cover story and strict regulatory bodies must monitor this. Medical education should encompass infrastructure for training of Medical, Dental, Paramedical and Nursing students. These four pillars of health education should grow simultaneously to provide effective human resources for health. The focus of approach paper to the 12th five-year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) is on restructuring public health schemes. Recently, the working group constituted for the Plan asked for massive expansion of medical education to improve primary healthcare. The working group comprises officials from the health ministry, representatives of business chambers and Planning Commission members. Dr Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya said in his presentation that there was
Department of Health Research is projecting an ideal expenditure of around ` 9,000 crore during the 12th Plan period, it is learnt.
Role of Distance Education and ICT There is need for creat ing new cadres of health professionals who are trained to address the needs of the rural population. IT skills and e-labs can be launched to reach out far and wide. Vision sharing by experts and Orientation to nation’s health system and policy is the need of the hour. Distance education is a boon as it can be pursued at leisure and helps enhance skills. This is equally true in the context of medical education. Distance education in India is cheaper than a full time degree. It also provides
A survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that only seven countries in the world spend less money than India on public health a shortage of one million doctors and the price of a seat in an MD course was `5 crore. He said doctors trained through the expensive private education route would never be available for primary healthcare needs. Hence, the only way to make healthcare affordable was to create a massive education network, at the rate of 100 medical colleges every year for five years. This, he said, was possible by turning each of the 625 district hospitals into medical colleges. The idea is not just to allocate more funds as is being demanded but to ensure that whatever funds are allocated are used in a more effective manner. The ministry of health is believed to be in favour of raising the allocation to the sector (excluding sanitation and portable water) to at least two percent of GDP by the end of the 12th Plan, which starts from 2012-2013. A survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that only seven countries in the world spend less money than India on public health. Also, the
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high quality, well structured learning material. New communication technologies and electronic media have played an important role to improve the quality of education. A lot of universities in India have a section for distance education that present courses in various streams. Open universities offer distance learning programs for students across the country. These universities are present in nearly every state and specialise in correspondence or distant learning courses. In the open system, the courses are open to any person who may not possess any formal qualifications. But in some institutions they should have attained the age of 18 years for undergraduate and diploma courses and 21 years for postgraduate courses. Enrolment in some courses is subject to qualifying in a written exam but the admission process and qualifying criteria is simpler than those offered by regular universities. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has redefined open and
> www.ehealthonline.org > July 2011
distance learning in medical education. The IGNOU School of Health Sciences offers a plethora of innovative and unique courses in this domain. These courses have been appropriately structured to fulfill the various needs of medical education in India and help in bridging the various gaps created due to lack of medical seats in India.
Changing India Leading universities in India are adapting to a constantly changing India and a newer generation entering its classrooms. Globalisation has led to greater demand from the industry for different types of jobs, which are being looked at by private players. The call of the hour is not to train students to do a job but to educate them in a particular field. The emerging areas in medical education which are seeing maximum growth and ground-breaking research are reproductive medicine, plastic surgery, endocrinology, oncology and cardiology. Apart from this, newer specialisations are also in the pipeline. Emergency service has long been a recognised specialisation in the developed countries. Recently, the Medical Council of India (MCI) gave it thumbs up and colleges across India have been notified to offer it as a post graduate discipline. Geriatric medicine or the care of the elderly is another area to watch out for in the future. The NKC recommends the implementation of an independent authority, the Regulatory Authority for Higher Education, which needs only a set of people to supervise the entry requirements, accreditation, licensing and rationalising the entry procedure. The Yashpal Committee has suggested an apex regulatory body, the National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which will bring within it the existing agencies and make entry easier for newer bodies. There is a need to set up clear and transparent accreditation and assessment procedures that are fair to all universities. Four to five agencies should focus on assessing the institutions and bring out a public rating. Each body should be allowed to go to one of these agencies to get a rating that could be available on their websites. Public private partnerships can allow many more private players to start an institution if the government provides land. This will cover a diverse population and different needs of students.