Saturday, August 18, 2012

Revise medical curriculum to focus more on prevention than cure: Dr Shanta


Chennai:
Medical education has been oriented only to tertiary care with primary care and prevention receiving low priority, according to Dr V Shanta, chairman of Adyar Cancer Institute (WIA).

Delivering the 24th convocation address of The Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University, Dr Shanta said in the changing health care scenario with the rise in non communicable diseases, the thrust has to be on prevention and it will be necessary to reflect this in the undergraduate and post-graduate teaching.

Stressing on the need to ensure merit be the sole criterion in any selection process, Dr Shanta said the acute shortage of medical seats in government and private colleges has resulted in mushrooming of self financing institutions where seats cost a fortune and financial capacity than merit decides the issue.

“In Tamil Nadu, the total applicants for medical course this year was 28,275 as against 2,144 medical seats (between government and private colleges).

Health Minister V S Vijay said that there is a 40 per cent increase in the outlay for health during the ADMK regime. He also urged the students to follow medical code of ethics and practice in rural areas for some time.

Vice chancellor of the varsity Dr Mayilvahanan Natarajan said 5,798 students were confereed with degrees. These include 3,399 under graduates, 2,531 post-graduates and 18 Ph.Ds. He said 30 post-graduate students are receiving post doctoral fellowship and 90 are receiving medals. He also stressed the need to revise medical curriculum to produce technically competent, socially sensitive, ethically correct and ready to serve health professionals who can respond to diverse demands of India’s health needs. Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah presided over the function.

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