CME: Medical council makes 30-min ethics sessions mandatory

Continuing medical education (CME) programmes to upgrade professional skills now comes with a rider. Every CME programme will include a half-hour session on ethical conduct. Not only that, the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) on Wednesday gave

a strong push to introduce ethics as a subject in MBBS curriculum.

“Students are taught to diagnose and treat patients as part of the MBBS curriculum. We want to reinforce that he/she has several roles to play in the world of medicine,” Dr Kishore Taori, President of MMC told The Indian Express.

“As per the code of medical ethics of the Medical Council of India (MCI) — reward or financial gain is a subordinate consideration and we want to stress professional conduct, etiquette and ethics by doctors,” he said.

The code has been in existence for some years but there is a need to reinforce it and MMC at its executive committee meeting on Wednesday decided to make it compulsory for CMEs to set aside a half-hour session on ethical conduct. It may be recalled that it was mandatory for doctors and medical associations to participate and organize CMEs to gain credit points for renewal of registrations after every five years.

“Apart from learning about new modalities of treatment and getting exposure to recent advances in various branches of medicine, doctors will have to undergo sessions on ethical conduct as part of the CMEs,” Taori added. “The aim is to revert to our original objective outlined in the code of ethics to render services with full respect for the dignity of the profession.”

Physicians should command confidence of patients and for that, a course in communication skills has been introduced in the MBBS curriculum, Dr Arun Jhamkar, Vice-Chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences told The Indian Express. “We floated the concept of reinforcing values in medical education by organising a four-day course on yogic practice and meditation.”

While the University of Sydney has decided to emulate this concept, Jhamkar was surprised at objections raised by some groups.
“However, we will continue efforts to introduce modules on professional ethics and conduct in MBBS curriculum,” Jhamkar said.
A meeting of the academic council on November 25 will decide, he added.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/cme-medical-council-makes-30-min-ethics-sessions-mandatory/#sthash.wM8GKnHc.dpuf