Thiruvananthapuram: The MBBS curriculum revised by the Medical Council for India after 21 years contains a course called Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM). This module is meant to address the trust deficit in the doctor-patient relationship and lays emphasis on the fact that communicating with the patient is as important as treatment.
The assessment of students will be based on parameters like communication with patients, counselling people for challenging procedures and organ donations and sensitivity in health care.
The new curriculum will try to instil empathy and globally relevant medical knowledge into learning skills. This new 'Competency-based UG curriculum for the Indian medical graduate' will be effective from the 2019-20 academic session and is a departure from the present classroom-rote learning.
The undergraduate medical syllabus was last revised in 1997 based heavily on theory, especially in anatomy, pathology and physiology. The students will be given clinical exposure in their first year instead of the second year.
The first year will include a foundation course that will help them overcome language barrier, handle workload and cope with the complexities of medicine to ensure an easy transition from a layman to a medical student.
Besides the use of human cadavers for learning purposes, the new curriculum will introduce the use of medical mannequins and models also.
These reforms will also focus on enhancing integration, clinical competency, flexibility and improvement in quality of training, faculty development programme to support curricular innovations and training in the language and computer skills.
