Gastroenterology in India - some considerations.

The European brand of research universities, in the early twentieth century, became the role model for American Universities such as Harvard and Cornell [1]. Countries like India and China with rapidly growing economies need such role-models. India with a population of 1.2 billion is struggling to organize its research and Hepatogastroenterology (HGE) training, and to meet the requirements of not only the urban population, but also the rural underprivileged, who comprise over 70% of its population. The Medical Council of India (MCI), determines the training curriculum for all medical specialties in India. Three senior professors of HGE are at present revising the current curriculum. The MCI website states that there are 75 HGE positions per year in 27 training centres. However there are 299 medical colleges in India which means that only about 10% of the medical colleges undertake formal HGE-training. Studies are required to clarify the logistics and the access to become an HGE-training centre [2]. Proper HGE access for the Indian population should be an issue. For the last 10– 15 years private hospitals in India have been assisting in the manpower development of medical specialists. Data about these developments are lacking in Indian literature. The common trend is that Indian specialists training abroad are reluctant to return to India and those trained in India leave the country to accept posts abroad. The Indian Society of Gastroenterology (ISG) started in 1958 certainly helped in disseminating knowledge through its annual conferences [3]. The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) recommends one gastroenterologist for every 50,000 population. At that rate, at least 20,000 HGE-specialists are required for India. India lacks at least 10,000–15,000 HGE-specialists [3]. The number of board-registered HGE-specialists today is around 1,000. HGE-trainers need to increase the number of training centers and seats for fellows per center [4, 5].