ROME Programme

ROME Programme

Reorientation of Medical Education Programme

The Reorientation of medical Education (ROME) Program adopted by World Health Organization lays stress on making the medical education program relevant to the professional competencies. If the medical education program of today is aimed at producing competent medical graduates for tomorrow, an account of the future roles of medical graduates who are independent to think, independent to judge and independent to make decision and practice Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology has been considered, during the four and half years of MBBS program.

The scheme for re-orientation of medical education (ROME) was introduced with the objectives of
(i) introducting community bias in the training of undergraduate medical students with emphasis on preventive and promotive services,

(ii) reorientation of the role of medical colleges, so that they became an integral part of the health- care system and did not continue to function in isolation,

(iii) reorientation of all faculty members so that hospital-based and disease-oriented training was progressively complemented by community- based and health-oriented training for providing comprehensive primary health care, and

(iv) the development of effective referral linkages between PHCs, District Hospitals and Medical Colleges. The scheme has been implemented in its first phase, in about 106 medical colleges.

In spite of a one-time grant-in-aid of about Rs. 16 lakhs to each of the participating institutions, the objectives of the scheme could not be achieved to the desired extent.
This was largely due to
(i) lack of commitment to the programme at all levels,
(ii) slow progress in the utilisation of Central funds, and
(iii) absence of efforts in the restructuring of teaching and training programmes at the college levels.