Conceptual differences and similarities between public health related contents of syllabus of Ayurveda graduation (B.A.M.S.) with syllabi of M.B.B.S, M.P.H. and M.D. (social and preventive medicine) in India

Context: The concept and discipline of public health has seen a revival in the past decade. A gradual shift of focus from curative to preventive is being discernible. It is estimated that there will be a huge increase in need of public health professionals day by day. This would require human resources from diverse disciplines, fields and backgrounds. However, the enrollment of them in the public health education will ultimately decide whether they can be successfully integrated into the community health arena or not. Objective: To appraise the conceptual differences and similarities between public health related contents of syllabus of Ayurvedic graduation (B.A.M.S.) with syllabi of M.B.B.S., M.P.H. and M.D. (Social and Preventive Medicine). Methodology: A review based study was conducted during February 1st February- 15th March 2010. To appraise the conceptual differences and similarities, comparison of contents of syllabus of Swasthavarita subject of B.A.M.S. curriculum was done with syllabi of community medicine of M.B.B.S. as well as of entire syllabus of M.P.H. and M.D. (Social and Preventive Medicine). Standard syllabus of B.A.M.S. and M.B.B.S. degrees was taken from official website of Central Council of Indian Medicine (C.C.I.M), New Delhi and Medical Council of India (M.C.I.), New Delhi, respectively. Master in Public Health (M.P.H.) and M.D. (Social and Preventive Medicine) syllabi from official website of PGIMER, Chandigarh were considered as standards syllabi for study. The syllabi were divided in to the sub-categories and conceptual comparison was done. Frequencies and percentages were used to draw inferences. Conclusions: Conceptual similarities were found in the majority of the topics of the B.A.M.S. syllabus with the syllabi of community medicine of M.B.B.S.; M.P.H. P.G.I.M.E.R., Chandigarh and M.D. Community Medicine. Some topics like health financing, health planning, monitoring management and administration, knowledge of modern technology etc. were found lacking in B.A.M.S. syllabus.