This is my second slide...and one of the big questions about case reports is what kind of a research is it? Now, current day research gives more value to counting (such as counting the number of fruits in a tree without tasting the actual fruits or the number of people  in a clinic without going into the details of their lives) and consequently most of our research orientation is quantitative. While this is really a good thing it may not encourage us to think, wonder and explore at phenomena or events we encounter in our day to day experiences with patients.

This is where we require a case-reports mindset born out of a natural inquiry and thirst for learning that is actually inbuilt in all humans and ‘research’ is nothing but shared learning. In the past there were fewer platforms for sharing our learning experiences with the world but with the advent of the internet there has been an explosion in shared learning.

I am particularly reminded of a very enthusiastic faculty in Physiology (also from Manipal) who rapidly mastered the art of case-reporting and i would always make it a point to have him on our rounds whenever there was an interesting patient not only to help us publish the case (with him as a first author) but also because of the tremendous value addition it brought in terms of bringing vertical integration to our medical education curriculum.

All learning in our medicine curriculum (medicine meaning the entire MBBS) can be initiated through a patient centred inquiry and few things can be more fulfilling than this form of medical learning.