Health Minister updates Rajya Sabha on salient features of New MBBS Curriculum

New Delhi: Through a written reply, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey recently apprised the Rajya Sabha about the reforms in the new MBBS curriculum issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Raising the query about the new MBBS syllabus, Shrimati Jharna Das Baidya asked the MoHFW minister to answer whether the Government proposes major reforms in the MBBS curriculum and if so, put forward its salient features. She demanded to know as to by what time the new curriculum is likely to be ready for medical students.

In his reply, Minister Choubey informed the assembly that as per information provided by Board of Governors in supersession of Medical Council of India (MCI BoG), MBBS curriculum has already been revised and implemented w.e.f. 1st August 2019.

He further mentioned the salient features of the new MBBS syllabus including a Foundation Course, Early Clinical Exposure,skill laboratories as well as competency based curriculum.

The in-detail description of the curriculum features is mentioned below:

Foundation Course:

The one-month foundation course is a part of the new MBBS curriculum that is designed to orient and sensitize the students to the various identified areas and to prepare a learner to study Medicine effectively.

The purpose of the Foundation course as defined by the MCI is threefold

a) Orienting the students to all aspects of the medical college environment.

b) Equipping them with certain basic, but important, skills required for patient care and enhancing their communication, language, computer and learning skills.

c) Providing the opportunity for peer and faculty interactions and an overall sensitisation to the various learning methodologies.

Read Also: Foundation Course for MBBS: MCI Releases documents containing details

Early Clinical Exposure:

Early Clinical Exposure (ECE) provides a clinical context and relevance to basic sciences learning. It also facilitates early involvement in the healthcare environment that serves as motivation and reference point for students, leading to their professional growth & development.

The objectives of early clinical exposure of the first-year medical learners are to enable the MBBS medicos to:

(a) Recognize the relevance of basic sciences in diagnosis, patient care and treatment.
(b) Provide a context that will enhance basic science learning.
(c) Relate to the experience of patients as a motivation to learn.
(d) Recognize attitude, ethics and professionalism as integral to the doctor-patient relationship.
(e) Understand the socio-cultural context of diseases through the study of humanities.

Read Also: MBBS Curriculum: MCI releases details on New Module on Early Clinical Exposure, Check it out

Guidelines for the development of Skill laboratories in Medical Colleges:

The MCI mandated that every medical institution must provide students access to a skills laboratory where they can practice and improve skills pre-specified in the curriculum.

MCI also set guidelines to be followed for setting up of skilled labs at medical colleges.

1. Every medical institution must provide students access to a skills laboratory where they can practice and improve skills pre-specified in the curriculum.


2. The purpose of the skills lab is to provide a safe environment for students to learn, practice and be observed performing skills in a simulated environment thus mitigating the risks involved in direct patient exposure without adequate preparation and supervision.


3. The skills lab attempts to recreate the clinical environment and tasks which future health care workers have to perform with various levels of complexity and fidelity.


4. Skills labs are used to enhance – clinical, motor and communication skills – as well as teamwork.


5. The skills lab that fulfils the requirements of the outcomes derived UG curriculum should contain, at a minimum, the following:


6. A minimum of 4 patient examination rooms (preferably 8) for the examination of patients or standardized/ simulated patients by an individual student.

These should be equipped with a facility for video recording and review,

1. A room for demonstration of skills for a small group,


2. A review or debriefing area,


3. Cubicles of appropriate size for practising skills individually or in groups,


4. Trainers or mannequins required to achieve skills outlined in the competency UG document,


5. Adequate storage space for storage of mannequins and/or other equipment,


6. A room for faculty coordinator, and for support staff.


7. Institutions are encouraged to build capacity over and above these minimum requirements.


8. Institutions within a geographical area or governance can create shared facilities and resources to reduce cost.


9. Timelines – A Skills lab that fulfils the need for the implementation of the competency-based UG program must be fully functional prior to December 2019.

Read Also: New MBBS Curriculum: Skills lab Mandatory at every medical college by December 2019, MCI releases Guidelines

Competency-based Assessment Module:

One of the unique features of the syllabus is that it will include a new course called Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) for students across years of their undergraduate medical education. It will also offer elective subjects allowing students to pick according to their respective interests.

According to the apex medical regulator, competency-based Medical Education provides an effective outcome-based strategy where various domains of teaching including teaching-learning methods and assessment form the framework of competencies. Keeping this objective as the core ingredient, the Medical Council of India with the help of a panel of experts drawn from across the country laid the basic framework for the revised undergraduate medical curriculum.

The Council visualized that the Indian Medical Graduate, at the end of the undergraduate training program, should be able to recognize "health for all" as a national goal and should be able to fulfil his/her societal obligations towards the realization of this goal. To fulfill the mandate of the undergraduate medical curriculum which is to produce a clinician, who understands and is able to provide preventive, promotive, curative, palliative and holistic care to his patients, the curriculum must enunciate clearly the competencies the student must be imparted and must have learnt, with clearly defined teaching-learning strategies and effective methods of assessment.

Read Also: MCI releases Competency Based Undergraduate MBBS Curriculum, details