Teaching "Human Biology" in Homeopathy UG Course

I have come across the syllabus of Universities of Stanford and Washington in the U S of A, where they have included Human Biology in the pre-clinical study of their medical and dental courses. It is in fact not a completely new subject. In fact the Human Biology subject has the anatomy part, physiology part and biochemistry part. The teachers who are qualified in these basic sciences undertake their respective teaching and evaluation of students.

What is different is that the learners are made to feel that these subjects are not independent of each other, but have interconnections, whose appreciation is beneficial in clinical practice. Often the very text and reference books that are prescribed for the ‘stand alone’ subjects are utilized. However, there are some books that are designed for this ‘networked’ subject.

Ayurvedic students learn anatomy as “Shareera Rachana Shastra”, which has concepts and contents unique to itself. It is not the same as the mainstream anatomy.

I have deliberated much on this concept of Human Biology and feel that it is a good idea to give it a try at least on an experimental basis. While generating the educational objectives of this subject, care can be taken to give sufficient justification for the inclusion / deletion of the contents on the basis of their relevance to clinical practice with special reference to homoeopathic situation.

Though faculty development is a major issue, the efforts needed are minimal, since the teachers who are already in the field have to re-orient and upgrade their knowledge base. This can be organized in the form of re-orientation programmes for the select teachers.

This programme need not be started as a blanket agenda covering the entire 184 colleges in one go. It can be started on an experimental basis in one of the universities that has couple of institutions and evaluated for a period of one or two years for its effectiveness and attainment of purpose, and reviewed for continuation or otherwise. An interim permission form the competent authority to the effect that such an experimentation doest not imperil the academic future of the students who are the experimental subjects needs an administrative and political determination, which I hope is not lacking in the present leadership.