The overall goal of undergraduate medical education programme as predicted in the revised Graduate Medical Education Regulations was to build an "Indian Medical Graduate" (IMG) which would possess necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and responsiveness, so that she or he may function correctly and effectively as a physician of first contact of the community while being globally related.

To fulfill this goal, the IMG should be able to function appropriately, ethically and effectively in the roles as clinician, leader and member of the health care team and system, communicator, lifelong learner and as a professional. After a hiatus of 22 years, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has recognized the importance to train the medical students not just to be good doctors, but also good communicators.

The MCI will roll out a new MBBS syllabus nationally in the context of emerging diseases and scientific advances from August 2019. The new syllabus called Competency Based Undergraduate Curriculum, will mark a radical shift from old times when routine and classroom learning was the norm in MBBS training and stress on doctor-patient relationship and medical ethics were negligible. Now, the new curriculum will have dedicated topics on ethics, compassion, attitude and communication, which will be taught to medical graduates. For the first time, Indias new MBBS curriculum will acknowledge the importance of ethics, responsiveness to needs of patients and families and fine communication skills to engage the sick people.

The new MBBS curriculum has a course called Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) which will be a part of syllabus across years. Students will be assessed for how they communicate with patients; how they counsel people for organ donations or other challenging procedures; how sensitively do they offer care and obtain consent. All these things would be counted along with competencies and skills. Apart from this, it will also covers a lot of ground in Public Health, Organ Donation, Mental Health and Communication.

The new curriculum is an outcome-based learning that skills a medical graduate, he is expected to have. The course is introduced in the first year itself to receive clinical exposure, instead of jumping straight into core subjects such as anatomy, physiology. Classes will begin with a two-month Foundation Course aimed at orienting a medical student to MBBS programme.

This course will ease out students frustration in learning and help in coping in further years of the course. The new syllabus covers about professionalism, altruism and respect in professional relationships. One more feature of the curriculum is opting of elective subjects. Students can now pick up subjects of choice and dedicated time has been allotted for self-directed learning and co-curricular activities. The new curriculum also encourages the use of medical mannequins and models for clinical learning, however the use of human cadavers for anatomy training will continue. Theory classes will be reduced to a minimum and two-thirds of the course will include interactive, practical or clinical or based on group discussions.

The experts stated that the introduction of these long-due changes is a welcome move and these changes could go a long way in fulfilling the lack of qualified medical professionals in India. It is expected that this new curriculum focusing on practical knowledge and student attitudes will prove to be a game-changer and play a major role in improving Indias healthcare system.