All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Introduction:
All-India Institute of Medical Sciences was established as an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament with the objects to develop patterns of teaching in Undergraduate and Post-graduate Medical Education in all its branches so as to demonstrate a high standard of Medical Education in India; to bring together in one place educational facilities of the highest order for the training of personnel in all important branches of health activity; and to attain self-sufficiency in Post-graduate Medical Education.

History:
AIIMS was inaugurated in 1956, and was built with a grant from the New Zealand Government. AIIMS was established in New Delhi after former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s intitial proposal to set up the institute in Calcutta was turned down by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.It was the vision of Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the first Health Minister of India, to establish an institute of such nature in India. She envisioned an autonomous medical institute where students, doctors and teachers would live and learn side by side, with freedom to experiment with teaching and curriculum.

Academics
The courses offered by the institute are:

• MBBS ( Annual intake of 50 students)
• MD/MS (Annual intake of around 217-220 students in 24 disciplines)
• DM/MCh (in 12 and 5 disciplines respectively)
• BSc courses in Nursing, Paramedical and medical specialities (Annual intake of 70 students in BSc hons and 51 in paramedical courses)
• BSc (Honours) Human Biology (Till 2002)
• MSc many specialities
• MBiotech
• All the PG courses
• PhD in 47 disciplines.

Admission:

• MBBS course

Every year AIIMS accepts 45 Indian students, of which 33 belong to General Category and 11 belong to the reserved category (SC/ST) and 1 orthopedic physically handicapped, based on the results of an all-India entrance examination for its MBBS program. The number of students who take the entrance exam every year varies from 70,000 to 80,000. The acceptance rate for admission to the undergrad course (medical school) is thus 45/75000 i.e 0.06%. This makes the AIIMS entrance exam, conducted on 1st of June every year, one of India’s most difficult.

Five international students (nominated by Government of India from SAARC nations) complete the class size of 50. AIIMS also specializes in paramedical and basic science training for its undergrads. AIIMS is one of the few institutions where the faculty-student ratio is actually the reverse of the norm, i.e there are more faculty members than students. PG Cert. in Sociology.

• Post-graduate courses

There are about 42 speciality post-graduate courses conducted at AIIMS. The entry is through a nationwide competitive examination held every six months. These courses are highly coveted by the medical graduates across the country because of the institution’s excellent medical services, exposure to unusual and referred cases and excellent opportunities for research.

• Integrating clinics and research

AIIMS was originally built as a Superspeciality tertiary care (refers to India’s three-tier health system with Primary clinics, which refer cases to secondary district level hospitals, which in turn refer cases to regional tertiary hospitals) centre with primary emphasis on research and specialized training facilities. MBBS is the basic medical course, the same as medical school. This is followed by specialization, which is the term for postgrad training in General Surgery, General Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and other fields. Superspecialities are those healthcare fields whose practitioners need specialised certification after completing their postgraduations, examples being cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, rheumatology, Neurology, Pediatric Neurology etc.There are at least 45 superspecialities at AIIMS. Having clinical superspecialities in the same campus as its major research facilities makes AIIMS optimally suited for nurturing best quality translational research{research which can translate into clinically useful end products}} in India. 1234 AIIMS publishes the National Medical Journal of India, among India’s most prestigious clinical journals. Its impact factor is the highest among Indian journals after the Indian journal of Medical Research (published by the Indian Council of Medical Research).

Contact Details:
Faculty Incharge-Public Relations
91-11-26546409
91-11-26851929
Official Website: http://www.aiims.edu