Guwahati, Oct 21 (ANI): President Pratibha Patil today said that there is an urgent need for augmenting medical institutions in the country.

Laying the foundation stone of the Tezpur Medical College in Sonitpur district of Assam, Patil said the country has at present 271 medical colleges out of which about 31,000 medical graduates pass out every year.

"The healthcare professionals form the backbone of the medical system in the country. Enough number of skilled medical personnel is essential for making affordable medical facilities available to all," she added.

Patil said the education system in our country should not only to produce capable doctors but also sensitize them to national efforts to provide healthcare to all.

Appreciating the Indian Medical Association for their effort to adopt six hundred villages under its project for taking medical fraternity to the villages, Patil said 75 per cent of our medical facilities are located in urban centres while 70 per cent of our population lives in villages where medical facilities are limited.

The President said doctors should have a sense of compassion and maintain the highest standards of medical ethics.

Assam Governor Shiv Charan Mathur, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, State Assembly Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai and Health Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sharma were also present on the occasion.

The new medical college to be built in 35 acres of land at Tumuki area, near Tezpur at a cost of around 160 crore rupees, is targeted to be completed by the year 2011.

The Tezpur Medical will be built by the Assam Government at a cost of around 160 crore rupees at Tumuki village, 20 kilometers away from Tezpur.

This will be the fifth medical college in Assam. The State Government has allocated 35 acres of land in Tumuki to set up the medical college.

Later, President Patil is scheduled address a Sainik Sanmilan at Gajraj Corps Headquarters in Tezpur.

After spending three days in Assam, the President will proceed to Meghalaya on Wednesday, where she is expected to attend the centenary celebration of the Laban Bengali Girls Higher Secondary School.

The President will also inaugurate the Baljek Airport in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. (ANI)

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London, Oct 21 (ANI): Forget splashing thousands on boobs jobs, for jabs for the same are coming to Britain.

After creating a storm in the US, "Botox boob jobs" and "lunchtime boob jabs" are coming to the UK.

The procedure that has been attracting the most attention is the Botox boob job. Long used to freeze the foreheads of Hollywood actresses of a certain age, the botulinum toxin is now being used to give sagging assets a lift.

The "boob jab" is a non-surgical and more natural-looking way to enhance what nature gave you.

American doctors are injecting Botox into the pectoralis minor muscles in the chest, which causes the rhomboid muscle in the chest to raise up, lifting the breast.

"It is not something I'd rule out, if we have some more analysis and testing," the Independent quoted Dr Lorraine Ishak of Transform Cosmetic Surgery Clinics, as saying.

"But as far as I'm concerned, it is experimental Botox, and I would want a very experienced person injecting it," the expert added.

While the treatment is attracting lots of interest from women who want to alter their breasts, there are questions over both the effectiveness and safety of the treatment. ritish surgeons are increasingly concerned about the growing popularity of such treatments in the UK, where "non-surgical treatments" are so lightly regulated that beauticians and nurses can perform risky procedures.

"These are the major muscles that you use to ski, turn over in bed, do everything. For me, the risks outweigh the benefits," said Dr Nick Milojevic, a Botox specialist at the Harley Medical Group cosmetic surgeons.

"You'd need a lot of Botox for this treatment to work, so it would cost around 1,000 pounds per treatment, and it is something you'd need to repeat three times a year," the expert added. (ANI)

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London, Oct 21 (ANI): Marks and Spencer is selling mince pies for Christmas that go past their best before date in November, according to reports.

Like all other retailers starts stocking for the festive season months in advance, the store too has bags of Christmas sweets that have a best before date of two weeks before the day itself.

Consumer groups have said that the sale of a Christmas product that will not be around for Christmas could confuse customers.

Suzanne Mackie, 22, from Edinburgh, bought bags of 99p Christmas Jelly Babies at her local store last Monday.

She had intended to give them to her nieces as a gift, but then discovered they went out of date on December 9.

"It's absolutely ridiculous that a quality company such as Marks and Spencer could make such a blatant mistake," the Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

In Glasgow, a pack of six Classics for Christmas mince pies had a best before date of November 17.

A spokesman for Consumer Focus Scotland said it did not feel the labelling was deliberately misleading but 'could be easily misconstrued by the consumer'.

M and S insisted that the jelly babies were meant to be an impulse buy, eaten long before Christmas Day. (ANI)

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Washington, Oct 21 (ANI): Researchers from Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan suggest that chest scans can help keep a check on head and neck cancer progression in high-risk patients.

Chest X-rays are the most commonly used screening tool for detecting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for most head and neck cancers.

For the study, the research team led by Dr Yen-Bin Hsu evaluated 270 screening chest CT scans performed over 42 months in 192 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The scans were categorized as new cases, follow-up cases or recurrent cases, and results classified as normal or abnormal.

Of the 270 scans, 79 were considered abnormal, including 54 that identified a malignant neoplasm of the lung and 25 showing indeterminate abnormalities.

Neoplasm is the abnormal proliferation of cells that usually causes a lump or tumour.

"The rate of an abnormal scan was significantly higher in the follow-up case group (44.2 percent) than in the new case group (14.2 percent)," the authors write.

"Indeterminate lesions were common on chest CT in our study, and special attention should be paid to them," the authors write.

"Based on the progressive changes in follow-up scans, 44 percent of indeterminate lesions were eventually considered a malignant neoplasm of the lung.

"We also found that small (less than 1 centimeter) solitary nodules, which were usually resectable [operable], carried significantly higher chances (66.7 percent) of being a malignant neoplasm.

"For patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, chest diagnosis is crucial and may influence their treatment plan," they continue.

The researchers suggest chest CT for high-risk patients after every six months for the first two years during the follow-up period.

The study appears in Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. (ANI)

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