by Divvy Kant Upadhyay, Manipal
Daijiworld Media Network

Manipal, Oct 15: KMC-International Centre at Manipal – a college offering Health Sciences courses has become India’s first and only NBME Certified Test Centre for conducting the SHELF Exam. This was announced at the Annual Day celebrations of the college held at Manipal on Sunday. NBME is the National Board of Medical Examiners based in Philadelphia, USA. KMC-International Centre has students of the American University of Antigua studying for BSc in Health Sciences which is a preparatory course for them before they go to USA for their Clinical training to become doctors.

 Dr Agatha P Butler, Vice President National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), USA along with Helen Moser, Manager- Test Administration, NBME participating in the ‘Aarti’ at Dhol Baaje – a charity fund-raising ‘Dandia and Garba’ night organized by students of KMC-IC College and Rotract Club Manipal. Manipal University Chairperson for Student Welfare and hostel Managment Committee, Mrs Vasanthi R Pai can be seen in the background. 

SHELF exam is considered a preparatory dry run for the USMLE – United State Medical Licensing Exams – a mandatory set of tests that every doctor aspiring to practice in USA must pass. Though the Manipal centre has been conducting the paper tests for quite some time now, Web-Based tests will soon be available as they have received the green signal from NBME inspectors who came all the way from USA to certify the centre. Dr Poornima Baliga, KMC-IC Dean informed that as of now the college is only providing this facility only to its own students.

In her annual day address, Vice President of NBME, Dr Agatha P Butler praised the “world-class facilities that Manipal offered its students". She particularly hailed the SIM-MAN –medical simulation centre and added that several medical colleges in USA too cannot boast of such up-to-date facilities.