Govt plans changes in undergraduate medical syllabus

In what seems to be a step towards promoting integrative medicine and research in a big way, the government is mulling modification in the undergraduate curricula to incorporate certain elements of modern medicine into traditional medicine and vice versa.

Various departments are working on this idea, including Medical Council of India (MCI). A group of secretaries is reported to have suggested the idea of additions in the syllabus to the PM Narendra Modi in a meeting.

However, sources in the Union health ministry say no decision has been taken on this so far. “Change of syllabus is a longdrawn process. There is a thought at the moment,” said a senior health ministry official on condition of anonymity.

“We are in talks with the MCI to see how medical curricula will be cross-cutting, with certain elements of allopathy added into Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) courses and of certain AYUSH elements into allopathy courses.”

The move is a part of larger plan to promote holistic well being and make experts from both the systems of medicine open to the idea of working in tandem. “Around 1 lakh subcentres in the country will be transformed into wellness centres, and 2,500 have already been selected,” health minister JP Nadda had informed during World Health Day earlier this year.