Other Departments

Medical Ethics

St. John’s Medical College recognized the need to teach Medical ethics to MBBS undergraduate students from its inception in 1963. Faculty from across various departments conducted these classes. However, the Department of Medical Ethics was formally started as a separate department two decades ago.  

Our faculty hail from various specialties, and conduct classes for MBBS students from, Foundation course, ethics and values in the first to the final year. The faculty have a range of interests and expertise in medical ethics ranging from Catholic bioethics, clinical ethics, research ethics , institutional ethics committees, teaching medical ethics, humanities and being part of National task Forces and framing national guidelines on certain topics. Faculty span departments like medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, transfusion and immunehaematology, emergency medicine, psychology and psychiatry.

 In 2018, the innovative PG Ethics sensitization programme was rolled out. Medical ethics classes are also taken for allied health students and family medicine fellowship courses. With the NMC mandated AETCOM for MBBS students in 2019, the department of medical ethics has been uniquely placed to seamlessly deliver the ethics sessions with quality content in close liaison with all various departments like Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Community Medicine, Forensic Medicine, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Paediatrics and Orthopaedics. For sessions on communication, the team liaised with Dr Vijaya Raman and team from psychology.

The Interns Ethics debates are conducted as part of St. John’s Friday afternoon academic programme which enjoys a popularity amongst faculty too.

Faculty have published in national and international journals, sought after speakers in conferences, as well conducted national and international conferences in conjunction with other departments at St. John’s. Several faculty also hold additional degrees in medical law and ethics from National Law School, Bengaluru.