New Medical Courses that make a difference

Despite the controversy surrounding the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), applications for various medical courses continue to pour in.

"There are definitely students who want to become doctors yet the final output in this country remains low. The National Development Council estimates that there is one doctor for every 1,700 people in the country,"

"This could be partly because many doctors go abroad to practice their profession and the rest branch out into various new disciplines," says Malabika Deb, a Student from Tamil Nadu Medical University.

The number of professionals taking up jobs as forensic scientists, occupational theorists, mobility scientists and geographic researchers has only increased in recent time.

"Being a doctor is not as attractive as sitting in a corporate office or opening your clinic in a new field of study. Most of my friends have already in a different field so that they can club their two specializations together and work with something entirely different," adds Deb.

New Medical Courses:

• Geographic Medicine: Stanford University, USA.
• Mobility Science: YMCA College, Chennai.
• Speech & hearing: All India Institute of Speech, Mysore.
• Forensic Science: Gujarat Forensics University, Gandhinagar.
• Occupational Theory: La Trobe University, Australia.
• Neonatal Nursing & Medicine: King's College, UK.

The trend to combine two different majors is not just becoming popular in India but around the world as well. Take geographic medicine for example.

This branch of study deals with the influence of climate and environmental conditions om health and centres across world have used this information to develop vaccines against cholera, typhoid, malaria, West Nile virus, bird flu, swine flu and other infectious diseases.

The Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Professor Stephany Biello explains that, "There are some really interesting new branches of study coming up across the medical fraternity. Some of the new courses in the field combine the specializations aspects of psychology and neuroscience. Through this course, students can get accreditation as professional psychologists and also acquire an honours degree in neuroscience, thus enabling them to take advantage of both fields of study."

"General Surgery is no longer the only option for students. We can now take up surgical oncology, laparoscopic surgery, micro surgery or elective surgery. The only difficulty is choosing the right specialisation and course," says Vipin Maheswari, a medical student in London.

Demand for facelifts and transplants has also fuelled an increase in courses on beauty medicine.

"Beauty Medicine is a subject itself. There are so many new classes in it such as natural medicine, ayurveda, holistic medicine or nose jobs. In fact breast transplants are one of the hottest courses around these days as there is so much money and demand in the market," adds Maheswari.

There are plenty of new options and plenty of new subjects to choose from them.