DR. S.V. SINGH, OMBUDSPERSON - E-mail ID: ombudsperson@santosh.ac.in

We would like to congratulate all those who have scored a desirable rank in PG 2020. Those who did not, please don’t lose hope and confidence as there is always the next time.

Cherish the process of learning as it is very important for you to come up with flying colors when you choose a carrier of your choice in PG.

When we talk about PG, future of Biochemistry is very enticing and lucrative right now, because this field is less explored, that is why there are much time tested routes as well as less taken paths in the field of Biochemistry 

First about time tested routes, there are three times tested routes as far as medical biochemistry is concerned. 

  • Teaching
  • Clinical lab 
  • Research- Around 235 medical colleges in India and nine AIIMS institutes and every year new medical colleges are added. Just in Uttar-Pradesh, this year 10 new medical colleges and 9 new medical colleges in Tamilnadu have been announced by the state government. So there is definitely a demand-supply gap. Of course, there are regional variations but if you are passionate about biochemistry, it is advisable to relocate to a place if there is a choice or opportunity as we all know that a person shall be active to avoid stagnation. There are a number of students who after completing MD biochemistry, made their presence felt global and are working in clinical labs.
  • This field gives gratification because you meet medical undergraduates in the first year and the responsibility of molding them lies on your shoulders, which gives an immense sense of pride and satisfaction and another advantage of teaching is that it requires a fixed time commitment.
  • The world is under tremendous pressure due to COVID 19 and in this era of evidence-based medicine, diagnosis is based on the lab report. Despite the obvious emergency to promptly develop efficient diagnostic tools, a thorough analytical and clinical validation of commercial RT-PCR tests before their introduction into the market and usage in clinical laboratories remains indispensable. Otherwise, the risk of generating false-negative (or positive) test results may undermine the huge efforts made by healthcare authorities for containing the outbreak. when facing large outbreaks like that sustained by SARS-Cov-2 several thousands of infected patients, with part of them needing diagnostic testing and/or hospitalization, clinicians are depending on the daily activity of clinical laboratories for both routine and urgency testing whereby making the role of medical laboratory services to be mainly reactive rather than proactive. 
  • You are associated with such a clinical lab, you can take pride in your involvement in the diagnosis and being abreast with the latest technologies, latest markers, and latest techniques. The best part about this branch ( MD biochemistry), is that this never gets saturated, again due to the evidence-based medicine era and having many new openings due to inventing of latest techniques. All these labs are in pursuit of being accredited by NABL, which requires an authorized signatory for lab reports, so all labs will have an opening for medical biochemists.
  • One is really passionate about research, a no. of fellowships globally are announced to work in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology to develop vaccines against disease-causing pathogens followed by clinical trials, psychological genetics is another upcoming field of medical biochemistry. That gives a chance to live one’s dream every day. At present, in India, there is no. Of funding agencies who support a complete research proposal like DBT & DST and ICMR funds community-based research. These are all time tested routes.
  • Less taken paths with a lot of opportunities are a number of diagnostic companies, where research and diagnostic division and medical marketing is always in need of MD biochemists. 
  • Of environmental concerns, an upcoming field of environmental medicine, medical biochemists are expected to look out for toxic chemicals in industrial waste.
  • There is aeronautical medicine, where MD biochemistry is appointed to look for the biochemical cause of death.
  • Techniques that MD biochemists learn are very much in demand like HPLC, mass spectrometry, immune-fluorescence , cytogenetics. This is quite evident in the present time where scientists are working on decoding the COVID virus, a branch of molecular biology, to help in the development of a vaccine.
  • Degree in MD biochemistry equips you with enough basic knowledge to go for an advanced course in these techniques and that is the FUTURE. 
  • FOLLOW THE TRAIL LEFT BY OTHERS, MAKE A PATH OF YOUR OWN AND BE A LEADER.