CSIR- Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, organised the 6th Popular Health Talk on 27 September 2021. Prof. (Dr) Bhabatosh Biswas, Director, CTVS, Woodlands Hospital, Kolkata delivered the talk on the topic, "Healthy life! Ever receding dream!"

Dr Biswas discussed the meaning of healthy life and how to pursue this ever-receding dream of healthy life which is very complex and dynamic and needs to be redefined periodically. He emphasised the urgent need for new disease markers and medicines, and called upon scientists & researchers to explore newer avenues constantly to find out technologies and translation of knowledge from bench to bedside.

He further mentioned that non-communicable diseases viz. cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular, cancer, chronic respiratory illness diabetes account for around 63% of all deaths. As per statistics, for looking after the healthy life of the Indian population of 130 crores on June 2020, the number of registered doctors (MBBS) was 12.55 lakh, specialist doctors (MD/MS/DNB/DM/MCh) was around 3.71 lakh, Ayurveda, Unani & Homeopathy doctors were around 7.88 lakh besides total 8.9 lakhs ANM and around 21.51 were registered Nurses & midwives. Though we are the major contributor for skilled human resources in the medical & related research field but after training most of them are serving abroad, which is again a major concern.

He said, an armamentarium of the modern health care system is required for diagnostic modalities & therapeutic options for fighting diseases of various organs and systems. Practising more precision medicine than intuitive medicine will make health care simpler, more accessible, and less expensive. Innovations, as well as their application in clinical scenario, will be the remedies to face future challenges of health care.