The NMC curriculum list, reproduced exactly, plus the editions residents actually read in 2026 — with journals, a year-wise reading plan, and the references you will need for your thesis and exit practical.
Sitting the DrNB instead? The same superspecialty is covered at DrNB Rheumatology books.
These 9 titles are reproduced as they appear in the National Medical Commission curriculum document for Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology — spelling and abbreviations included. Treat it as the scope anchor, not as a shopping list.
Source: National Medical Commission curriculum document for Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology
The books most residents actually buy. These are the editions in circulation now, with a note on whether each is something you read through, keep as a reference, or open only for the viva.
Journal club and the recent-advances parts of the theory paper come from here. You do not need all of them — follow one Indian and two international titles properly.
Three years of superspecialty training goes faster than it sounds, and most of it is spent on the floor. The order below is what works for most DM Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology residents.
Get the examination right first — daily joint examination on the wards with Hochberg's descriptions — while reading the Oxford Textbook of Rheumatology cover to cover. Cover basic immunology from Janeway's; register the thesis protocol.
Move to Firestein and Kelley's chapter by chapter, add Stiehm and Middleton's during the clinical immunology posting, and learn ANA/ENA and flow interpretation in the laboratory. Start musculoskeletal ultrasound; collect thesis data.
Revise Hochberg's fully, work systematically through ACR/EULAR criteria and recommendations, and rehearse imaging, capillaroscopy, synovial fluid and long-case stations weekly. Submit the thesis.
Protocol, methodology and reporting standards examiners expect you to have followed.
Cases, spotters and stations that come up again and again in the exit exam.
DM Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology is a three-year course after MD/DNB in General Medicine or Paediatrics. The NMC exit examination consists of four theory papers of 100 marks each together with clinical, practical and viva voce, and an accepted thesis is required before appearing. Practicals combine a rheumatology long case and short cases with immunology laboratory and musculoskeletal imaging stations.
The National Medical Commission curriculum for Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology lists 9 titles, beginning with Hochberg's Rheumatology by Mosby Elsevier. The full list is reproduced on this page exactly as it is published.
Firestein and Kelley's Textbook of Rheumatology by Firestein, Budd, Gabriel, Koretzky, McInnes, O'Dell (eds) is the usual anchor. The 'Kelley's' on the NMC list; the principal rheumatology text for DM theory papers.
DM Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology is a superspecialty course taken after a broad-specialty MD, MS or DNB, so the reading is narrower and deeper. The broad-specialty texts are assumed knowledge by the time you start.
No. Most residents own two or three and use the department or library copy for the rest. That is exactly why printing selected chapters from a PDF works out cheaper than buying volumes you will open twice.
We print from the PDF you send us. Send the file on WhatsApp with your page count and whether you want colour, black and white or mixed, and we print, bind and deliver anywhere in India. We do not supply copyrighted book files.
Black and white is 50 paise a page, colour is Rs 1 a page, and binding is Rs 40 per bound volume. A 400-page mixed set with binding usually works out around Rs 300 plus delivery.
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