NBEMS launches free online AI course for doctors; applications now open
NBEMS has opened applications for a free, six-month online course to build practical AI literacy across Indian healthcare. The goal is straightforward: help doctors use AI safely for diagnostics, clinical decisions, and personalised care-without turning clinicians into programmers.
Artificial Intelligence is already embedded in daily practice through radiology tools, pathology algorithms, clinical risk scores, literature summaries, and hospital dashboards. Most clinicians, however, encounter these systems without formal training or guardrails. This course is built to fix that gap at scale.
What the course includes
- Format: Online, spread across six months
- Workload: About 20 hours total, delivered through ~20 lectures/interactive sessions
- Focus: Clinical reasoning with AI, patient safety, ethical/legal accountability, and research integrity
- Outcome: Certificate upon completion
NBEMS is inviting applications for "Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education - Viksit Arogya Bharat." The structure keeps the workload light but consistent, so clinicians can learn without disrupting clinical duties.
Why this matters for clinicians and educators
"The purpose is simple: to help doctors understand, judge, and safely use AI-without turning them into programmers or replacing clinical thinking," said Abhijat Sheth, President and Chairperson of NBEMS.
- Faculty and PG doctors learn together, so AI becomes part of clinical discussions-not an external add-on.
- Teaching becomes evidence-based and practical; students learn when to trust AI and when to challenge it.
- Institutions build in-house expertise instead of relying solely on vendors or one-off workshops.
Three-phase plan
- Phase 1: Immediate - Train PG faculty and postgraduate students together. Build a shared language of AI literacy, clinical judgment, and ethical responsibility across departments.
- Phase 2: Medium term - Integrate AI literacy into MBBS. Keep it simple: awareness over complexity, clinical thinking over coding, with links to statistics, community medicine, and research methods.
- Phase 3: Long term - Develop secure, locally hosted LLMs for education, research, and clinical support. This follows adequate AI literacy, faculty-led governance, and clear ethical/legal frameworks to protect patient data and ensure data sovereignty.
As Sheth noted, the aim is to build capability step by step-led by doctors, grounded in ethics, and focused on clinical value.
Collaboration and scale
To ensure quality and global relevance, the initiative draws input from experts associated with Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, Oxford University, Tufts University, AIIMS, IITs, IIMs, and other national institutions of excellence. NBEMS also plans to apply for a Guinness World Record for the largest online AI education session for doctors.
Who should enroll
- Teaching faculty in medical colleges and training institutions
- Postgraduate trainees across clinical and diagnostic specialties
- Department leaders building internal capability for AI-enabled education and care
How to apply
Applications are open. For updates and the application link, check the official NBEMS website: natboard.edu.in.
What institutions can do now
- Nominate faculty and PGs from every key department to create a baseline of AI literacy.
- Set up a simple governance group to handle ethics, data use, and clinical validation of AI tools.
- Align journal clubs and M&M meetings to include AI-assisted cases and critical appraisal of algorithms.
Additional resources
If you're mapping internal upskilling paths by role, here's a curated index of AI learning options: AI courses by job role.
Your membership also unlocks:
