Chennai: Mr. Ma. Subramanian, the state health minister, urged the Union Health Minister to "guide" the National Medical Commission (NMC) to consider a proposal to start an MD course in diabetes, nutrition, and metabolism at Madras Medical College (MMC).

In a letter dated May 4, Mr. Subramanian informed Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya that the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University had sent a proposal to NMC to set up a specialty course titled "Diabetology, Nutrition, and Metabolism" in the first schedule of the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000. However, in a letter dated February 23, 2022, the NMC reported that the request was not approved, citing that the inclusion of this course would downgrade all the existing courses.

He urged the Union Minister to advise the NMC to assess the application positively for the institution to begin the course in the coming academic year as per Section 28 (5) of the NMC Guidelines for dealing with appeals made to the Central Government under the NMC Act, 2019.

In his letter, he also noted that the prevalence of diabetes was approximately 10.4% in Tamil Nadu. He pointed out that in the past few years, governments at both the central and state levels have been focusing on the detection and early treatment of non-communicable diseases like diabetes in their health policies. He reasoned that establishing an MD course on diabetology will only help increase the number of professional healthcare providers in the country.

(Source:https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/ma-subramanian-urges-union-health-minister-to-guide-nmc-to-consider-proposal-to-start-md-course-in-diabetology-at-mmc/article66812783.ece/amp/ )