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Ganesh H K, Endocrinologist, Ma on Thursday, April 24, 2014 12:10 AM

Excellent review of the topic…I completely agree. ..The mere presence of the person in a hall doesn’t make him wiser…this whole CME CREDIT HOURS is a gimmick. ..
If the MCI is really worried about the knowledge, there should be periodical exams (I don’t know how far this is possible/feasible)..
IMA branches should give the memorandum to waive off this credit hours business. ..

Dr Suraj Sundaragiri on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:29 AM

This is also been implemented by Andhra Pradesh Medical Council to renew the registrations by 9th September.

Reply on Monday, 28 April, 2014

Dear Dr Suraj, Is this the notification – http://apmconline.in/images/do… This does not seem to be linked with CME Credits. Please e-mail us any details that you may have.

Venkat Kakkilaya on Saturday, April 19, 2014 6:05 AM

A good analysis of the topic. CME is critical for evidence based practice and improving quality of care of patients. A committee of individual practitioners with diverse background need to get together to put a solid framework which should be transparent, free of commercial bias, individual bias and patient centered. To start off, it may be important not to focus on the number of hours (which could be kept to minimum say 10 a year ) but focus on the quality of presentation. Online CME library is probably the way to go. Also, it is better to set up a way of measuring the quality of CME lectures and its impact at the front end and audit this over a period of time. If say a lecture was rated consistently poor by the audience, drop that one from the list for the next cycle.

Shrikanth on Saturday, April 19, 2014 1:24 AM

Interestingly Karnataka assembly passed the amendment to KMC act of 1961 in 2003 and section 19 of the said act after amendment stipulates 100 hours of cme credit for renewal. But the KMC has changed it to 30 credit hours in 2011 and published this in 2013 and stared the process of giving credit hours from 2014. It is quite interesting to note if you are a physician and read a journal of highest impact factor in medicine like NEJM week after week , you are stupid and not eligible to practice after 2016! But if you attend a two day conference in psychiatry or dermatology which is not your speciality but considered allied speciality then you are updated and eligible for renewal!

Raju sampangi on Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:56 AM

thanks for some important information to add to the points some of us are single sub-speciality doctors…for eg i practice only retina….i am not sure whether there are so many conferences in a year that are recognized by KMC to accumulate the required credit points…..i think this would be the same with other super-specialities…..we will be forced to attend a meet which is of no interest to our practice…this will defeat the purpose of the CME credit points itself…….

we should also ask officially as to how the credit scoring has been arrived at..? we need to update our knowledge on a regular day to day basis and conferences just give us an insight into the new happenings….i would probably learn more when i take a online CME than in a conference as…what i learn depends on who is giving the talk..while this is not the case in online learning…..similarly a journal club may give me more information than …..i think we need to write to the KMC to take opinions from various doctor organizations… as to what is the best /practical way on doing things………i don’t know whether we can involve local IMA and other associations to get more clarity on these matters and give some suggestions to the KMC….

Reply to Dr Raju Sampangi on Monday, April 14, 2014 2:54 PM

Thank you Dr Raju. Many branches of IMA are already planning to write to the CM regarding the issue. We will post a draft petition on this site in a day or two.

Reply by Vivekananda on Sunday, February 28, 2016 9:20 AM

Health care of most of India is presently being provided by alternate system practitioners cross practicing Allopathy, quacks, health workers faith healers and others. A renewal of medical council certification for doctors of evidence based medicine will in no way benefit common people.

A medical officer in government service dedicated to serve in rural areas who may find gaining 30 CMEcredit points difficult and may lose his registration. The government will then have to replace him with another doctor.

Vijayaraghavanrajagopalan on Friday, April 11, 2014 9:10 PM

That’ a wonderful analysis Dr Kakkilaya. I had actually done up an article almost similar to yours when Dr Satish Mallya sent me this link and so I held back. What I do know is that the supreme court did passa ruling where the requirement was for doctors to update their knowledge

Reply to Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Monday, April 14, 2014 2:54 PM

Thank you Dr Vijayaraghavan. We all shall now plan to take this forward.

Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Monday, April 14, 2014 10:16 PM

Dear Dr Kakkilaya

If you were to go through the Indian Medical Council (professional conduct, etiquette and ethics) regulations 2002 published in part III, section 4 of the Gazette of India dated 6 April 2002 you would find the requirements mentioned in chapter 1.2.3.

I recollect having read somewhere an observation made by the supreme court about the need to update oneself but am unable to source it.

Having said this I am sure you are aware that nearly 95% of laws related to medical negligence in India are laid down by courts and only 5% by legislature bodies!

More importantly what they should look at is recertification not reregistration

Hope this helps

Reply to Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan by Shrikanth on Saturday, April 19, 2014 12:46 AM

The said regulation is a suggestion or guidance and not a statute. What the state councils have done is taking a suggestion and converted it to a statute

Response by Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Sunday, April 20, 2014 10:49 AM

I am not very sure about this since the gazette notifications are legally binding and can only be issued by the GOI or parliament. No one else can! So if it is there in the gazette then this is an official notification by the government and cannot be construed as guidance or suggestion. The 2002 publication is legally binding [at least that is what I am told by legal luminaries]

Reply to Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Sunday, April 20, 2014 11:40 AM

The code of medical ethics 2002: 1.2.3 A Physician should participate in professional meetings as part of Continuing Medical Education programmes, for at least 30 hours every five years, organized by reputed professional academic bodies or any other authorized organisations. The compliance of this requirement shall be informed regularly to Medical Council of India or the State Medical Councils as the case may be.
This has nothing to do with renewal of registration. It only requires the practitioners to attend 30 hours of CME every 5 years, ie 6 hours every year, and there is no mention of credit hours. According to this code, a doctor need to attend 6 hours per year and needs to regularly inform the council – how and when is not clear again.

Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Saturday, April 26, 2014 10:10 PM

BTW, I discovered from the BMJ learning website that the Delhi medical council and Maharashtra medical council have a tie up with them and that each hour of activity is equivalent to one hour of credit!!!!

Reply to Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan Monday, April 28, 2014 10:07 AM

True; and no inspections or fee either.

Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 9:09 PM

BTW, I learnt that Columbia Asia hospital, Yeshwanthpur [who have recognition only for DNB radiology] are permitted to conduct CME programmes. why not other hospitals then?

Arbitrary decisions indeed

Reply by vivekananda to Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan on Saturday, February 27, 2016 7:03 PM

60% of Health service in India is provided by alternative medicine practitioners practicing allopathy, nurses, quacks homepaths, traditional healers and others Renewal of registrations to medical councils may not benifit the rural poor.
What about say a government medical officer who with innumerable programs and responsibility who cannot attend such extravagant cme and has regular trainings by the government which do not yield CME.

Akhila Setty on June 7, 2016

Thanks for posting this info in detail. Dr Akhila

Dr. P.L. Narayana on June 14, 2016

Kudos to the ‘Renewal Skeptics’ Team for standing up to the unlawful bullying by whatever-the-organization and safeguarding the basic survival rights of the doctors’ fraternity, already reeling under relentless professional stresses/burdens/threats.
CMEs and the necessity for updating knowledge & skills are fine, welcome and good for our own professional refinement in the long run as well as for rendering better service to our patients and taking the medical science forward. But the KMC should first get the statutes amended by the Govt & notified as per the due procedures, give adequate time & opportunity for every doctor in the nook & cranny to attend the lawfully (not arbitrarily) stipulated CME hours and then implement it prospectively from the date of such gazette notification. Not this way of catching the far flung doctors off-the-guard by hastily-and-retrospectively-applied amendments & panic them with threats of taking away their hard-earned livelihood !