Course Structure

The course is divided into three phases and each phase is completed with an end of course examination. The Pre-clinical course, conducted during Phase I, provides learning of structure and function of the human body and introduces their application to clinical and community aspects. During Phase II, students go for clinical courses at the Teaching Hospital in the mornings and for Para-clinical course in the afternoons at the Faculty.  The Para-clinical subjects deal with abnormal structure and function in disease states and their application in clinical situations and prevention and control of diseases. Phase II ends with the Second Examination for Medical Degrees.  Phase III comprises Clinical courses exclusively.  There will be a 4 week elective appointment and an OSCE on clinical subjects before starting the Professorial appointments.

It comprises an Introductory Period of 8 weeks and four terms of 10 weeks duration.  The First Examination for Medical Degrees is conducted at the end of this phase.  The examination is held twice a year.  It is a bar examination: the students proceed to Phase II only after passing the First Examination for Medical Degrees.

The introductory course is designed for newcomers to facilitate understanding of the university set up and to acclimatize them to the University environment by way of lectures, group work, visits and training in first aid.  The English Co-module is conducted to enable the students to follow the course of Medicine in English Medium for students identified at the screening test on admission.  The course in English is completed during the introductory period.  The Co-module in IT commences with the introductory course and continues until the end of the first term.

The course in Personal Professional Development Stream [PPDS] is divided into two parts.  The first part is conducted intensively during the introductory period and will continue up to the end of the term 2.  The students are also given exposure to Community perspectives by the Department of Community and Family Medicine during the terms 2 and 3.

The main subjects of the Pre-clinical Course are Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology.  These subjects will be conducted during the 4 terms of the pre-clinical course.  They are synchronized as far as possible to facilitate understanding and correlation by the students.

Students enter the Para-clinical course after completing the pre-clinical course.  The course is conducted in the afternoons as the students go for clinical course in the mornings.   Courses in Microbiology, Parasitology, Community and Family Medicine, Forensic Medicine, Pathology and Pharmacology are commenced in term 5 and continue up to term 11.  The Second Examination for Medical Degrees will be conducted at the end of the term 11. In addition, lectures in Medicine, Paediatrics, Psychiatry and Surgery will also be conducted during terms 5 to 11 synchronized with para-clinical subjects to permit full clinical teaching during the Phase III.  Further, the second part of PPDS is conducted from term 5 to term 11.

The clinical course starts during the Phase II but introduction to clinical situations are provided in Phase I in the form of applied anatomy and clinical demonstrations and applied physiology with the objective of showing the relevance of basic sciences for clinical practice.  They go to the teaching Hospital for clinical studies in the morning and attend the para-clinical studies in the afternoons during Phases II.  Students spend the entire day in the hospital during the professorial studies in the Phase III.

The course starts with one week of introductory program.  Then the students are posted for the first appointment in Medicine of 8 weeks and Surgery of 4 weeks.  This is followed by 4 week appointments in Paediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaeco  logy followed by one week appointments in Blood Bank, Venereology, Neurology, Neurosurgery and Oromaxillary surgery and two week appointments in Chest medicine, Radiology, Clinical Pathology, and Dermatology.

Students are then posted to second appointment in Surgery of six weeks followed by four week appointment in Orthopaedics, eight week appointment in Community Medicine and 2 week appointment in Psychiatry.  Students are posted to second Paediatrics and second Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Forensic Medicine of four weeks and two week appointments in Otolaryngology [ENT], Ophthalmology, Oncology, Family Medicine Centre and Cardiology. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care is given 3 weeks.

Finally they go for the second appoint in Medicine for 8 weeks and third appointment in Surgery for 6 weeks.  At the end of all the pre-professorial clerkships, the students are taken on an educational tour of two weeks to visit important national institutions related to health and at the same time they will visit other Faculties of Medicine to improve social harmony.

At the end of all these rotations the students are sent for elective appointments of four weeks.  Finally they go for eight weeks of professorial appointments in Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Psychiatry.

All the major appointments and most of the short appointments are held in the Teaching Hospital.  They will have to go to the Chest Clinic at Pannai, Psychiatric unit at BH Tellipallai and many other institutions as need arise.