A career as healer: Present and future prospects

The power to heal has placed the medical profession several rungs above all others. But if you are considering studying medicine you need to have seven qualities to be a great doctor, over and above intelligence. They are professionalism, compassion, integrity, maturity, ability to do hard work, patience and composure.

Medical education can be divided into categories as follows:
* Allopathy-MBBS course
* Dental- BDS Course
* Homeopathy- BHMS Course
* Ayurveda- BAMS Course
* Unani- BUMS Course
* Physiotherapy- BPT Course
* Occupation therapy- OT Course
* Nursing- BSc Nursing

Basic pattern of allopathy medical course includes:
* Undergraduate course (MBBS)- 5 1/2 Years
* Post Graduate course (MD/MS/DNB)- 3 years
* Super specialisation course (DM/MCH)- 3 years
* Post graduate diploma course- 2 years

Eligibility criteria is 10+2 or equivalent with Physics, Chemistry and Biology with 50% marks from any recognized Indian board. Entrance test has to be taken. The test is either All India CET or State level CET. Various Deemed Medical colleges conduct their own entrance test .All the medical colleges are under the apex body Medical Council of India ( MCI) and have to be recognized by MCI.

After getting the basic degree, there is the option of going into family practice or taking higher postgraduate education. Choice of specialization could be internal medicine, general surgery, and pediatrics, to name a few. A super-specialization degree can also be pursued. Both post-graduate and super-specialization courses require working in a hospital as a resident doctor. With a post-graduate degree one can opt for a career as a teacher in a medical college where, apart from training the students, one will also be involved in patient care in the attached teaching hospital. Alternatively one can be totally involved in patient care by getting into private practice.

Health care is a complex field with varied critical components. Besides traditional patient care, one can specialize in hospital administration, medical equipment designing and innovation, law and medicine, finance and medicine, development of drug molecules, and clinical research. Having a basic degree in medicine will help in understanding these complex matters better.

The opportunities and innovations are all need-based. I forsee a fruitful future in the field of integrated geriatric care with the increase in our ageing population. Minimally-invasive surgery including robotic surgery, cancer-related treatment like oncosurgery and haemato-oncology, cosmetic surgery and organ transplantation, interventional therapy providing targeted care in the field of cardiology and neuromedicine will be the trend of the future. There is an immense potential in trauma care and reconstructive surgery considering the violent world we live in.

The future of medicine lies in understanding life itself. In the coming years there will be tremendous push for stem cell therapy and gene therapy which will revolutionize the way we think about disease and cure.

Dr Geeta Niyogi, is Dean of K J Somaiya Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre