Diploma course in diabetology awaits MCI recognition
Even as the number of people diagnosed with diabetes shows a steady rise, the Medical Council of India is yet to recognise the two-year diploma in diabetology started in 1985 at the Madras Medical College.On Saturday, K. Meer Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, urged doctors to propose an M.D. course in diabetology. The university would coordinate the effort. It was planning to approach the MCI for recognition of the diploma course.Dr. Hussain was speaking at a meeting organised by the Diabetes Association of India to felicitate him. It was attended by government doctors, deans of government hospitals and heads of the Directorate of Public Health, Medical Services and Medical Education, senior doctors and retired heads of diabetology departments, who called for an improved curriculum and training for doctors, paramedics and patients.U. Mohammad, chairman of the Diabetes Association of India, southern chapter, and V. Seshaiah, who helped to launch the diploma, spoke.
"Conduct camps in rural areas and sensitise PHC [primary health centre] medical officers," Dr. Hussain urged the doctors. "Juvenile diabetes is increasingly common. We need prevention at the level of marriage. For this, we need genetic counselling to sensitise parents. Encourage youngsters to take up research on preventing Type 2 diabetes. The Department of Experimental Medicine will offer support to research candidates."
People with diabetes should be given identity cards that would help doctors treat them during an emergency. Indigenous medical systems should take up research on how herbs could control sugar levels, he said.Senior doctors of various colleges sought an improved curriculum that covered diabetes in detail and a 15-day mandatory training for post-graduate students in treating diabetes. The idea of having district-level officers to coordinate treatment programmes was also mooted. The doctors seconded the Health Secretary's proposed capsule diabetes training programmes.They also suggested training village health nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives. They felt that diabetics, who had cleared Plus Two, could be trained as educators to reach out to the community.
