Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) In India: Challenges and Opportunities

We are about to witness India’s tryst with destiny in the field of medical education. With the Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) wind blowing across the country there are concerns, hopes and expectations from all stake holders. Medical Council of India (MCI), which is the apex body overseeing medical education in India has published the list of competencies and also the Curriculum role out plan.

The million-dollar question is will it be a game changer and provide the much-needed impetus to improve quality of training in our medical schools. The future is today (oxymoron) for the largest medical education system in the world and various sticky issues are expected to stare at as a result of formation of specific patterns as explained by Complex adaptive systems. Some sticky issues in this context could be Collaborative planning and implementation of CBME, Faculty resistance, competition among roles and values of students, teachers and administrators. The Challenges perceived are logistical chaos, Inertia, lack of resources, faculty development and motivation, establishment of skill labs, standardization of assessment methods, specifying the performance standards and standard setting,

Reengineering of learning management systems. In spite of these perceived challenges we do have opportunities to depend on: Well-trained medical education leaders from FAIMER regional institutes, faculty who have completed trainings by MCI including advance course in medical education (ACME). Experienced professional bodies like Indian Medical Association and speciality bodies can be roped into the system in Consultancy roles. Technology is accessible and used widely in medical schools. There are centres of excellence where CBME is already being practiced since a long time, in some way who can show the way. Dedicated health universities are present in most states. 

Notwithstanding the challenges MCI is ready with the Curriculum implementation support programme. As the World is watching, India is ready for this disruptive innovation in medical curriculum. We need to be guided by the progress indicators pertaining to the CBME pedagogy in terms of integrated teaching learning experiences offered to the students and performance-based assessment. The envisaged Indian Medical Graduate (IMG) will not remain just a rhetoric if the 5 roles of IMG envisaged by MCI are aligned with the broad and subject specific competencies in a seamless manner. Needless to state that we need to have a strong program evaluation in place to revise the program when needed or to stay on track.

The governing body has done its best by giving series of documents on competency lists, early clinical exposure, foundation course, log book, integration, skill training and now pandemic training module. It has also bolstered the faculty development and support through revised basic workshops on medical education technology and curriculum implementation support program (CISP). This kind of support and hand holding is unprecedented in our country. Now the onus is on all the stakeholders and more so the faculty to demonstrate that we are capable of providing world class standards in medical education and get our medical schools registered by world federation of medical education (WFME), Amen.