India's best Medical colleges

If you wish to study at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) spend a day there. Step inside any OPD at 12 noon. Try walking up and down a corridor without getting trampled by the crowd. If you can imagine yourself one day in the future at the centre of this daily surge of humanity, handling patients swarming around your desk with patience-dare to think of AIIMS.

Everything is king-size here-from the awe-inspiring campus with nearly 18 lakh patient footfalls a year, an array of 50 disciplines, 25 clinical departments and six super speciality centres managing every type of disease, to more than 54,000 wannabes who compete fiercely for one of its 77 MBBS seats.
"It's a place that has always swarmed with brilliant doctors-chairing international committees, giving lectures around the world, getting diseases named after them. With them as mentors, students are encouraged to vie with each other and become role models themselves," says Dr R.C. Deka, AIIMS director.
The top destination in the India Today survey of academic excellence in medicine this year is once again AIIMS. As it turns out, it's not the only institute to have retained its position.
The top five medical colleges this year have survived the shake-up in the rankings, visible more in the middle order. Chasing AIIMS closely are the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry and the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in Delhi.
The Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, gave a credible performance by moving up to the sixth slot from last year's ninth, pipping at the post the Madras Medical College, Chennai, in the process. Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, muscled its way to the seventh spot.
A welcome entrant in the Top 10 league this year is St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, which jumped four slots to grab the eighth position.
Research is what sets the toppers apart. AIIMS, which brings out more than 50 per cent of all the medical research from India, published over 1,500 original work in high-impact journals this year.
"Our faculty had 381 ongoing projects and initiated 110 new projects worth nearly Rs 58.7 crore," says Deka. At CMC, research is the mantra, too, with number of publications zooming up-from less than 100 in 2002 to over 220 now. "At least 3 to 4 per cent of our budget is set aside for research," says Dr. George Mathew, principal. From epidemiology to stem cells, motorised hands to the indigenous rotovirus vaccine-the pipeline is varied and growing.
AFMC is one of the few colleges to have research at the undergraduate level. The Indian Council of Medical Research has assigned as many as 18 projects to MBBS students here. "This is the highest a medical college has got at that level," says Lt Gen D.P. Vats, director and commandant of AFMC. There's much to learn at the 105-year-old CMC. The serene ambience, away from the madding metros, is ideal for those who believe in giving back to society.
There's a wealth of clinical experience to be gained from the Community Health and Development Unit, which sends graduates to outlying villages every year for a few weeks, to get hands-on exposure to rural hospitals. "We want to create a workforce of physicians who can meet the challenges of modern medicine and at the same time be socially conscious," says Mathew.
Along with Tufts University, US, CMC is planning to bring all lectures and demos online for students working in hospitals within its network.
For a different experience, enter the Connaught Barracks in Pune. Check out the hum and buzz, the bright young faces, the breathtaking campus and doctors in crisp white or green busy on the rounds.
The place radiates the combined aura of military discipline, the pride and power of India's armed forces along with the exuberance of a medical college. From a humble postgraduate training centre in 1948, it has grown today into a formidable institute with 29 departments, 35 courses and six affiliated hospitals-for those who want to serve the armed forces.
"We prepare 'doctor officers' and not just doctors. They have to be mentally strong in war-prone areas, alert and also compassionate," adds Vats.
Cash-rich corporates may have changed India's healthcare delivery landscape, but they do not seem to have made much headway in medical education.
That's probably because the fundamental metric of most of India's top medical schools is premised on research, in which the private sector lags seriously behind. Intellect doesn't seem to have kowtowed to the jingle of coins in the world of medical education yet.