Bridging the Gap between Community and Cardiologists | Jamatia | Journal of Learning for Development - JL4D

Cardiovascular diseases are an emerging cause of morbidity and mortality in India. India produces less than 150 cardiologists annually, leading to a gap between the need and availability of trained professionals. A three-year cardiology-training programme is available for post-graduate doctors in the conventional medical education system. The majority of the people living in rural areas, small towns, and district towns in the country do not have any access to cardiac care, because trained cardiologists are mostly concentrated in the metropolitan are or capital cities. To address this issue Indira Gandhi National Open University has designed and developed a two-year, full-time training programme in the area of non-invasive cardiology for medical graduates, named the Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Cardiology, which is being offered through the open and distance learning mode. The objective of the programme is to train a large number of medical graduates effectively to enable early recognition, management and prevention of common cardiovascular diseases. Learners have been given the opportunity to train in different departments and are posted in various areas in this programme, such as management of common cardiovascular diseases (6 months), ECG and Stress Testing (3 months), Echocardiography (3 months), ICU/CCU management (6 months), Paediatrics Cardiology (3 months), preventive cardiology (3 months). Self-learning materials, 33 video programmes (1260 minutes), and a monthly, live, interactive teleconference (90 minutes), have been incorporated into this programme. Beside these, 50 theory counselling sessions, 25 guest lectures, seminars, journal clubs and case discussions have been provided in every training center. Hands-on skills training is provided to every learner as prescribed in this programme. The 72 credits in the programme are divided into seven theory and six practical courses. Students need to pass in each course independently both in the internal examination and the term end examination. The minimum teacher-student ratio has been maintained strictly in both training and term end practical examinations. The topmost cardiac institutes/hospitals across the country have been identified as training centers, as per the norms of the university. This programme began with 116 students in 16 training centers in 2006. In 2013, 443 students were enrolled in 67 training centres. More than 320 cardiologists are involved as academic counselors in this training programme. A total of 1006 candidates have successfully completed their training and many of them are providing services in small or district towns of the country.