Diplomate of National Board

Diplomate of National Board (DNB) is the title awarded by the National Board of Examinations (NBE), an autonomous academic body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to candidates who successfully complete their postgraduate or postdoctoral medical education under it.

In 1975, the Government of India established the National Board of Examinations, an autonomous organisation Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with the prime objective of conducting postgraduate and postdoctoral courses of high and uniform national standard in various disciplines of modern medicine and allied sciences on an All-India single point entrance basis.^[1] The Board conducts its postgraduate and postdoctoral programmes in teaching hospitals accredited by it and in medical colleges accredited by the Medical Council of India.

Focus over NBE offered DNB qualification has risen due to mushrooming of various privately owned medical colleges of questionable quality by the Medical Council of India. This is compounded by liberal attitude of Human Resource Ministry in granting Deemed University status to these privately owned medical schools, this leading to loosening of control of Medical Council of India over maintenance of merit & quality in these autonomous universities at par with government owned medical schools. Questions about the competence of pass outs of MD/MS/DM/MCh trainees from these private colleges (having reckless pass percentage of almost 100%) ^[2] and concerns related to their employability has also generated interest in doctors with DNB qualifications which are absolutely acquired in transparent manner.

NBE, aware of this pitfall associated with involvement of private sector has taken slew of effective measures to maintain tight control and transparency over entry and exit of Doctors with award of DNB qualification, although protested by some for being unnecessarily high handed leading to somewhat high failure rates in final exams. Nevertheless DNB candidates are trained in some of the most highly equipped corporate hospitals dispelling any questions about their employability and in fact most of the time absorbed by training institutes themselves.

Recognition of DNB qualifications

The degrees are recognised by the Government of India and a Gazette order is published for the same. Also, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued notification mentioning that DNB should always be considered equivalent to MD/MS/DM/MCh.

As a general rule, failure rate for final year DNB exams are higher than their MD or MS counterparts. This is especially true for General Surgery,Internal Medicine,Anaesthesiology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, Pathology and Family Medicine.The name of the degree awarded by the National Board of Examinations is called "Diplomate of National Board" (DNB). The list of recognised qualifications awarded by the Board in various broad and super specialties as approved by the Government of India are included in the first schedule of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

The DNB qualifications awarded by the National Board of Examinations have been equated with postgraduate and postdoctoral qualifications awarded by other Indian universities for all purposes, including appointment to teaching posts.^[3]

List of broad specialties for DNB

Three-year postgraduate residency programme is available in the following broad specialties:

01. Anaesthesiology, 02. Anatomy, 03. Biochemistry, 04. Dermatology, 05. Emergency medicine 06. Family Medicine 07. Field Epidemiology 08. Forensic Medicine, 09. General Medicine, 10. General Surgery, 11. Health Administration (including Hospital Administration), 12. Immunohematology & Transfusion Medicine, 13. Maternal and Child Health, 14. Microbiology, 15. Nuclear Medicine, 16. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 17. Ophthalmology, 18. Orthopedic Surgery, 19. Otorhinolaryngology, 20. Paediatrics, 21. Pathology, 22. Pharmacology, 23. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 24. Physiology, 25. Psychiatry, 26. Radio Diagnosis, 27. Radio Therapy, 28. Respiratory Diseases, 29. Rural Surgery, 30. Social and Preventive Medicine.^[4]

List of super specialties for DNB

Three-year residency programme is available in the following super-specialties:

Medical super-specialties 01. Cardiac Anaesthesia 02. Cardiology, 03. Clinical Pharmacology 04. Endocrinology, 05. Gastroenterology, 06. Haematology, 07. Nephrology, 08. Neonatology, 09. Neurology, 10. Medical Oncology, 11. Medical Genetics, 12. Paediatric Cardiology, 13. Rheumatology

Surgical super-specialties 01. Cardio Thoracic Surgery (Inc. Direct 6yrs course), 02. Genito Urinary Surgery, 03. Neurosurgery (Inc. Direct 6yrs course), 04. Paediatric Surgery (Inc. Direct 6yrs course), 05. Peripheral Vasular Surgery, 06. Plastic Surgery (Inc. Direct 6yrs course), 07. Surgical Gastroenterology, 08. Surgical Oncology, 09. Thoracic surgery.^[5]

List of subspecialties for DNB

The National Board of Examinations also runs postdoctoral fellowship programme in select subspecialties. On successful completion of two-year residency, candidates are awarded Fellow of National Board (FNB).

Fellowship programme is available in the following subspecialties:

01. Critical Care Medicine, 02. Hand & Micro Surgery, 03. High Risk Pregnancy & Perinatology, 04. Infectious Diseases, 05. Interventional Cardiology, 06. Laboratory Medicine, 07. Liver Transplantation, 08. Minimal Access Surgery, 09. Neuroanaesthesia & Critical Care, 10. Pediatric Gastroenterology, 11. Pediatrics Hemato Oncology, 12. Pediatrics Intensive Care, 13. Pediatric Nephrology, 14. Pediatric Ophthalmology, 15. Reproductive Medicine, 16. Spine Surgery, 17. Sports Medicine, 18. Trauma Care, 19. Vitreo-Retinal Surgery.^[6]

References

External links

• Official Site