“Educational courses are designed to create a resource pool of experts with the benefit of flexibility and technology through collaboration”

Since 1994, Indira Gandhi national Open University (IGNOU) has been steering constantly to provide the best of the medical courses through its School of Health Sciences (SOHS). So far, a lot of collaborations have been initiated by SOHS. Few of them include National and International organisations like World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, UNDP, Ministry of Health and Family welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Environment and Forest, GOI, National Board Examination(NBE), Dental Council of India, Narayana Hrudalaya and many more. Also, SOHS has been the pioneer in delivering professional post graduate medical courses through open and distance learning.

PG Diploma Programme in HIV Medicine

Demographically the second largest country in the world, India has also the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Available evidence on HIV epidemic in India shows a stable trend at national level. As per the provisional HIV estimate of 2008-09, there are an estimated 22.7 lakh people living with HIV/AIDS in India. The HIV prence rate in the country is 0.29 percent (2008-09) and most of the infections occur through heterosexual route of transmission. However in the north-eastern region, injecting drug use is the major cause for the epidemic spread.

The primary drivers of HIV epidemic in India are unprotected paid sex, unprotected sex between men and injecting drug use. Heterosexual route of transmission accounts for 87 percent of HIV cases detected.

In 1992, the Government launched its first National AIDS Control Programme (NACP-I) with the initiative of International Development Association (IDA) Credit of USD 84 million and demonstrated its commitment to combat the infection. NACP-I was implemented during 1992-1999 with an objective to slow down the spread of HIV infections so as to reduce morbidity, mortality and impact of HIV epidemic in the country. To strengthen the management capacity, a National AIDS Control Board (NACB) was constituted and an autonomous National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) was set up to implement the project.

During the initial years, the major focus of attention was on prevention activities, followed by “care and support” of infected individuals, particularly those suffering from opportunistic infections (OIs). Over the past decade, there has been a tremendous increase in our understanding of molecular biology and the viral structure and pathogenesis of the disease. This knowledge has led to the development of a number of new antiretroviral drugs and treatment protocols. The demonstration of efficacy of these drugs in containing viral replication has changed the world’s outlook on HIV/AIDS from a “virtual death sentence” to a “chronic manageable disease”.

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) does not cure HIV infection, the decrease in the viral load and the improvement in immunological status brought about by the use of these drugs have resulted in a marked decrease in the mortality and morbidity associated with the disease

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) does not cure HIV infection, the decrease in the viral load and the improvement in immunological status brought about by the use of these drugs have resulted in a marked decrease in the mortality and morbidity associated with the disease.

The free ART programme has adopted the public health approach to administration and distribution of ART. This implies a comprehensive prevention, care and treatment programme, with a standardized, simplified combination of ART regimens, a regular secure supply of good-quality ARV drugs, and a robust monitoring and uation system. The public health approach for scaling up ART aims to provide care and treatment to as many people as possible, while working towards universal access to care and treatment.

In view of above, School of Health Sciences (SOHS), IGNOU has developed a one-year PG Diploma Programme in HIV Medicine in collaboration with National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Govt. of India.  IGNOU will act as an umbrella organization to coordinate the training programme in the country. The rational behind of this programme are following: There are two doctors in each ART facility, One doctor in each Community Care Centre and one doctor as In-charge of link ART centre (ICTC) are directly involved in Patient care and are potential candidates for one-year training programme in ‘HIV Medicine’. Currently nearly 8 lakh patients registered for ART and 2, 70,000 eligible patients are on treatment at 226 ART Centres. NACO plans to also have nearly 400 ART facilities, 400 Community Care Centres and 1200 Link Care Centre by the year 2016 for which about 2000 trained doctors would be needed to man these facilities. But as MD qualified doctors are not coming forward for managing ART centres, the need of developing a training package in form of PG Diploma in HIV Medicine is the need of hour. Thus The PG Diploma in HIV Medicine will help to standardize HIV Medicine training and also help to bridge the gap in trained man power for ART centre.

Programme Objectives

After completion of the Programme students should able to do:

• Imbibe comprehensive knowledge on basics of   HIV as related to details of management of HIV/AIDS in teritiary care set up;
• Manage all complications as well as opportunistic infections due to HIV/AIDS at the time of need; and
• Recognise and handle emergencies related to HIV/AIDS and its complication and take bedside decision for management whenever is required.

