Medical College Director Interview: Much corruption in Indian medical education, says CMC Vellore vice principal

Careers360 interviews Dr. Anna B. Pulimood, Vice Principal at CMC Vellore who shares her insights on special research programmes offered by the college as she spoke on the medical college competing in various aspects including faculty, infrastructure and technology over other private medical institutions in India.

In this interview, Dr. Pulimood also talks about incorporating social relevance into curriculum. Read the full interview to know about collaborative research projects of CMC Vellore with other institutes and in the county and abroad.

Careers360: How is CMC competing?
Dr. Anna B. Pulimood: CMC Vellore is a unique medical college whose graduates are professionally excellent as well as compassionate and highly ethical. We give a lot of importance to being socially relevant, and all our graduates spend two years serving in secondary level hospitals located predominantly in rural India prior to further studies. Being a private institute, we are able to select students who combine academic excellence with a service-minded attitude. We ensure that our college and associated hospital have highly experienced and committed faculty, excellent infrastructure, the latest technology and constantly upgrade our services. Our doctors work as highly specialized teams.

Careers360: How much focus does CMS Vellore give to research?
Dr. Anna B. Pulimood: One of the objectives of CMC is excellence in research and the institution commits significant funds, administrative support and infrastructure towards promoting research among our faculty and students. Apart from specialized centers of research like a stem cell centre, we have the Welcome Trust Research Laboratory in G.I. Sciences and the Basic Science Laboratory, individual departments designated research laboratories. Our libraries provide excellent reference services with over 450 international and 120 national journals. Our faculties today have over 450 national and internationally-funded active grants and published 440 research articles last year in national as well as international journals.

We have a special research programme for medical students that help them get apprenticed to faculty for research projects; the outcome of which is presented in various institutional and external meetings.

Careers360: How are you collaborating with other institutes?
Dr. Anna B. Pulimood: Our faculty works with other institutes in the country and abroad on various collaborative research projects. We also provide specialized referral clinical and laboratory services (reporting of complicated biopsies, electron microscopy services etc.) and an excellent Quality Control Programme for laboratories across the country.

Careers360: How do you incorporate social relevance into curriculum?
Dr. Anna B. Pulimood: We have six community-oriented postings for our students: both in Vellore and in rural hospitals across the country. These postings sensitize our students to the needs of the community and help them learn how to develop solutions for problems in healthcare. All our graduates spend two years serving in secondary-level hospitals located predominantly in rural India, prior to further studies. About two-thirds of our graduates continue to serve the country even for ten years following graduation, which is much higher than in other premier medical institutes.

Careers360: Your expectations from MCI?
Dr. Anna B. Pulimood: There is so much corruption in healthcare and medical education in India today. The MCI has a long overdue responsibility to address these issues and find remedies. 

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