Department of Community Medicine

About us

Community Medicine is the branch of medicine concerned with the health of population. It strives to protect and promote the health and well-being of the community through the Primary Health Care approach.

Our Vision

We are committed to educate medical students to be community responsive primary care physicians who will meet the health care needs of the rural and hard to reach communities.

Our Goal

The goal of Undergraduate teaching/training in Community Medicine is directed towards achieving “Universal Health Coverage”.  Our emphasis will be in training Undergraduates to handle common health problems prevailing in the community competently and confidently.

The Department empowers the students academically to practice medicine in a multi-disciplinary domain comprising of Clinical Epidemiology, Epidemiological Research, Environment & Sanitation, Diet & Nutrition, Maternal & Child Health, Adolescent Health, Geriatrics, Emporiatrics, Ergonomics, Communicable & Non-communicable Diseases and assist in implementation of National Health Programmes in the community.

Facilities:

The Department is well equipped with updated Library, central resarch laboratory,  Museum which has  various models of houses, sewage disposal system, water purifying systems & methods of chlorination etc, Charts displaying the map of endemic areas, national and international health promotion, disease prevention, Microscopes & Slides of various disease causing microbes, vectors etc.

Our Academic activities:

 Apart from the classroom teaching, students are allowed to visit the nearby communities and to understand the health problems of community, different levels of health care systems and various schemes provided to the public by the government.

We do conduct regular health awareness activities in the community by ways of conducting Health talks, Rallies, Celebration of Health related Important Days.

We involve the students in various research activities like conducting base line survey, analyzing, compilation of data and their interpretation. Our department encourages and prepares our students to attend various quiz competitions and paper presentations in various conferences.

Outreach health care services are carried through health Centre  attached to our department (Rural Health Centre, Urban Health Centre and  Govt. PHCs) covering a population of over 1,50,000 individuals. CRRIs are being trained well in learning about functioning of various national health programmers, Job responsibilities of Health Personnel, Treatment and Management of Common ailments in the community.

With all the above facilities & exposure the students are trained & motivated to look into their role as Community Physician in Public Health which lies as the “Backbone of Indian Health system”.

Our routine academic activities : 

• MBBS- Ist year –
• Field visits to public health related places
• Importance of Communictaion
• Implementation of AETCOM- Module
• MBBS- IInd year-
•   Community need assessment  survey (Be capable of conducting a survey and employ its findings as a measure towards arriving at a community diagnosis)
• Art of interviewing
• Imparting health education activities in communities  (skits/ role plays/ street dramas/ Rallies)
• Involving students in short term research projects               
• MBBS- IIIrd year-     
  • Case presentation
  • To study the environmental sanitation in the community
  • To assess the nutritional status of the mother
  • To assess the nutritional status of the child
  • Introduction to research methodology
    • Identifying proper research question
    • Reviewing literature using different databases
    • Overview of study designs
    • Preparation of research protocol
    • Sampling techniques and its applications
    • Designing of questionnaire
    • Basics of biostatistics
    • Data anaysis  and interpretation using softwares (SPSS)
    • Scientific article writing and publishing
• Public health important days celebrations
• Preparation of health education materials                                                                                      
• CRRI         –

During this period of internship – CRRIs will acquire;

• Ø  Clinical competence for diagnosis of common ailments, use of bed side investigation and primary care techniques.
•  Gain information on ‘Essential drugs’ and their usage.
• Use essential drugs in the community with the awareness of availability, cost and side effects.
• Participate in programmes in prevention and control of locally prevalent endemic diseases including nutritional disorders.
• Gain full expertise in immunization against infectious diseases.
•  Acquire proficiency for Family Welfare Programmes (ante natal care, normal delivery, contraception care etc.
•  Learn the management and guidelines of National Health Programmes.
• Provide health education to an individual/community on :
• Tuberculosis- Engage everyone   
•  Hypertension & Diabetes- The living way forward
•  Animal bites – The prognostic sequeale
• Upper respiratory tract infections –
•  Gain capabilities to use Audiovisual aids & communication tools (Banner, Posters, Flipcharts, Placards).
• Acquire quality of being professional with dedication, resourcefulness and leadership.
• Acquire managerial skills, delegation of duties to paramedical staff and other health professionals.
• Develop capability for analysis of health center based morbidity and mortality statistics   

 Research activities :

 Members of the faculty of the Department of community medicine  are involved in collaborative research works with various clinical Departments. We have been guiding medical students in ICMR-STS projects.