HYDERABAD: Osmania University proposes to introduce four job-oriented courses from July 2006.

These are one-year postgraduate diploma programmes (PGDP) aimed at meeting the emerging manpower requirements of the healthcare sector and have emerged out of the ongoing dialogue between university faculty and healthcare industry representatives to make graduating students employable under the industry-institute hub (IIH) initiative of the university.

The new programmes are - PGDP in Hospital Billing, PGDP for Physician Assistant's course, PGDP in Health Insurance and PGDP in Medical Informatics.

Panel constituted

"The Executive Council has given a clearance in principle for these courses and a committee of the university and industry representatives has been constituted to work out the details with regard to admissions, fee structure and affiliations with hospitals," I.B. Ramprasada Rao, Dean, Faculty of Science, Osmania University, and coordinator for the IIH told The Hindu .

Representatives of most hospitals in the twin cities such as Apollo, Image, Global, Care, KIMS, Durgabhai Deshmukh, Aware, Yashoda, Medwin, Mahavir and Indo American Cancer Hospitals participated in the IIH discussions and expressed a unanimous need for industry-oriented manpower.

C.L. Venkata Rao, Head, Department of Gastroenterology, Image Hospitals, and industry member in the IIH said: "The industry is poised for a growth given the State Government's plans to plough Rs. 20 crores for medical insurance for 12 lakh families in the tribal belt of Adilabad, Mahabubnagar and Visakhapatnam and also the Centre's plan to collect a health cess of Rs. 8,000 crores for improving the quality of healthcare for below poverty line (BPL) families through medical insurance."

Health insurance

Dr. Rao added that as the Government was changing its policies and opting for health insurance and public-private partnership, the industry should be ready. Dr. Rao added that since most of the hospitals were already running nursing, paramedical and postgraduate courses, the existing teaching and training infrastructure would be extended to run these programmes.

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