BANGLADESH

The existing undergraduate medical curricula in Bangladesh's medical institutions are going to be revised in line with modern practices and changing pattern of diseases.

Prof Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, director of the Centre for Medical Education (CME) that works on the updation, told bdews24.com that in the updated curricula, they would also design medical ethics in a way that students have to practise it throughout the five-year study.

According to Bangladesh Health Watch Report 2009, medical students do not pay much attention to ethics chapter as 'it is not likely to be asked in examinations'.

The report believed practising ethics could improve the quality of health services plagued by 'malpractices.'

"It has become imperative to update the curricula in line with the current needs of medical practice in Bangladesh and the shift of disease pattern and use of advanced technologies in the world," Prof Fatima said.

For instance, she said, once communicable diseases were widespread in Bangladesh, "but with the passage of time, non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart diseases, etc. outstripped the communicable ones".

"So we need to give these diseases priority in the study," she said and added that Bangladesh witnessed the use of advanced technologies in medicare in the last decade, but they did not find place in the curricula.

First formal medical curricula in independent Bangladesh were introduced in 1988, which were revised only once, in 2002.

The director said they would try to incorporate all, needed to make the curricula contemporary, and steps would be taken to lessen the 'content' burden of the students by introducing one more professional exam at the end of the fourth year.

Currently, students appear in three professional exams – first after second year, second after fourth year and final at the end of the fifth year.

The Centre for Medical Education will elicit ideas and suggestions from senior teachers of various departments – Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine, Medicine, Surgery and Gaynaecology and Obstetrics – studied at medical colleges.

A committee will also work to integrate selected medical students' recommendations into the draft updated medical curricula, which in turn will be sent to the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) for approval.

"Once approved, medical colleges will have to follow it," Prof Fatima said and sounded hopeful that they would be able to complete the process by 2012.

She noted that the curricula will able to improve the skill of future medical graduates.

The curricula should be updated every 10 years, Prof Fatima felt.