Breakfast with Borges, is a rather unique Friday morning knowledge-sharing meeting held at S.L. Raheja Hospital, Mumbai, where consultants and other clinical team members gather over breakfast to learn from an invited speaker.
Last week, Friends of Max Founder and Managing Trustee Viji Venkatesh was invited to speak about the late Dr Anita Borges herself, not only as an exceptional pathologist, but as a deeply passionate patient advocate.
This coming through her first-hand experience of working alongside Dr Borges, especially on the hospital’s Ethics Committee, Viji reflected on how Dr Borges’s vision went beyond what she saw through the microscope. A vision that included a world where the patient receives the best support and care over and above the final diagnosis and treatment protocol.
Reflecting on her talk, Viji shares:
“Being a patient advocate myself and struggling to find the space and agency for our interventions to be acknowledged and recognised, just to listen to Dr Borges’ passionate discourse on patient welfare and the importance of addressing their unmet needs was so encouraging!”
“We were both fervent proponents of that clarion call – nothing about us without us – which made it imperative that policy makers and program implementers included the subjects of their deliberations in all and any decision making processes.”
“What eventually Dr Borges made us all understand was that:
Patients are not just a source of data.
Patients’ lived experience provides valuable information on how to improve quality of life during and after the course of treatment.
Our duty is to ensure that all protocols truly protect participants’ rights and dignity.”
Dear Dr Anita Borges, may your light guide us through this new year and always. You will be deeply missed.
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