Ahmedabad's Shalby has become the only hospital in Gujarat to have received the Diplomat in National Board (DNB) certificate in orthopaedics.
The Medical Council of India recognizes courses such as MBBS, MD, MS, DM and MCS. While MBBS is a basic degree, MD and MS are post graduate degrees. DM and MCS are super-specialty degrees. Likewise DNB orthopedics is a three-year course in medicine.
Explaining the nuances of this programme, vice-president of quality, academics and strategic alliances for Shalby Hospitals Neeraj Lal said, "Indian government had started national board of examinations and they run DNB courses - the DNB board specialty including orthopedics, surgery and the like and DNB super specialty."
Lal added, "DNB orthopaedics and MS orthopaedics are similar and MBBS is the entry level for both. In Gujarat, only MS orthopaedics is available in BJ Medical College and VS Hospital. However, DNB orthopedics did not exist till now. Hence, we applied for the same and during the past year, the board members visited our premises and inspected our facilities. They interacted with our doctors and the kind of workload we go through. It was only after thorough verification, did they decide to allot two seats."
Under this, Shalby can have two candidates annually and DNB Orthopaedics is a three-year course. Hence, if every year Shalby takes two students, at the end of three years, they will have six students studying under the DNB orthopedics programme.
In addition, this is the first time that Gujarat has been able to receive such a programme.
Among 12 hospitals from India who had applied for this DNB programme, only Shalby has received the accreditation from the list, while within Gujarat there were two other hospitals which had applied but failed to receive the accreditation. The course will begin from January.
"Since last few years, DNB board has identified certain institutes to train post graduate doctors under this programme. This accreditation has been awarded on the basis of facility, availability of full-time specialty doctors, commitment, academic and research work and facilities related to students library. Also, because we maintain a thorough database on patients, surgeries and medicines, it will also help widen research work and further improve on our own technology and method for surgeries," medical director for Shalby hospitals, Dr Pankaj S Doshi said.
