COMMUNITY MEDICINE

The Department of Community Medicine at KMCT Medical College was established in 2006 and provides high quality training in Community Medicine to undergraduate students and postgraduate medical students (2020 onwards), with the purpose to create a cadre of professionals who are competent to understand the health needs and meaningfully contribute their expertise in planning, implementation, co-ordination, monitoring, and evaluation of primary health care programmes based on scientific evidence. The Department is involved in promotion of health and prevention of diseases, involving people’s participation and by providing promotive, preventive and curative health services to the community through different tiers of health care delivery systems which is cost effective and follows evidence based practices. The department provides a good learning opportunity for students at community settings with full fledged rural and urban health centers at Nellipoyil and Mukkam, institutional visit of public health importance- Subcentre, PHC, CHC, Anganwadi, Kerala Water Authority- water treatment plant, Milma Dairy plant, etc. Apart from this we also have student friendly teaching learning methods that includes problem based learning, role play, participatory learning appraisal, seminars, small group discussion, demonstrations, family visits, institutional visits, problem based exercises.

Publications:

Department has a total of 86 publications till date. There are working papers on relevant topics like communicable disease surveillance, family survey reports etc.

Best practices in undergraduate teaching

• Family adoption programme in collaboration with Chathamangalam panchayath and Mukkam municipality.
• Use of participatory approaches for community diagnosis, as part of first clinical postings, during second professional year
• Student research projects, as a part of second clinical postings, during third professional year.
• Electives in hospice care, research and publication, animal bite management, adolescent health, risk mapping of an area, immunization program, primary health care etc
• Medical camps for marginalized groups, special occupational groups
• Hospital based disease surveillance
• Outbreak investigation