Clinical Research Education & Management Academy (CREMA) is all set to introduce two new courses 'Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Research & Regulatory Affairs (PGDCRRA)' and 'Post Graduate Diploma in Drug Development (PGDDD)', after receiving the overwhelming responses for the other CR courses offered by CREMA.
PGDDD has been designed on special requests from MBBS graduates. It will be a six-month clinical research course exclusively dedicated to these graduates with classes only on Sundays. This course will have dedicated modules on regulatory affairs, a crucial aspect of clinical research, medical reporting, pharmacovigilance and clinical research.
The part time PGDCRRA & PGDDD courses will begin by mid-November, for which the admissions have already begun.
CREMA has partnered with Indian School of Integrated Learning (ISIL) to train its clinical research students on the usage of communication skills in the industry. ISIL, a Mumbai-based finishing school, has tied up with UK-based soft-skills training provider - Speak First to impart 'Gen-Next corporate training' to Indian students and professionals. ISIL will seek expertise from Speak First on effective communication, presentation skills, personal impact training, media skills, interviewing techniques, cultural awareness and many more soft skills solutions, which have become essential in today's business needs.
"This will be the first time when CREMA has launched PGDDD, a special course focused on medical graduates (MBBS). The interest from medical graduates has doubled in the present batch compared to previous batches. There is plenty of demand for well qualified and professionally trained clinical research professionals. The remuneration is also substantial," said Vijay Moza, chairman, CREMA.
He further said, "The institute is offering a comprehensive management and communications skills package with its mainline clinical research course. The communication skill training is essential today because one has to be not only educated but also employable. According to a recent Frost & Sullivan study only 25 per cent of India's graduates have employability skills."
The new batch of PGDCRRA and PGDDD will be among the first to receive soft skills training from ISIL.
Dr S M Sapatnekar, dean, CREMA said, "The industry's constant concern about a lack of management and communication skills among a majority of clinical research professionals has been instrumental towards integrating a significant management and soft skills training among our students. We give special emphasis towards verbal, interpersonal and electronic communications."
Dr Deven Parmar, vice president clinical research, Wockhardt said, "Communication and soft management skills are essential for growth in the clinical research industry, as there is lot of communication and decision making involved with the patients, with your team, with the medical fraternity and industry. A lack of quality in communication and management skills might affect the quality of research, which may hamper the flow of more clinical research projects to India. These kind of specialized clinical research courses are the need of the hour for the industry."
The clinical research curricula offered by CREMA are in collaboration with the UK-based William Harvey Research Ltd, a reputed pharmacological research institution set up by Nobel Laureate Sir John Vane. CREMA has the record of 90 per cent placement of the students in its previous batch of APGDCR course, with leading names in the industry like Sun Pharma, TCS, Cognizant, Novartis, Piramal Life sciences, Quintiles, and Sanofi Aventis.
India has been considered as a hub for clinical trials by pharma MNCs due to its high quality and less expensive work resources. As per a McKinsey study, the demand for clinical research professionals in India will increase manifold and is estimated to reach to 50,000 clinical research professionals by 2012.
CREMA has got full fledged campuses in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.