NEXT will be a good thing for medical education: AIIMS Bhubaneswar Director

Medical colleges have faced their share of pressure and challenges while dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. There were challenges at various fronts like continuing the medical education with the virtual mode, shortage of staff before vaccination and many other such things.

Gitanjali Batmanabane, the director at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhubaneswar, spoke to Shiksha. She joined AIIMS Bhubaneswar in the year 2016 and replaced the incumbent Ashok Mohapatra, who was the founding director of AIIMS Bhubneswar in 2012. In the year 2010 to 2012, Gitanjali had worked with World Health Organisation (WHO), when she joined AIIMS Bhubaneswar, she was also the head of the department of the Pharmacology department of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry.

In the interview, she talked about all the issues ranging from the admission of disabled students in AIIMS, reservation in AIQ (All India Quota) and the National Exit Exam (NeXT). Here are the excerpts of Shiksha’s interview with Gitanjali Batmanabane.

Q. What are you as a director is focussing on to make AIIMS Bhubaneswar among one of the best medical colleges in India?

A. My focus is always on quality. I believe we should look at quality as we look at quantity, if we do things too fast, too soon we might lose out on quality and all along it has been my focus. We are already seeing the benefits of focussing on the quality, two of our students as soon as they finished the course, they have been selected by other INIs to become Assistant professor, which means the students we are producing both with speciality and super speciality are being seen as noteworthy of being recruited in other INIs.

The second thing I am looking at is to strengthen research training, we are the only AIIMS where they have to write a paper, our residence both speciality and super speciality have to write a theory exam paper in research technology and biostatics, we also give them 25 hours training which is also helping because good research work done gets recognised.

The kind of faculty development program which I have done are now paying off in the sense that we have seen lots of extramural grants, our faculty are able to get extramural grants, we are applying for more extramural grants. They are writing more papers, so the number of papers that are being published especially in indexed journals has gone up tremendously and these are some of the things I have seen.

Q. How did admission cycle of AIIMS got affected due to the pandemic?

A. We got delayed a bit, generally, we start class around August but last year we could start only by December, so that’s got delayed and also when the students joined we had to send them home due to the pandemic issue and we couldn’t have offline classes but our faculty managed brilliantly by having offline classes, they conducted practical, demonstrations were done through videos, exams were conducted through online open-book exams, students were given assignments and viva was conducted through WhatsApp video and things like that, so yes we managed well. It was a little difficult in the sense as we never did this before, but the need to do it was there and our people did well.

Q. There are allegations that AIIMS is not providing seats to doctors with disabilities? How do you look at this issue? 

A. No, there is nothing like that, all our admissions are done through AIIMS New Delhi. AIIMS New Delhi prospectus is binding on us also, so everything is conducted as per the government's rule. So, whatever is there is being followed and I don’t see any reason why we should stop people with disabilities but the disability has to be something that is compatible with doing medicine, isn’t it? So, as long as that is within our framework, I don’t see any issue in having this, but if for example, a person who cannot see anything, then medicine is not something that the person can do, or if someone who completely cannot hear how can the person can listen through the stethoscope, the disability must be compatible with the medical speciality with what is necessary and what the person can do, as long as they can do the required things, there is no reason why one should prevent anybody.

Q. There are also allegations that even when a person with a disability clears the NEET exam, they still get disqualified during AIIMS counselling.

A. No, I think our counsellings are done very openly, it is done in Delhi, it is a transparent process, I have not got any specific complain, if I will get any we will definitely look into it.

Q. Several states are increasing the number of medical colleges, how this will affect the admissions and seat allocation process? Do AIIMS Bhubaneswar has enough faculty members to teach if the seats get increased?

A. Our seats have already increased from 100 to 125 in keeping with the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota. For this we have enough faculty to teach 125 students, hostel accommodation is also there and we recently revamped our lecture theatre so that at least two lecture theatres can hold more than 125 students, so we have all the required infrastructure for the increased seats.

Q. The national medical council is intending to replace NEET-PG, FMGE and MBBS finals with National Exit Exam (NeXT), how do you see this and what changes will it bring?

A. I think it's a good thing as there will be a single exam across institutes and we have to see how it works out because sometimes the expectations are such that we think it will not work and it will work and vice versa but on the whole, I think it is a good thing which they are planning, I am quite positive about this and I think it is a good option. 

Q. The Centre has approved 27% OBC reservation in AIQ for MBBS/BDS admission from the current academic year 2021-22, how will it impact the seat matrix?

A. Whatever government guidelines are there we will be following that, there is no question about not following any reservation quota which is going to be implemented by the government. I do not see anything in this as the students who are coming are brilliant and they are coming from an all India entrance exam, I don’t think this will change anything as the good thing is AIIMS get the best of the best so whatever will be the criteria we are going to get the best of the best and this is not going to bring much of a change.

Q. Tell us about the Spot counselling for DM/MCh courses? 

A. Whoever got the required cut-off marks in AIIMS New Delhi PG entrance and they hold a viva and those who have qualified in these would be participating. So, our registrar and the academic section is going to conduct this and I am hoping that we will get a lot of good candidates who will be happy to join us.

Q. Tell us something about the new AIIMS campus in Sundargarh which you visited with your team recently?

A. My team went to just give a report on that campus. So far, the government has not said anything on that, so we just visited and seen and its a good campus and everyone will be happy if there will be a second AIIMS in Orissa, it is something for everyone to feel happy about, we have to wait what the government decision will be and that decision will be taken at a very high level, so I can’t say anything on it.

Q. Which are the new research area the AIIMS Bhubaneswar is exploring?

A. We are the only institute in the country to do research on what is called the clinical microbiome, we have a Centre for Excellence of Clinical Microbiome Research (CCMR). Microbiome means in our guts there are lots of organisms which are to help us in various things like in immunity and digestion. We have got a grant of 22 crores from the government and as a part of this, a lot of studies are being conducted. Orissa also has a very robust traditional way of using foods. Some of their foods are known to have produced a good gut microbiome, we are working on that, we also got a large grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for which is called Grand Challenges for fermentation food. One of our investigative has got that grant. We are doing a lot of research on fungal infection and we got a grant from ICMR of 2.5 crores over three years, under this we are going to do a lot of research on fungal infection part in the country plus we are also working on cancer especially breast and GI cancer, we are tied up with one project in which we will also look at the genetic basis of these cancers. Then there are other investigators who are working on viral diseases like dengue etc. So these are some of the areas we are working on and we are doing a good job.

Q. Tell us about academic and research collaboration with other institutions AIIMS Bhubaneswar is working on?

A. We have tied up with lots of institutes even in our state like IIT Bhubneswar, recently we started a course with NISER, a master degree in medical and radiological physics. So the students from NISER once they finish the course will work in AIIMS Bhubaneswar for one year. So like this, we are collaborating.

We collaborated with the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), and Flinders University in Australia, we are planning to have an MoU with the Indian Institute of Science to have a physician PhD program with the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. So, we have tied up with many institutes here and abroad.

John Hopkins training our nurses. In Mysore, we have a collaboration with the Institute of Speech and hearing, one of their centre is established in AIIMS Bhubaneswar, so that trainees can come and we can also offer treatment.

Read more:

• Is AIIMS not giving PG seats to doctors with disabilities?
• List of AIIMS colleges in India: Courses, fees and seat intake