The National Examination Board in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) in India has decided to include bariatric surgery as a part of its curriculum. This decision is based on the impact of the epidemic on overweight and obese populations in the country. The course will provide medical guidance and expert advice to avoid any fatal situation from obesity.
This will include surgeries such as duodenal switch (BPD/DS), endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, gastric bypass (Roux-en-Y), intragastric balloon, sleeve gastrectomy and others, which are performed to help those patients whose diet and exercise plans have not worked or if they have some serious comorbidity as a result of their increasing weight.
The NBEMS Committee has appointed Dr Mohit Bhandari (Director of bariatric surgery at Mohak Bariatrics and Robotics) to achieve this objective, and he will establish various criteria, curriculum curate and make decisions in the exam format. Bhandari, who introduced India to robotic and endoscopic bariatric surgery, has performed more than 100,000 bariatric surgeries and trained more than 500 surgeons nationally and internationally.
“Studies have shown that deaths due to the virus were ten times higher in countries where more than 50% of the population has a body mass index above 25. Thus, it is necessary to perform bariatric surgery procedures in our country,” explained Bhandari.