Medical education in any country must be relevant to the needs of the society. Medical students should be provided with basic knowledge, motivated to cultivate favorable attitudes and trained to achieve adequate professional skills, in order to be successful medical practitioners. They should be well oriented to the local health problems and capable of fitting in the health team that has to provide total preventive and curative health services to the individuals and the community.

The Department of Community Medicine, KEMC, plays a leading role in the preparation of community minded physicians. Until now it is the only department in King Edward Medical College that deploys the medical students in different sorts of communities, where the students are exposed to various community health problems. While remaining in their limitations, they try to find the causative factors and solve the issues.

In the department the students learn the concepts of health care including health care for special groups such as mothers and young children, school going children, adolescents, elderly, physically and mentally handicapped and various occupational groups.

Stress is given on early detection of disease using appropriate screening tests, identifying the main health problems of the country, their ecology and how to deal with them. Other relevant topics are dealt with environmental health, medical statistics, vital statistics and epidemiological investigations.

The Department of Community Medicine has started re-orientation of its teaching and field work according to the specifications laid down by WHO in selecting Primary Health Care as a key to achieve " Health for All by the Year 2000".

This program named as "Community Health Project" was initiated as a pilot program to introduce the students to the concept of Primary Health Care. It is an attempt to bridge a gap between what a health professional learns as a student and what is to be dealt as a professional.

As a pilot program initially and as a perpetual mission in the long run to prepare community-oriented physicians capable to solve the health problems of the societies in this country, we shall be improving and revising our working after receiving feedback from the students and the community, under the kind supervision of our senior faculty colleagues.
 
 

WORKING PRINCIPLES:

The department of Community Medicine, KEMC performs its functions under the following principles.