About the Department & Subject teaching

Goal: The broad goal of the teaching of undergraduate students in Community Medicine is to prepare them to function as community and first level physicians.

Objectives: During the training, students should acquire knowledge and skills so that they can practice community medicine after graduation. On completion of training, student is expected to acquire the following knowledge and skills

1. Understanding of physical, social, psychological, economic and environmental determinants of health and diseases,
2. Ability to recognize and manage common health problems at individual, family and community level, especially in the context of National Health Programs,
3. Knowledge of reproductive and child health with regards to national health care priorities and ability to Implement and monitor National health programs in the primary care setting,
4. Ability to recognize, investigate, report and manage community health problems and emergencies,
5. Promotion of health and prevention & cure of diseases.

Training of Community Medicine will be undertaken during pre-clinical (Phase I), para clinical (Phase II) and Clinical (Phase III) phases which correspond to Semesters I & II (Phase I), III & IV (phase II) and VI & VII semesters (phase III) of the MBBS course.

Department: It is located on the 3^rd floor in main college building and equipped with 2 demonstration rooms, 1 museum, 1 departmental library, both UG & PG research labs and office space for all teaching and non-teaching staff. Department has 3 PHCs namely Rancharda, Saij and Mokasan (all in district Gandhinagar) and UHC Ognaj (in Ahmedabad City) identified for training of medical students. Of these, Rancharda PHC has been identified and developed as RHTC. Department is also committed to improving the quality of health services in these Centres with the help of its staff including a dedicated LMO  and paramedical staff, posted at RHTC and UHTC.

Training in the subject is imparted through lectures, field visits, tutorials, practicals and demonstrations. In addition to this, department undertakes 3 community postings (of total 12 weeks duration) during III, IV, VI & VII semesters; wherein rapid community survey, family/case study, IMNCI training, mini projects, visits to various social, medical and health institutions, visits to PHC (RHTC), UHTC and their allied agencies are conducted, among other things.

In addition to the routine training of students, department also organizes events for students.

Evaluation: Department has a robust system of formative and summative evaluation, which is in accordance to the Medical Council of India and the Gujarat University. University examination is held at the end of VII semester along with the subjects of Ophthalmology and ENT. Internal evaluations are done regularly at the end of II, IV, VI and VII semesters; their marks are added to the marks obtained by students during university examinations as internal marks. Further we do share the feedback of these examinations with parents (especially for those who are poorly performing).

Activities: Various activities such as observance of important public health days, multi specialties OPD, family surveys with follow up visits and other operational research; are being carried out in these centers. Department organized the State level conference for 2015 and had active participation in hosting the Annual National Conference held in Gandhinagar in January 2016. Medical quiz for the UG students is held every year on the occasion of World Health day. We also encourage the students to apply for research projects under agencies like ICMR. In 2015 proposals of two of our students got the ICMR approval and they finished the research successfully.