South-East Asia Regional Conference on Epidemiology

<strong>South</strong>-<strong>East</strong> <strong>Asia</strong> <strong>Regional</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Epidemiology | 113
All institutions including medical colleges, universities, schools of public health, state institutes of
health and family welfare and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) need to come together to
strengthen the epidemiology capacity building efforts.
(8) How do we know that we are doing it?
Along with initiating efforts to strengthen epidemiology capacity building, it is vital that whatever is
being done is also monitored. We need to develop clearly-defined and measurable outcomes to monitor
and assess progress towards predefined goals and recognize the need for mid-course correction if
needed.
Experience from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
The Medical Council of India (MCI) has recommended that, “The broad goal of the teaching of
undergraduate students in community medicine is to prepare them to function as community and
first-level physicians in accordance with the institutional goals.” In order to achieve these goals,
it has laid down certain objectives which include knowledge of important public health problems,
to be familiar with the health system, and learn certain basic epidemiological skills (5). AIIMS, in
accordance with the guidelines laid down by the MCI, has an extensive programme for the training of
undergraduate MBBS students in community medicine. The undergraduate programme in community
medicine starts from the third year of medical training where the students are exposed to a sequential
method of teaching in community medicine and is carried on through internship. The details of the
MBBS teaching programme in AIIMS have been described elsewhere (6,7). Epidemiology is one of
the major components covering about 30% of the syllabus. The division of areas and mode of teaching
is given in Table 1.
Table 1: Areas covered and mode of teaching of epidemiology at AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Semester Mode of teaching Areas covered
3 rd & 4 th semester Theory
(16 lectures )
Urban posting
4 th & 5 th semester
Rural posting
7 th semester
Practical
(50 days)
Practical
(5 weeks residential)
Theoretical aspects
• Basic epidemiology
• Biostatistics
Research methodology
• Planning a study
• Designing a tool
• Data collection
• Basic statistical analysis
Applied aspects
• Basic concepts (revision)
• Higher statistical skills
• Critical review of papers
Theory classes are meant to introduce the basic concepts of epidemiology. These start from the 3 rd
semester, i.e. the second year of medical training. Practical sessions in urban areas are held for small
batches of 10-12 students where they are introduced to the principles of carrying out community-based
research, data collection and analysis under the guidance of the faculty. In the 7 th semester, i.e. fourth
year, the students are exposed to a higher level of epidemiology, critical review of literature and applied
epidemiology (Table 2). Some examples of the exercises undertaken to reinforce epidemiological