Register for Free Medical CME on Replacing Animals in MBBS

Modernising Medical Training: Replacing Animals in MBBS Programmes
WORKSHOP SERIES
16-20 January 2012

In 2009, the Medical Council of India (MCI) officially amended its regulations to state that "experimental work on animals can be demonstrated by Computer Aided Education",  clearing the way for Indian medical schools to eliminate their use of animals in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) training programmes.  

This policy change allows Indian medical schools to adopt completely non-animal training curricula, as has been done in 95 per cent of programmes in the United States and in every programme across Canada and the United Kingdom. These institutions instead use a combination of didactic methods, human-patient simulators, supervised clinical practice and interactive computer-aided learning simulations.

To help familiarise MBBS programmes with the non-animal training methods being used abroad, PETA India is sponsoring a series of free continuing medical education (CME) workshops across India from 16 to 20 January 2012. The workshops will feature lectures and simulation demonstrations covering the available modern, effective and economical non-animal training methods approved by the MCI to completely replace animal use in the MBBS curricula.

Distinguished speakers at the workshops include the following:

• John Pawlowski, MD, PhD
  Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
  Director of Thoracic Anesthesia, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• David Dewhurst, PhD
  Professor of E-Learning and Director of Educational Information Services
  College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
  University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

• Mohammad Akbarsha, PhD
  Director and Chair
  Mahatma Gandhi-Doerenkamp Center for Alternatives to Use of Animals in Life Science Education
  Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India

FREE REGISTRATION
If you are affiliated with a medical college in India and you would like to attend one of the free workshops listed below, please download and complete the appropriate registration form and submit it by e-mail to Dr Chaitanya Koduri, PETA India's science policy adviser, at ChaitanyaK@petaindia.org: 

• 16 January 2012, St. John's Medical College, Bangalore (Brochure)
• 17 January 2012, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry (Brochure)
• 19  January 2012, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (Brochure)
• 20 January 2012, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana (Brochure)

PETA India can provide some assistance with travel expenses to attendees traveling long distances. We can also offer vegan food (including breakfast, lunch, tea and an evening snack) as well as some assistance with reasonable accommodations if needed. Dr Koduri can provide specific details upon request.