Medical Council of India hints at unified medical education system from 2013-Monday Apr 4, 2011

Medical Council of India hints at unified medical education system from 2013

Published: Monday, Apr 4, 2011, 21:55 IST

By DNA Correspondent | Place: Karamsad (Gujarat) | Agency: DNA

The Medical Council of India (MCI) is planning to introduce a unified curriculum and examination system in medical education across India. The idea is to remove regional differences and create 'Indian doctors.'

"There will be uniformity in medical education across the country. The curriculum, teaching methods and examination system will be the same across the country on optional basis from 2013 and mandatory from 2017, provided the government approves it," said Dr SK Sarin, chairman of board of governors, MCI.

The MCI's focus is on creating 'Indian doctors' by bringing about parity in curriculum and examination, so that patients have full confidence in them, said Sarin on the sidelines of the plenary session of the three-day 'National Consultations on Reforms in Medical Education' at Pramukhswami Medical College, Karamsad near Anand.

"If government agrees to the proposal, licentiate examination to assess standards for an Indian Medical Graduate (IMG) will be introduced," he said.

Sarin also said that there should be eligibility test for the students who want to come into medical science but have not studied science stream in standard XII. "At present, there is no such possibility but we will work in this direction in future," said Sarin.
Many questions had been raised over the quality of medical education in India after former MCI president Dr Ketan Desai was arrested on charges of corruption.

However, Sarin denied that quality of education has gone down.
"The most significant challenge for a regulatory body like MCI has been to balance the need for spread of medical education vis-à-vis the maintenance and improvement of quality and standards."

Harish Padh, vice chancellor of Sardar Patel University, said that a medical degree should not be compulsory for teaching basic sciences in medical education. Stressing upon the need for collecting data of Indian epidemiology, he said, "We do not have systematic epidemiology data of most of the diseases in India and students do not need data of epidemiology of Netherlands or USA as they are irrelevant to them."

About 40 experts from India and abroad participated in the national consultation to review and recommend policy initiatives to complement the efforts of MCI.

The submission of the experts included the need to develop
policies for national human health resources and health professional education to ensure adequate number of health care professionals. They also suggested an equitable distribution of medical colleges and implementation of unification of education in phased manner depending upon resources. The experts also believe that there is a need to develop humane approach.


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