About the Course

“There are 57 different specialists to diagnose and treat 57 different varieties of diseases, but no physician to take care of the patient” – so very aptly said by one physician, when asked to comment on the decline in the number of family doctors. Changing trend towards specialization has fragmented the patient care today so much that it has weakened the patient-physician relationship and thereupon the public outcry over the fragmented medical care gave re-birth to the dying speciality of ‘Family Medicine’. Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization endorses Primary care as our best hope for the future. Family doctors are our “Rising stars for the future”.

General practitioners of today are not in the mould of a typical family physician. Though they see a large variety of problems that affect the population, they are generally ill-equipped to manage them. IMA eVarsity shall impart general practitioners of today with necessary disease management skills through scientifically-designed, pedagogically-grounded courses, with experiential learning forming the fulcrum.

Objectives of the Program

• To develop the knowledge needed to diagnose and manage common acute and chronic conditions across age groups seen in outpatient family medicine settings.
• To develop Clinical and Communication Skills to take accurate histories, perform focused physical exams, develop evidence-based differentials, generate cost-effective management plans, and communicate those plans effectively with patients in outpatient family medicine settings.
• To develop skills to integrate preventive care into outpatient practice
• To develop the necessary interpersonal skills required in communicating with patients from all types of backgrounds, as well as the ability to impart appropriate health education wherever necessary.

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Career Prospects

Once completed, the course would help to turn graduate doctors into competent patient-centred clinicians – the Family Physicians, who thrive on building relationship with the patients and family, as envisioned by WHO, rather than treat them as numbers. It imparts career-enhancing skills empowering him to function as a Consultant Family Physician, enabling him to render health services to the community and to take timely decisions for referral to provide secondary/ tertiary health services whenever needed.

Recommended Background / Entry Requirements

Recognised the need of the hour, of turning graduate doctors into family physicians, who thrive on building relationship with the patients and family, rather than treat them as numbers, IMA eVarsity has specially crafted these courses for experienced practising doctors – doctors who could not take up post-graduation for whatever reason, doctors who are so busy with their practice that they do not find time to attend continuous medical education. These courses are made available for the MCI-registered doctors.

Course Syllabus

Course Delivery Format

Taking a leaf from Winston Churchill’s philosophy of “always ready to learn although … not always like being taught”, IMA eVarsity is transforming medical education by garnering learning empowered by the interactive platform of digital technology. IMA eVarsity model of blended education integrates best practices of ‘chalk and board’ with emerging technologies, purporting to make mockery of fragmented medical care, that is the bane of the rising costs of health care today!

The IMA eVarsity offers best of the models of blended education through online lectures, with the convenience of self-study at one’s own pace, time and place, complemented by online faculty interactions and clinical exposure through hospital rotations.

A rich learning environment is provided through the SmarTeach Learning Platform with access to:

• Online lectures delivered by experts in respective fields. The students can view the lecture any number of times using tools to conveniently play/pause, forward/rewind, skip/review, bookmark
• Included in these lectures are hundreds of text slides, illustrations and appropriate 2D and 3D animations, audios and videos to make concepts easy to understand
• Reading material including prescribed Textbook and e-Books for each chapter; additional reading material would also be suggested through links.
• Facility for the student to bookmark specific segments of a running lecture and ability to add your own notes for later review.
• Weekly self-assessment through multiple choice questions from a question bank of over 1,00,000 questions across all subject areas
• Case-based discussions [CbD], where you will be expected to select 2 specific cases during the period of compulsory clinical rotation under the guidance of in-house clinician and ensure completeness of the Logbook for the cases decided.
• Online contact sessions through Webchat and scheduled webinars

Assessment

Diploma in Family Medicine follows a set pattern of formative and summative assessments. Following are the types of assessments/examinations that each candidate is subjected to:

• Self Assessments, scheduled online at the end of every lecture and are neither timed nor graded.
• Semester[ Semester – 6 months duration]-end Assessments [SA] are also MCQ Examination at the end of every semester

Weekend and Semester-end assessments are part of formative assessment of theory and constitute 60% of the final score on theory, the balance 40% being covered by the final examination.

Course-end exam: The final exam consists of 50 MCQs to be completed in a stipulated period of time.

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Suggested Reading

• Text Book of Family Medicine by Dr. Arulrhaj

Links to Share

• “The rising importance of family medicine” by Dr Margaret Chan (Director-General of the World Health Organization)