The partnership agreement was signed by Dr. Shashikala Palkonda Reddy, Dean, Osmania Medical College and Dr. (Col) Kumud Rai, Chairman & Managing Trustee, ECHO India.
Speaking at the partnership signing ceremony, Dr. Shashikala Palkonda Reddy said, “The Osmania Medical College has always strived to provide health professionals with immense opportunities to master clinical medicine. We are happy to partner with ECHO India to start capacity building programs, which will contribute towards continuous learning opportunities for the healthcare workforce including doctors, nurses and community health workers like ASHAs.”
“Treatment protocols and medical know-how are enhancing at a very fast pace and disseminating this updated knowledge at an equally fast pace to medical practitioners is a big challenge. I believe that by leveraging the ‘All Teach All Learn’ framework of the ECHO Model, we can overcome this challenge,” added Dr. Shashikala.
Dr. Shashikala also thanked ECHO India for establishing a well-equipped telementoring hub at the college’s campus. The hub will be used to impart mentorship programs on various diseases and one of the first programs to be launched by the hub is in the field of Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) techniques. IPC practices have gained unprecedented attention due to COVID-19 pandemic and is considered to be a critical area for upskilling frontline health staff to enhance patient safety and for better management of any potential outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Dr. (Col) Kumud Rai, Chairman, ECHO India, said, “Osmania Medical College is an apex institution that is at the forefront of providing opportunities to doctors and medical professionals to master academics, clinical research and medical practice. To ensure best healthcare outcomes, continuous upskilling and capacity building of the healthcare workforce is the need of the hour. I believe that our partnership will go a long way in strengthening healthcare systems and build capacities of doctors and all cadres of healthcare workforce.”
Highlighting the importance of partnering with Osmania Medical College, Dr. Sandeep Bhalla, Associate Vice President, ECHO India, said, “Partnering with OMC is an exciting opportunity and is a moment of pride for ECHO India. We will work in close collaboration to ensure that health systems are strengthened for effective delivery of quality health services, specially to the underserved. The ECHO model enables case-based learning of healthcare professionals - doctors, nurses and all cadres of Community Health Workers - amplifying their ability to provide quality healthcare, especially for underserved people.”
Affiliated with Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Medical Sciences, Osmania Medical College is the only medical college in the world where each specialty has a separate teaching hospital and has 10 specialty hospitals associated with it. The partnership with Osmania Medical College expands ECHO India’s outreach in the state of Telangana as it is working with several healthcare partners in the state including National Health Mission (NHM) Telangana and other government and private healthcare institutions.
