About this course

Welcome to this new course on "Primary Care Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine", that will be a simple, feasible and practical primer to Musculoskeletal & Rheumatologic illnesses especially written in context of treating South Asian population.
South Asian countries have one of the lowest prevalence of trained rheumatologists in the world. Generally, primary care doctors are the first point of contact & often the long term follow up doctors for patients with RMDs.

Message by Course Director
We are pleased to offer this certificate course in 'Primary care Rheumatology' to medical professionals who are interested to learn the basics of Rheumatological diseases. These diseases form a significant percentage of patients reaching primary care doctors. This course aims to build the knowledge gap in this field and also help clinicians to recognise and treat common musculoskeletal disorders and introduce them about the complex autoimmune diseases and the current approach to the diagnosis and management of these rarer diseases. The curriculum is carefully curated and vetted by experts from India and UK. We hope this course will help clinicians to approach Rheumatological diseases rationally

Dr. B G Dharmanand
Course Director
Consultant
Institute Of Rheumatology & Clinical immunology
Manipal Hospital, Miller's Road, Bangalore
Immediate Past President,
Indian Rheumatology Association

Skilled primary care doctors are a link between patients and rheumatologists
A rapport between upskilled primary care doctors with the nearby rheumatologists will go a long way towards rational treatment of RMDs in semi urgent and urgent situations in the community. This model will prevent disability by quick action at an early preventable stage and thereby enhance safe and holistic care for the patients.
This short online course with 45+ modules prepared by expert rheumatologists from across South Asia & beyond, will be supplemented with periodic virtual classroom sessions.
We believe this PG certificate course will bridge the gap in musculoskeletal health in the South Asian community.
By Late Dr. Debashish Danda
Course Curator
Who served as the Director, Professor and Senior Consultant, Institute of Rheumatology, Arthritis and Auto-immunity and also as the Dean - Clinical & Interdisciplinary Research at Narayana Health City Bangalore

About Bangalore Baptist Hospital
Bangalore Baptist Hospital (BBH) is a 450-bed tertiary care teaching hospital with state-of-the-art facilities that strives to serve with compassion. BBH runs the Postgraduate training for doctors in 18 specialties under the Diplomate in National Board and also has a Nursing Institute (Diploma and BSc) and Allied Health Institute.

About The Royal College of Physicians, London
The Royal College of Physicians, is a world leader in postgraduate medical education. We deliver a wide range of projects aimed at strengthening health systems and improving medical standards across the globe. Our work spans high-, middle- and low-income countries, ranging from clinical skills workshops in rural Nigeria to accreditation work and guideline development in the middle east. We also develop and coordinate the globally-recognised MRCP (UK) exams as part of the Federation of the Royal College of Physicians.

Why take this course?

• Trusted content - Brought to you by the publisher of The BMJ journal with a legacy since 1840 in providing healthcare knowledge and expertise to healthcare professionals.
• Course contributors - The peer reviewed course content is authored by more than 90 subject matter experts from across the globe.
• Glocal - International editorial guidelines with local context.
• Elaborate content coverage - The curriculum includes common rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions as follows: Non-inflammatory conditions such as back pain, Osteoarthritis, Chronic pain/Fibromyalgia, Soft tissue Rheumatism, Osteoporosis, Hypermobility of joints, Rheumatic manifestations of systemic diseases like Hypothyroidism, Diabetes Mellitus, low Vitamin D state etc. Inflammatory conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Spondyloarthritis (SpA) including Ankylosing Spondylitis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, enteropathic & undifferentiated SpA, Crystal Arthritis like Gout and Infective Arthropathies including Viral & Septic Arthritis. This course also covers emergencies and serious RMDs such as connective tissue diseases including Lupus and Vasculitides for a quick recognition to enable immediate treatment & a prompt referral to a rheumatologist.
• Pedagogy - Interactive live classroom sessions, text and video based learning and online assessment, experiential learning at BBH (for blended learning course participants)
• Certification - For e-learning participants on successful completion of course certification by BMJ and RCP London and for blended learning course participants certification by BMJ, RCP London and BBH. Minimum passing percentage required is 70%.

Course Structure

E-learning:

The course comprises 6 units with a total of 45+ modules. After the completion of all the 45+ modules there will be a final evaluation in the form of MCQs [Multiple Choice Questions].

Each month one unit will be unlocked to study and participants can take an assessment post each module. Final evaluation at the end of the course.

Video Lectures:

• Introductory video by Late Dr Danda (recorded), and Dr Dharmanand to give an overview of the course.
• Three video lectures by course faculty. Virtual interaction with course faculty on the 6th month after the commencement of the course.

Contact program:

Three days of contact program at Bangalore Baptist Hospital (download brochure from Curriculum for details)

Examination Format:

MCQs, OSCE, Viva

Dates of the virtual interactive session with the faculty will be communicated to the candidates through emails prior to the interactive session.

Eligibility criteria

Candidates must hold an MBBS degree from a recognized institute

Contact Us

For more information, please write to us at education.india@bmj.com or you can call us at 91-120-4345733, +919650052070 (09:30 AM - 05:00 PM, Monday to Friday).