Current distribution of medical colleges in India and its potential predictors: A public domain data audit

BACKGROUND: A teaching hospital or medical college may help provide better health care delivery to the people of the vicinity. Hence, building new medical colleges and upgrading existing hospitals to teaching hospitals are being implemented in India. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to observe the current distribution of medical colleges in Indian states and find correlation with area, population, and net state domestic product (NSDP). METHODS: We collected data from public domain websites provided by government agencies. The State-wise number of government and private medical colleges and their annual intake were obtained from the National Medical Commission website. The state-wise number of medical colleges, geographical area, and population were calculated as the percentage of total Indian colleges, area, and population, respectively. Spearman’s correlation was calculated to find any correlation of colleges and annual intake versus parameters such as area, population, and NSDP. RESULTS: India has a total of 612 [321 (52.45%) government-run and 291 (47.55%) private] medical colleges. Tamil Nadu (70), Uttar Pradesh (67), Karnataka (63), Maharashtra (62), and Telangana (34) are the top five states with 296 (48.37%) medical colleges. States and union territories such as Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana have higher medical colleges, and states such as Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have lower medical colleges when compared with their population percentages. There was significant positive correlation of number of medical colleges with area (r(s) = 0.769, P < 0.0001), population (r(s) = 0.91, P < 0.0001), and NSDP (r(s) = 0.91, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: The current distribution of medical colleges in India is clustered over some states. Although geographical area and population are major predictors of medical colleges in Indian states, a more population-based balanced distribution of medical colleges would help distribute quality health care to the majority of the population.