Against the backdrop of incidents of violence against doctors by aggrieved relatives due to a patient's death during the course of treatment at the point of care, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) in consultation with Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) is likely to introduce a separate subject in medical ethics and communication as a part of medical degree course by next year across the state.

According to experts, the contents of the subject on communication and ethics after getting successfully notified in the state will be taken up across the country. Medical fraternity have hailed the much awaited move of training budding doctors by incorporating a subject on medical communication and ethics in the concluding session of the medical degree course. This, according to them, will improve the doctor -patient relationship in a more pragmatic way. The course is also aimed at bringing in ethical guidelines into practice and address issues beyond diagnosing and treating a patient.

Even as medical practitioners registered with the state medical councils have the mandate of following medical ethics, officials at the helm of Maharashtra Medical Council opined that a formal training in medical communication and ethics was long overdue.  

Explains Dr Shivkumar Utture from MMC, "The course will help budding doctors to equip themselves of communication skills especially in an event of breaking the news of death or a terminal illness to relatives. Most importantly, considering the fact that patients and relatives are well informed, doctors need to communicate the modalities and protocols of treatment in a comprehensive manner from diagnosis to final health outcomes. Such communication between doctor and patient need to be developed in a systematic way through proper training."

Dealing with informed patients has set a new paradigm to the dynamics of medical practice today considering the fact that there are many areas such as surrogacy and clinical trials where consent, confidentiality and many issues come in, which doctors patients need to be made aware of equally.

The first step towards such an initiative was made in 2003, when Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital along with representatives of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) had set up a library for medical students. That module, however, was not effectively implemented by the MUHS then. However, GS Seth Medical College attached to KEM Hospital is one of the few institutions where students are informally taught about communication and ethics under a programme called SHIDORI since the past 22 years.