PG course in Family Medicine to start soon at 6 AIIMS

The government is planning to start a postgraduate course in Family Medicine at six AIIMS.

To bring back the concept of family physicians and also to fill the gap created by the paucity of specialist doctors, the government is planning to start a postgraduate course in Family Medicine at six AIIMS.

The AIIMS colleges where the course will start are - AIIMS Raipur, Rishikesh, Jodhpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal campuses, as reported by the Economic Times.

PG course in Family Medicine likely start in other hospitals too

Depending on the response, the course would be started in more hospitals across India in the due course time.

"In the past, family physicians were the go-to person in case of any ailment. Since such doctors were well versed with a family's medical history, they were quite effective in providing general healthcare to the people and eliminating in most cases, the need to visit specialist doctors like cardiologists, endocrinologists, paediatrics and gastroenterologists etc," said an official source.

The course will give the medical aspirants an option of doing an MD in Family Medicine after completing MBBS. The PG course in Family Medicine would include studying general medicine, basic surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics etc.

"This would reduce the burden on specialist doctors as people seek treatment for ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, minor gastric problems, paediatric issues etc. The idea is to fill in the gap created by the paucity of specialist doctors by providing holistic treatment to an entire family taking into account hereditary problems and medical history," added the official source.

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