Dr Reddy's Foundation for Health Education (DRFHE) has teamed up Mpower Institute of Clinical Research to offer a one year Post Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management (PGCHM) in Bangalore.

This programme will help create trained patient educators who would work with the medical fraternity to offer an integrated multidisciplinary approach in healthcare management. This is the seventh batch of the programme for DRFHE which will commence from early July and its first from Bangalore.

The programme was initiated with the objective of creating professionally trained Patient Educators or health counsellors who would work with the medical fraternity to offer an integrated multidisciplinary approach. Life sciences graduates are preferred for the course. The fee ranges between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000 including the study material.

The response for the course so far has been encouraging and the 242 students who have taken the course have found the programme career oriented because of the promising job opportunities, said B Karunakar, head, DRFHE.

"Students can take up jobs as Health Educators. The Foundation also assists in placements. Our students have been placed in Hospitals, Clinics, Health care organizations, non governmental organizations (NGOs)," he added.

So long the Foundation offered the courses only at Hyderabad. After the launch of the course in Bangalore, it will look at offering the courses at locations across the country.

There are not many courses in the country in this space, unlike clinical research education programmes. But DRFHE focus is to create patient educators or health counsellors. Its course in terms of curriculum, limited batch size, teaching faculty, individual attention and placement assistance have been the key ingredients for success so far, stated Karunakar.

With India on a high growth development path, health sector is receiving increasing attention with central government initiatives like National Rural Health Mission and setting up of new hospitals. Currently, the healthcare sector in India is valued between Rs 75,000 core to Rs 80,000 crore and registering a growth rate of around 12 percent annually.

"With an unmatched patient to doctor ratio, the need for adequate attention and counselling are the need of the hour. Our students fill this gap between the patient and the doctor either as a health counsellor or as an effective assistant to the doctor," said Karunakar.