Eligibility: MBBS Doctor

Fee of the Programmes: Rs. 30,000/- Duration of the Programme: Minimum 1 Year and Maximum 3 Years

The programme consist of 76 units (another term of chapters) under 18 theory Blocks (booklet), 2 practical manuals and 2 log books. Video programmes will be provided to the students as soon as it does develop for the programme. There will be 28 days hands on skill training in the 6 training centre as given below. The 28 days training will divided in 4 spell. Students will be imparted training in the designated training centre by the Master Trainers as designated by the NACO. There will be one month more training in the ART centre for the non sponsor candidates beside the 28 days of training in the designated centres. NACO will sponsor 70 candidates for the programme in the first year of admission.

There will be only 20 students in each centre to maintain the student teacher ratio. This is necessary to ensure the quality of the training. The list of the six training centres is given below:

Post Doctoral Certificate in Dialysis Medicine (PDCDM)

There is acute shortage of trained and qualified doctors to diagnose and manage acute and chronic renal diseases / chronic renal failure. India trains only about 100 DM / DNB Nephrologist per year. Almost all of them concentrate in tertiary care / corporate hospitals in metro towns / large cities, while the large majority of populations (> 70%) have hardly any access to such expertise. More over, more than 200 Indians per million of population suffer from chronic renal failure every year. Most of this morbidity goes undetected, for lack of doctors trained in dialysis medicines and related diseases. In view of the above, School of Health Sciences (SOHS), IGNOU has developed Post Doctoral Certificate Programme in Dialysis Medicine (one year duration) in collaboration with the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India for physicians with MD (Medicine) or MD (Peadiatrics) doctors.  This programme envisages 6 months hands-on-skill development training in 15 apex tertiary care hospitals across the country and the remaining 6 months through distance learning. About 100 doctors are expected to be trained in dialysis medicine every year with a provision to increase their number in subsequent years. This will bridge the gap of acute shortage of trained and qualified kidney / dialysis medicine experts in the country.

The list of the 15 training centres is given below:

Programme Objectives

After completion of the Programme students should able to :

• imbibe comprehensive knowledge on basics of nephrology, detail of haemodialysis, reasonably adequate for peritoneal dialysis and brief of renal transplant;
• handle temporary vascular access at the time of need;
• dialyze stable patients adequately and safely on long-term basis and anticipate potential complications ; and
• recognize and handle emergencies related to dialysis and take bedside decision for management

Eligibility of the Programme: MD/DNB in Medicine or Paediatric
Fee of the Programme: Rs. 30,000/- Duration of the Programme: Minimum 1 Year and Maximum 2 Years

Programme Implementation

The programme consist of 64 units (another term of chapters) under 13 theory Blocks (booklet), 3 practical manuals and 3 log books. Video programmes will be provided to the students as soon as it does develop for the programme.There will be only 6 students in each centre to maintain the student teacher ratio. This is necessary to ensure the quality of the training. The programe will be implemented though a network of programme study centre (PSCs) all over the country.

Post Graduate Diploma in Diabetes Medicine 

Today Diabetes has reached a pandemic with India being declared as the diabetic capital of the world. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that the number of diabetic cases in India more than doubled from 19 million in 1995 to 40.9 million in 2007.

It is estimated that by 2030 every fifth person with diabetes will live in India.  Diabetes today can no longer be addressed as a problem associated with individuals. Since, of late it has assumed proportions of engulfing the entire nation. School of Health Sciences (SOHS), IGNOU has taken upon themselves with the herculian task of building capacity within the country to tackle the menace of Diabetes which is already knocking at our door. School of Health Science is planning to develop a one year Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Diabetology programme in collaboration with HANSA Vision Pvt. Ltd for the MBBS doctors. It is proposed that there will be 3 months hands on skill training in this programme and the remaining 9 months training will be done through distance mode. There will be approximately  18 Blocks (modules) covering about 80 units (chapters). Training centre for this programme will be selected across the country. SOHS will be launching this programme in January 2012 and is presently under development process.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University has been a proactive partner in the fight against diabetes. The main aim of introducing this new programme courses is to create adequate number of diabetes specialists so that an affordable care can be made available to the patients. IGNOU has been encouraging various agencies working towards this goal to join hands and control the epidemic of diabetes in India.

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