The medical colleges affiliated to The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University have been requested to start post-graduate programmes in traumatology in view of the increasing number of road accidents, the resultant rise in trauma victims coming to the hospitals and the need to save them, according to D. Shantharam, Vice-Chancellor of the University.
He gave this information to newspersons on the sidelines of the one-day All India Undergraduate Research Symposium organised by the Christian Medical College at its campus here on Friday.
The V-C said that the University has opened the doors of research to MBBS graduates who can straightaway register for Ph.D. without doing any post-graduation in order to promote interest in research among them. The University already has an e-journal for UG students. It regularly conducted symposia in order to infuse interest in research among them. The University has started an e-consortium of libraries for medicine, dentistry and surgery, and is trying to get funds from the Indian Council for Medical Research for promoting research. “We are in the process of getting an index journal (a journal which will find a place in the international medical journal index) for the University”, he said.
Dr. Shantharam said that the Medical University has approved the starting of an M.Ch. programme in hand surgery and M.Ch. in hepato-biliary surgery, and DM in cytogenetics by the CMC from 2015-16.
Earlier, speaking at the inaugural function of the symposium, the V-C said that research is an integral part of development, more so in medical science which is constantly evolving to a state of perfection. “We will get easily outdated if we are not ready to cope with the changing situations and needs through continuous research. Research is an integral component of medical education, fostering creative thinking, learning skills and communication skills for medical students to be globally competitive”, he said.
The V-C said that considering the immense job opportunities available in the area of manufacture of medical equipment for research, the government was now trying to integrate research into medical education. However, it is regrettable that India’s contribution to the global publication of scientific papers was only 0.7%, he said, and asked the medical colleges to start M.D. and research programmes and implement a student mentor programme for research.
Philip Ninan, Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Medicine, East Carolina University who delivered the keynote address said that thirst for knowledge, a mentor for guiding the researcher, training and perseverance are key factors for research. In medicine, the students can take up applied translational research, services research or prevention research, he said.
Nihal Thomas, Vice-Principal (Research), CMC said that the CMC cleared 700 research proposals every year. Last year, it spent Rs.87.5 crores on research, which included Rs.85 crores of external funding. Alfred Job Daniel, Principal, CMC, Solomon Sathishkumar, Vice-Principal (UG) and Angeline Emmanuel, organising secretary spoke.
