The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : New medical education curriculum in two years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 27, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

New medical education curriculum in two years

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 26. The country will have a new curriculum in medical education in two years, the Union Health Minister, Ambumani Ramdoss, announced here on Saturday.

Addressing the 11th convocation of the National Board of Examinations (NBE), he called for restructuring of medical education. With this aim in view, the Ministry was keen on making medical education transparent, he said.

"In the basic pyramid of the healthcare system, wellness, prevention and home care maintenance should be the base and tertiary care should form the apex. This has been reversed by unplanned growth of post-graduate medical education. The upward swing towards super specialisation has to be balanced with the general needs of society," the Minister stressed.

Reciprocal arrangement

Dr. Ramdoss, who was in the UK recently, also announced that India was on the verge of a reciprocal recognition of medical degrees between the two countries. "We will have a similar arrangement with Canada and Australia."

While calling upon doctors in the country, "who are the best in the world," to work in the rural areas for discharging their social commitment to a larger section of society, he asserted the Government might go in for a legislation for this.

Referring to brain drain of doctors, he urged them to come back and practise in the country and thus save the poor. Dr. Ramdoss, who is a practising doctor himself, impressed upon fellow professionals that "we have a sense of rural commitment to people who have access to just 25 per cent of medicare, in contrast to those in the urban areas with 75 per cent treatment facilities."

Focus on research

He said the Government would give a boost to family medicine, which was picking up all over the world, in a big way and take remedial steps to overcome shortage of trainers in some of the basic science departments in medical schools across the country. Emphasis also would be laid on research, particularly on the area of stem cells "which is the future of medicine."

The Governor, Sushil Kumar Shinde, who gave away over 50 gold medals to toppers, including Manisha Sahay of Hyderabad (who bagged the Dr. H.L. Trivedi Gold Medal for Nephrology), called upon medical professionals to regularly update their knowledge. He urged doctors to enlighten people about the healthcare procedures.

In his opening remarks, A. Rajasekaran, president of the board, said the NBE was conducting PG examinations in 42 specialities/super specialities.

Along with medals, diplomate of NBE and post-doctoral fellowship degrees were awarded to more than 640 candidates from different parts of the country.

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