Medical Education in India to include Climate Change, NCDC, NMC to discuss framework

Mumbai: Taking note of the necessity to educate doctors regarding the adverse impact of climate change on public health, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have decided to introduce climate change and its impact on health in the medical education syllabus.

As per a report by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and various education bodies including National Medical Commission (NMC) would initiate a panel discussion to come up with a framework that includes the topic of climate change related health hazards in the syllabus for all medical courses in India.

The council is going to introduce concepts such as rising heat and damaging air quality, their effects in medical education and training of medical personnel in India. NCDC, NMC, AYUSH, Dental Council and the Pharmacy Council will contribute to include Climate Change and the effect it has on health in syllabus for MBBS and BDS courses all over the country. 

An officer from NCDC's entre of Environmental and occupational Health, Climate Change and Health told Times of India, "If a patient is asked if they smoke or consume alcohol. There is nothing to relate his ill-health to external environment factors. Our goal is to address the reality that our altering climatic conditions are affecting people's health and our medical professionals need to recognise this."

 "...We can't side-line the need to train our students to think about the impact of polluted environment on human body," he added.

According to the Times of India, this decision was made following a two-day national workshop on heat waves and their effects at IIT Bombay.

One of the experts at the IIT Bombay Workshop pointed out that climate change will cause heat waves to become more intense, and it is crucial to understand how this will adversely affect people's health. In a similar vein, future medical professionals should be prepared to deal with patients who have been harmed by such environmental hazards.

While discussing the issue during the workshop, the model of Ahmedabad was mentioned as it was the first city in India to come up with the health action plan which included an early warning system and a preparedness plan. While mentioning the model, Mahaveer Golechha, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar stated that public health researchers found that a increased mortality in May.

Mentioning that there is no proper way to know the number of heat related deaths in India, he further added, "Why does India not have a system of putting up its IPD and OPD data of hospitals? Unless we acknowledge the reality that climate change is affecting the health of our population, we can't device corrective steps." 

This step of including climate related problems in medical syllabus has been appreciated by many. One of the political figures posted on social media setting, " National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is working with various councils to introduce concepts such as rising heat & damaging air quality & their effects in medical education & training of medical personnel in India, in landmark move it will soon be included in medical courses." 

Founder of Mobiud Foundation, Mr.Pradip Barman has also tweeted, " In order to improve medical education and preparation of medical personnel in India, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is collaborating with a number of medical councils to introduce ideas such as increasing heat and unhealthy #AirQuality and their effects."