Community Based Medical Education (CBME): A collateral benefit to the society

Community based medical education (CBME) is described as education that focuses on both population groups and individual persons and take into account the health needs of the community concerned. Now a days health professionals need to be more responsive to needs of the populations they serve, rather than the hospitals they serve, which requires medical students and doctors to imbibe abilities and perspectives consistent with the updated medical knowledge and capacity to promote health. In Community Based Medical Education, the majority of the clinical training of the students happens in the community setting in contrast to campus based teaching hospital in traditional teaching. CBME is a broad concept, providing students with opportunities to interact with people from a wide range of social, cultural, economic and ethnic back-grounds. It is often directed towards priority health needs of specific populations, and requires an amalgamation of clinical skills, command on subject, capabilities and inclination towards the community. Health is highly influenced by social and cultural factors such as socioeconomic status, race, gender roles, migration, poverty, social support, and environment. Community based education will make the graduates familiar how these factors influence health and give them the ability to act appropriately. CBME will go a long way to address the increasing demand on health care, as well as making the medical graduates more empathic, flexible and passionate for providing health to all.