Continuing Medical Education in India and the Way Ahead

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Continuing Medical Education in India and the
Way Ahead
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• The Medical Council of India (MCI) amended its
  professional conduct, etiquette and ethics
  regulations in 2002. It is now compulsory for all
  practicing doctors to finish 30 hours of
  Continuing Medical Education in India every 5
  years. The doctors have to complete the hours to
  renew their license, and can earn the credits
  through seminars and workshops organised by
  medical institutions in India. However, since
  this is not legally binding, only about 20
  percent of Indias doctors follow the
  regulations. Moreover, doctors from rural areas
  are unable to attend CME programmes as they have
  limited access to these courses. According to a
  study by the WHOs Essential Drugs and Medicines
  Policy Department published in September 2002,
  CME opportunities are limited in developing
  countries like India due to a lack of legal or
  other incentives. The rapid developments in
  technology and science and the impending threat
  of new diseases have made it imperative to
  strengthen CME in India.
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• Continuing Medical Education in India Criteria
• Many state councils have adhered to the
  guidelines set by the MCI and made CME compulsory
  for doctors in India. Punjab and Kerala, are
  among the first few states that took the lead in
  making CME mandatory in the country. Institutions
  that can conduct CME programmes and issue
  certificates of attendance include all recognized
  medical colleges with medical education units,
  the Indian Medical Association (IMA) or the state
  chapters of the IMA, the National Academy of
  Medical Sciences, national-level specialists
  associations and their state chapters, all
  accredited PG medical institutes in India. As of
  now, CME programmes have been held in many places
  like Mangalore, Madurai, Aligarh, Dharamshala,
  Muzaffarnagar, Nagpur, Patna, Guwahati, Jaipur,
  etc.

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• In order to conduct a Continuing Medical
  Education In India, there are criteria that needs
  to be followed. For instance, the institute has
  to ensure that the right professionals deliver
  the lectures, workshops or seminars, and
  determine a suitable location. They have to keep
  in mind the category of doctors that the
  programme caters to, and try to prepare the
  schedule and transcripts of the CME programme a
  year in advance. They also have to determine the
  total fee from each participating doctor, as per
  the workshop and material resources. They must
  also ensure that the doctors are informed through
  public channels in advance. Institutes must make
  sure that the doctors are provided with
  educational resources for the programme like
  handouts, types of equipment, slides, etc. They
  must also organize the CME programmes throughout
  the year and also arrange accommodation for
  participants. Organizations conducting CME
  programmes must have a feedback evaluation
  programme and submit a report to the state
  medical councils or the MCI and outline the
  number and category of participants and a report
  of the evaluation of the impact on the CME
  students.
• As for CME programmes conducted for graduate
  doctors, they must go through sessions that cover
  national health programmes, recent advancements,
  changing systems in treatments, medical insurance
  laws, and consumer protection laws as well as
  record keeping and medical audit. The
  accreditation period is for a year after which it
  has to be renewed again through CME programmes. A
  programme of two days is eligible for 4 credit
  hours, one day programme for 2 credit hours,
  yearly CME distance education courses for 20
  hours and for six-month courses the credit hours
  are ten. There are about 100 to 150 programmes
  held each year in India by Indian physicians
  settled in the US, and the MCI finalises the
  disciplines of the programmes based on the demand
  and the availability of faculty. The hosting
  institutions, the foreign faculty and the council
  work together to conduct these programmes
  successfully.
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• Why Online Education is the Way Forward for CME
• There is a severe scarcity of doctors in India,
  as we only have about 1 doctor per 1000
  population, and the quality of medical graduates
  is quite low. Online courses can serve as a means
  to train doctors and upskill them using
  technology. The rural gap can be bridged by
  bringing these programmes to doctors through the
  internet. Online courses offer full-fledged
  programmes as well as online seminars by senior
  faculty and healthcare professionals. The only
  challenge for online CME is accreditation by the
  MCI, and there have to be some changes in this
  regard. However, doctors are warming up to
  cost-effective and high-quality online courses in
  order to upskill themselves. An ongoing issue is
  that doctors lose about 35.10 hours if they earn
  their credits through live CME in comparison to
  online CME. The number of doctors is already low
  and a loss of those hours leads to a loss of
  35.10 million clinical hours (for 1 million
  doctors). Looking at these reasons, embracing
  online CME seems to be a logical step forward for
  India.
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• This article is based on series of free videos
  lectures by DocMode which is beneficial for
  medical students, practicing doctors, nurses,
  medical teachers, medical representatives,
  students appearing for medical entrance exams,
  medical interns, pharmacy students etc. If you
  want to watch more videos, you can add our
  WhatsApp no 91-9222086563 in your group we
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  learn more.
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