New Delhi:
Already the premier institute for Technology, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) may soon be producing top of the line doctors as well. The HRD Ministry has decided that medicine will be taught at the IITs, to facilitate research across disciplines.
Although without the approval of the Medical Council of India (MCI), students of these courses cannot be called doctors. Which means that while IIT can go ahead and design courses for medical research, the MCI will have the final say on the validity of each student's work.
This decision flies in the face of the Health Ministry, which had a few months ago turned down this proposal citing jurisdictional problems, but the IIT council and the HRD Ministry point out such courses will help inter-disciplinary research.
The IITs are all set for the challenge. In fact IIT-Kharagpur already has an MoU with the Unviersity of California for medicine.
Though the HRD ministry's plan seems fine in principle, several things are not clear:
- What happens to students if after completing the course, the MCI does not approve of their work?
- Even after the MCI approval, will hospitals acknowledge these doctors?
In fact, even the MCI has not yet approved the HRD ministry's plan. So the implementation of this plan, is yet quite uncertain.