and presumably British ones), on close examination, have an appreciable residue of dried faecal matter on the perianal skin. Presumably, this eventually finds its way into the bath water when they ...